BOOKERY: I’ve been tagged by two bloggers (ETA: three!) with the book meme. (Sean’s answers are here; Old O’s are here; Minisinoo’s, btw, is here.) So here goes.

1. Total Number of Books I’ve Owned. No clue. I can’t count. I don’t really own that many at the moment–I tend to sell ’em off quick.

2. Last Book I Bought. Andre Gide, If It Die. (Last book acquired, by hook or by crook–those two wonderful Kathy Shaidle books.)

3. Last Book I Read. The Gospel of John.

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot to Me: I decided to do five books that represent different things to me, because otherwise this list would be either five children’s books or five Catholic books.
(a) Michael de Larrabeiti, The Borribles. Earliest example of “man without a country” obsession; treachery, friendship, giant rats.

(b) Henry IV 1 & 2. Falstaff.

(c) Stephen Fry, The Liar.

(d) Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Looking for ekstasis in all the wrong places.

(e) St. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo. Sin, justice, Incarnation.

Runners-up would include: Diana Wynne Jones, Dogsbody; Ottfried Preussler, The Satanic Mill; Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn; Hamlet; GK Chesterton, The Dumb Ox: St Thomas Aquinas; ditto, St Francis of Assisi; Philip Larkin, complete poems; Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind; Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals (and probably Beyond Good and Evil).

5. Tag 5 people and have them do this on their blog. Hmmm… Jim Henley, Agenda Bender, Cacciaguida, Camassia, and another vote for The Rat–if you guys want to play, consider yourselves tagged.