Book Tag

[BigV]

Total number of books I've owned: Cannot count. Sorry. Many, many, many books. I have bought books for my own consumption, for gifts, for reference, by the pound, on a mission and on a whim. What's that aphorism about being broke but in the company of good books?? That's me. I was taught that you learn to read and then read to learn and I have never stopped either.

(wolf, thank you for an interesting and entertaining thread starter. I love this subject. But this question seems like a throwaway to me. I mean, who could care enough to respond that can actually count their books? I wonder who could count their books that would bother to respond... I just don't see much overlap NOT that I'm criticizing. I love to talk about books almost as much as I enjoy reading them.)

Last Book I Bought: How To Read The Bible For All Its Worth, an excellent tool for the interested reader. In it's pages I have learned the difference and the importance if exegesis and hermenutics. I guess that makes my Serendipity Bible, New International Version, the companion volume. :grin:

Last Book I Read: Grendel, by John Gardner. This slim paperback was on the summertime reading list for the high schoolers in the HouseofV. When MrsV found a copy at the local library's book sale for a buck, she bought it. I like to read what the kids are reading too, and I ate this one up.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me:

1. World Book Encyclopedia. We had a set of these treasures when I was in elementary school. I can remember pestering my Dad with questions about what's this and why is that, etc. He sent me to the encyclopedia many times. "Look it up" he said, and I did. But I was not a very good researcher. I was much more a traveller, a tourist. I can remember the excitement and anticipation of having to look up something starting with "S" because that was the fattest volume, and the reading was bound to be good. I knew how the topics were arranged alphabetically, but I never made it straight to my "goal" without reading some other entries along the way. God, what a big world out there, with all those coooool things in it. *sigh* (btw, I'm still that way, whether it's the dictionary or the internet.)
   
2. Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein. I found this book as a teenager. I picked it up because I'd been happy with the other science fiction books I'd been reading, and had never been disappointed by Heinlein, plus it had a couple of babes on the cover . But this story stands head and shoulders above the rest of that crowd, based on the human story. I was positively captivated by Lazarus Long, the 2,300 year old man. My FAVORITE parts of the work were the two intermissions where it was nothing but the pure distilled essence of wisdom of our hero. The "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" have molded my worldview more than any other book. I have given away more copies of this book than any other, out of pure proslyetizing joy.
   
3. The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe. I had read The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado and The Tell-Tale Heart first, in school, and in a quest to slake my insatiable thirst for more, I spent my paper-route money on a single volume of his collected works. Hog heaven.
   
4. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss. This childhood treat remains alive for me even today. Our youngest has grown past it, but not so long ago we read it at bedtime. Sometimes I'd read or he'd read or we'd read. I regard this book like a favorite song. I love it and I never mind reading/hearing it again. One of the funniest ways we found to play with this book was to read each page backwards. Of course, we did all the voices and dance steps, they were fun too. This book crystallizes the best family reading memories. It is unequalled.
   
5. The Bible Just as I have not completed my journey in my faith, my journey through this book is incomplete. I have found it to be a source of comfort, wisdom, and guidance. It has been a central pillar of my Dad's life. He died in 2001, and though he's gone, my veneration for him is not. Reading (his) Bible helps sustain that connection. I continue to learn from him through it.

I have an honorable mention list longer than this whole thread, too, but I don't think its publication would strip me of my freak status in the eyes of any who already think of me that way. Nevertheless, here are a few titles that could easily be on the short list: Dune, Frank Herbert; See You At The Top, Zig Ziglar; The Dark Tower series, Stephen King; Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis; Neuromancer, William Gibson; A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking. These are merely representative samples--I read a lot.