Book meme

I don't do the meme thing very often… I usually have better things to write about. But Tim Hall keeps tagging me and this one I can probably do.

1. How many books do you own*

Um. I've never counted. Karen and I went through our fiction collection and got rid of every book we didn't think we'd ever want to loan to someone… that was at least a couple hundred. We seem to have to buy more shelves every year, and I'm afraid we're in the high triple digits. I should prune deeper.

We like books. Unfortunately, I'm probably buying books far faster than I can read them nowdays.

2. Last book read

Hrm. Storm Front by Jim Butcher. I think. I listen to audiobooks as well, and I might have actually finished Storm Front after I finished Deathstalker Rebellion, book two in the "Deathstalker Saga," in dramatized audio. (Turn off your brain, sit back and enjoy the space opera ride.)

3. Last book purchased

Fool Moon, by Jim Butcher… book two in "The Dresden Files." I think. I might have bought my current audio book, Hidden Empire, book one of "The Saga of Seven Suns."

4. Name five books that mean a lot to you

This one's hard.

Let's start with The Lord of the Rings. Quite specifically, the hardbound editions with the gold foil Eye of Sauron and dwarvish script on the covers, which I stole from the Russell City Library when I was in middle school. I had second thoughts about stealing them and dumped them in the book drop just days later. Tolkien was my introduction to fantasy and has always had some kind of hold over my thinking when it comes to fantasy. I suppose I'm just one of the crowd here.

After this, it will probably get weird, because the things that stick out in my mind probably weren't all that good. I've never re-read them. I tried re-reading Thieves World and stopped after a couple stories. Boy, was that horrible. I didn't want to spoil my youthful memory of the series by reading it as an adult and discovering the whole thing sucked.

After Tolkien, I suppose the next is Stephen R Donaldson's "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever," etc. No particular book, just the whole series. It stands out in my mind as taking the shape of fantasy that wasn't Tolkien or Tolkien-derivative. I hated the main character, but I loved the series anyway. I was constantly wanting to beat some sense into the character, but there wouldn't have been so much of a story to tell if Covenant had done what we wanted him to. I did start re-reading this one… read all of the first book, then couldn't find the second. But I wanted to read the second, so it didn't turn me off the way Thieves World did.

Then comes Armor, by John Steakley. I haven't read it for years and years, but it has stuck in my mind and given me a love of powered armor. It's along the same lines as Starship Troopers, but far, far better. I should read it again… I can't remember anything of the storyline except it's about fighting insectoid aliens in personal combat armor. (Aren't they always?) This book fed into the "Warriors of the Hurricane" background for a superhero ("Furor") I created for a Champions APA I used to organize. Maybe I'll publish that here if I can dig it up.

I'll say something funny about these three books. They all deal with personal power. Bilbo gives up the Ring before he succumbs to its lure of power, and Frodo struggles beyond belief against it. Covenant also has great, great power, and refuses it. He could be king of the Land, but even when he thinks the Land is a figment of his imagination, he refuses to take hold of the power he has. Armor, on the other hand, is about soldiers wielding great individual power, but finding it insufficient against the enemy. I don't remember the book very well, but I'll venture to say that the real power comes from sacrifice to save your fellow man. I'll have to reread it and see if that theme surfaces.

For my next book, I suppose I could say, The Bible, but that probably doesn't tell you what you want to know. So I think I still need two more.

The Trumpet of the Swan by EB White. It means a lot to me because it was one of the books I fell in love with as a child, and I read it several times. I couldn't remember its plot for years… boy at camp, swan, but that was it. Couldn't remember the title, only this vague impression of having loved this book that was no longer in my library. Imagine my surprise when I figured out it was that book about talking animals and a swan whose father steals a trumpet for him, because he has no voice of his own. Weird. But this one has really stuck in my head for some reason, I think because it was a big part of my falling in love with books.

Finally, another book that fits the same mold… it shaped my love of books, but I can't remember its title. It was a book of fairy tales… a rather thick one, and they weren't the nice kind of fairy tales. The story that stands out the most was about an ice queen or something like that. I can remember the feel of the book in my hands, the patterns on the hard covers, but I can't for the life of me remember what was in it… except this chilling story about an ice queen, and maybe something about a large castle with many rooms that a girl was trapped in. (The latter might be "Beauty and the Beast," but I'm not sure it is.) This book I remember so little about has left a big impression in my memory of early reading.

(Doing some searching, I'm about convinced that story was "The Snow Queen" and the book was a collection of Hans Christian Andersen's work. I think I'll have to pick up a good translation… now how does one choose from among the couple hundred available?)

5. Five people to tag

I don't like to bother with that. Someone else can pick it up if they want. I'm not even sure five people read my mutterings.