The book meme that’s been traveling the blogosphere recently knocked on my door (via Bobbie).  Shall I be a good sport and open up?

1.      Total number of books I own

Maybe hundreds?  Those who have helped us move the last three times, or rather their backs, are probably the ones with the most accurate count.

2.      The last book I bought

Just bought four at once last month, used:  Rachel Remen’s My Grandfather’s Blessings and Kitchen Table Wisdom, and Paulo Coelho’s By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept and The Pilgrimage

3.      The last book I read

Hmmm… This is a hard one, because…I have a confession to make:  I finish very few books.  Even ones I really, really like.  Come look at the books in my boxes and on my shelves and you’ll find a very large number with little bookmarks still in them.  My husband still gets on my case for the time I read all the way to the last four pages of Crime and Punishment and then didn’t pick the book up to finish it for at least another year.  Surely some psychoanalyst could have a heyday with this habit.

But…let’s see.  I read most of Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning last month.  I read three quarters of the way through Carl Jung’s autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections not long before that.  I read big chunks of about 20 books on ritual in May.  Many of those were really good – books on what rituals are, why rituals are important things, examples of rituals that individuals and families have created to honor different occasions in their lives.  One called Rituals for our Times was one of my favorites. 

Is that enough?  I could go on…

4.      Five books that mean a lot to me (and I have finished every one of these!)

Shusaku Endo’s Deep River

Richar Rohr’s Everything Belongs

Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Sue Monk Kidd’s Dance of the Dissident Daughter

5.      Two major books I read when I was a kid

L. M. Montgomery was a real favorite.  And Louisa May Alcott.  Oh, was the question books?  I thought you said authors.  Hmmm…the Bible?  That’s a major one.  I remember really liking Charlotte’s Web, and Heidi and The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2005 at 9:26 am and is filed under Books and Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.