YOU'RE IT

Damn. I've been tagged twice in 24 hours, by Kelly and Maria. I'll do the easy one first.

Total number of books:

I believe the proper number is a shitload. Possibly a metric ton. A lot, at least.

Last book I read:

I'm currently rereading "The Mist," by Stephen King, which is technically a novella and part of a collection, but they've gone and blown up the typeface and published it as a standalone volume that sells for probably about the same price as Skeleton Crew (just checked-it's actually one buck cheaper if you pay full retail for the mass market paperback), which is silly. The last two books that I finished reading were Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, and Making Money, by Terry Pratchett. I think there may be another that I've forgotten, though.

Last book I bought:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, by Oliver Sacks. Bought it last night at Politics and Prose and then he signed it. Neil Gaiman's Absolute Sandman Volume 2 showed up in the mail yesterday, but I suppose I actually bought it earlier.

5 Meaningful Books:

1. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volumes 1 and 2, by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill - Forget the movie. It's a joke. And I'm cheating because this is two books, but I don't really care. For me this is everything that fiction can be, because everything in fiction is here, or has the potential to be here. The "New Traveler's Almanac" section in volume 2 alone will blow your mind.

2. Assassination Vacation, by Sara Vowell - The most impressive thing is that it makes you care about President Garfield. Or that I can never look at Oneida dishes again without suppressing a dirty little giggle. Or that I was giddy that Mathilda shares a birthday with Robert Todd Lincoln and wouldn't have made the connection if I hadn't read this. Or a hundred other things. It's a rare book that actually changed my perspective on quite a few things. Like dirty, dirty Oneida.

3. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier - A beautiful, brutal novel of the Civil War. The film does it no justice whatsoever.

4. A Year at the Movies, by Kevin Murphy - So Kevin Murphy decided to see a movie a day, presented publicly, for a year. And then wrote a book about it. I recently reread it and it's a wonderful read about movies, movie-going, and life (insert MST3K style comment here).

5. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov - A beautiful book about a bad, bad thing. (Although Jamee is younger than me...) I bought this with me to jury duty hoping it would get me out of it in case it was a pedophilia case, but alas, 'twasn't.

And I tag:

Maria
&
Emily