That book meme

[oyceter]

rilina and avrelia made me do it.

1. Total number of books I've owned:

Uh. Good question. Approximately one bookshelf full at home, triple-stacked, with assorted other books lying around randomly. A lot in college that I sold back. Five bookshelves full here, though three of them are short bookshelves. I think I just should have said: "A lot, but not enough."

2. Last book I bought:

Books. Sometimes I get carried away.

3. Last book I read or am currently reading:

The last book I finished was Laura Kinsale's For My Lady's Heart. The books I am currently reading are:

Brooks, Martha - Paradise Café and Other Stories
Brooks, Martha - Traveling on into the Light and Other Stories
Bujold, Lois McMaster - Cordelia's Honor
Diamond, Jared - The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
Dirda, Michael - Bound to Please
Feynman, Richard - Pleasure of Finding Things Out, The
Fowler, Karen Joy - Artificial Things
Fowler, Karen Joy - Sarah Canary
Fowler, Karen Joy, Pat Murphy, Debbie Notkin, and Jeffrey D. Smith, eds. - The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1
Gourevitch, Philip - We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda
Jansen, Marius B. - Making of Modern Japan, The
Kinsale, Laura - Shadowheart
Knapp, Caroline - Appetites: Why Women Want
McKillip, Patricia A. - Fool's Run
McKinley, Robin - Sunshine
Roberts, Nora - Key of Light
Sayers, Dorothy L. - Murder Must Advertise
Stephenson, Neal - Quicksilver
Tatar, Maria, ed. - Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, The
Walker, Alice - In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens
Walton, Jo - The Prize in the Game
Winchester, Simon - Krakatoa
Yuki Kaori - Angel Sanctuary, vol. 11
Zia, Helen - Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People

Some of these are more in progress than others.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

Der. This is bound to change at any whim.

Robin McKinley, Beauty and Rose Daughter (I cheat!)- My favorite fairy tale, by one of my favorite authors, twice. I love both takes, and they've actually mixed in my mind to form some grand ur version of "Beauty and the Beast," with roses and books both, with a shy yet awkwardly adolescent Beauty, with a Beast who is both prince and beast.

Patricia A. McKillip, Winter Rose - More roses, along with Faerie, Tam Lin and a nearly obsessive, destructive love. This hit hard the second time I read it, and something of the images has taken long-term residence in my brain.

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths - probably permanently skewed my brain toward myth and legend and fairy tales at a very, very young age. It probably also made me think that things like being impregnated by a swan and birthing children from your head were perfectly normal and everyday, albeit slightly god/goddess-influenced.

300 Tang Poems - I haven't read the whole thing. I don't even understand most of it. But something about memorizing bits and pieces of poetry in it must have stuck around, because I am still utterly in love with Chinese poetry, despite not being a big poetry person.

Neil Gaiman, Sandman - It even gets its own bookcase, it's that special ;). The Sandman universe gets its own special corner in my head, and it is large and dreamy and filled with unwritten but dreamed of books. Really, that's all I need to know.

I think I'm the last person on earth to do this meme, so no tagging others.