Book Love: a meme

Total Number of Books I've Owned:

In my entire life, man, I can't even guess. Thousands? At least. In my elementary/junior high years I read the complete Sweet Valley Twins and Babysitters Club series, and each of those had more than 150 books in the series. And on my Goodreads list, I have more than 250 books that are the ones that I have starred and reviewed in the past couple of years. So, yeah... thousands probably.

The Last Book I Bought:

The last time I bought books was a couple of weeks ago and I bought a giant stack at a thrift store. I am a sucker for thrift store junk in general and books are my weakness. 50 cent hard covers! Which is why they are disparate and slightly kooky. Gasping For Airtime, Rise and Shine, The Reader, To Kill a Mockingbird, Where is Here?, Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, Best American Short Stories 1999, A Girl From Yamhill and You'll Never Make Love In This Town Again. The last book that I bought from an actual store was The Glass Castle (which was fantastic, BTW).

The Last Book I Read:

I have been juggling several books at once, but I just finished Mockingbird and Best American Short Stories and am nearly done with Rise and Shine.

Five Books That Mean Something To Me:

1. Lamb by Christopher Moore. I am not, and was not raised, religious so this book was fantastic in exploring the "what ifs" in the Christ story. And I love that it didn't set out to offend anyone or encourage anyone, but at the end of the day there are lots of little tickling questions about how the interpretation has been skewed over the years and why.
2. Just about anything by Steinbeck. Maybe it's because I am Californian, but I love the imagery of old California and how much most of the Central Coast has stayed the same.
3. Why I'm Like This by Cynthia Kaplan. It's all the stories that I wish I was smart enough to write.
4. Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists by Gideon Defoe. I have read this book about 30 times and the story holds up and there's new things to find. I have loaned it around and everyone immediately ran out and bought their own copy.
5. Liar's Club by Mary Karr. If I could have just one smidgen of her talent and poignancy I would be the happiest writer that I could ever be.

Tag Five Some People and Request They Fill This Out on Their Blog: Kate, Bliss, Shannon

A totally separate plug: be my friend on Goodreads!