Book Meme / Apologia

I got tagged by Coturnix to do this book meme. The funny thing is, I don't read many books anymore. I used to read lots of books back when, but these days it's mainly news articles and science articles. The other funny thing is, this project (the blog and my exposure to the blogsosphere) is in a state of transition. I'm excited about being part of a group-blog, but it's sort of strange because it's not entirely my own place and I have to think about what I should post here (cat video games?) and what I should post there. I'll figure that one out soon, no worries. Beyond that, I'm going through a dry period: these last few days I've even read a few posts by Hinderacker (uh, yeah, not Heinrich) and all I could think about was ho-hum: he's just trying to make a point and going a little overboard; like so what, who cares? That's where I stand right now, plain and simple. So, with that backdrop, here's the book meme:

Number Of Books I Own: If I add up all the books that are at my mom's home and the ones here together, there are hundreds of books I can count as my own that are still in my possession and haven't since been sold second hand at Powell's. The books at home in Phila. are shared--except of course the ones in German which are mine--and since the apartment is small, the number is limited to a few dozen books here. The way I feel about books (I deserve all the scorn and admonishment I can get for saying this) is like I do with movies: I only "own" them for a short time. I buy books, read them, but then have them sold again once I'm done reading them.

Last Book I Bought: I think the last half-dozen books I've read have all been gifts. Currently I'm reading Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard, a gift from my mom when we all went to Sicily together. The last few books before that were gifts from either my boss (Against all Enemies) or Eligere (Unequal Protection), and other friends and family. I think I'd have to go as far back as Pope Joan by Donna W Cross to find a book I've actually bought (lucky me: my friends know what I like to read!).

Last Book I Read: I'll be done with Lampedusa's Leopard, mentioned above, tonight or tomorrow so I'll count that in this category.

Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me: A very difficult question to answer. I've read lots of good books and I have a tough time naming five. I could avoid the question by saying "the bahbel, becuz it saved mah laf!" but that would be too crass, and thunderstorms are brewing outside. So for the sake of not getting hit by a lightening-bolt [I have actually read the bible]:

Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I wrote an undergraduate thesis on parts of this.

Foucault, Birth of the clinic. A number of excellent works I've read have been based in part on this work.

Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment. It's hard to pin down which one of the Frankfurt school is the "most" meaningful for me. I feel like it'd be Adorno, and probably either dialectic of enlightenment or something similar. Theo is a pretty cool dude.

Tolstoy, Sebastopol Tales. Other Tolstoy works are awesome as well, somehow the "tales" stick out in my mind.

Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum. This is a difficult book to really get a good grasp on, but who amongst us does not like NASCAR Templars?

others tagged?: no one right now. As I mentioned above, the blog is in a state of transition. Actually, it's not the blog, its my relation to it I suppose. Either way, most of my blog-friends have already had the meme or run blogs that are too big and specialized to blog-meme. So, for now I'll abstain from carrying the meme on, even though I realize that I might incur the wrath of Pele just like I did when I stole that bag of black sand back in highschool!