Monday, May 30, 2005

Books we love, and we love books

Jerry the Keeper challenged me to join the book survey.

How many books do you own?

I couldn't begin to guess. Eight big bookcases full, perhaps, if they were consolidated efficiently. That would be my books and T's combined, but at least two-thirds of them are mine. Most (but not all) of the computer books are his. Most (but not all) of the novels are mine. Several shelves of them are targeted for resale or donation or Bookcrossing.

What was the last book you bought?

I bought three books at Barnes & Noble this weekend:
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes, new translation by Edith Grossman
A Poet's Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie
Knitting On The Edge by Nicky Epstein

What was the last book you read?

My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big-Boned, a book of cartoons by Nicole Hollander. It was a birthday gift. Before that, the last books with actual narrative structure were Custard's Last Stand by Tamar Myers, and Chasing Shakespeares by Sarah Smith.

Name five books that mean a lot to you, and that you've read more than three times.

All of the Jeeves stories by P. G. Wodehouse - Nothing bad can happen to you when you are in Wooster's world.
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis - Ditto. Mame is the perfect antidote to depressing lit fic, or the evening news for that matter.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Lyrical and lovely. There is no excuse for not reading this book. Also a wonderful audio book for a long road trip.
The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson - I own and love all of my homeboy's travel books, but this history of the English language is the one I refer to most often.
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy - I got this one by accident when I forgot to send in a book club "regrets only" statement, and was blown away by Conroy's graceful writing.

Bonus: Two books I have not read more than three times and would like to get my hands on. The book collector prices for them are insane. If you find them in a used bookstore at working stiff prices, I would be much obliged.
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread by Don Robertson
The Art of Love by Kenneth Koch

Challenge five people to fill this out on their blog.

Jerry and Aser already got almost every lit blogger I know, except Kathy. If any of my non-blogging readers (Terry, Hope, Shel, Paulette) want to play, I'd be happy to publish their lists.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bertie, bertie, Bertie. What a gorgeous world.

You have reminded me of a hole in my lit'racy, and tequila mockingbird is his name. I'll get right on that.