jack_ryder: (Default)
jack_ryder ([personal profile] jack_ryder) wrote2005-05-31 03:40 pm

That Book Meme

dobbed in by [livejournal.com profile] ashamel

1. Total number of books I've owned: At least 2,000 at the moment, according to [livejournal.com profile] murasaki_1966. We are trying to winnow it down to something vaguely manageable. Azathoth knows how many over the years, though I still have some of my favourite books from childhood (mostly concerned with magic tricks.)

2. The last book I bought:

Book shaped thing was the first issue of Dr Slump in English (Yay!) and the fourth book (The Miserable Mill)in the Lemony Snicket series for [livejournal.com profile] murasaki_1966. Last real book for myself would probably be Kaaron Warren's The Grinding House.

3. The last book I read:

Lately I've become hopeless at finishing books. I still haven't finished White Apples by Jonathon Carroll, and the book I currently carry with me is The Great Unravelling by Paul Krugman - which is a collection of essays on US economics and politics under the Bush Jnr regime. The last book I finished would have to be Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command.

And I'm still reading bits of Daikaiju and Agog: Smashing Stories

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

I'm cheating here as there are collections of books that all came along around the same time with the same effect.

1) Strange Stories, Amazing Facts. Published by Readers Digest this big purple hardback was my first exposure to the wonderful world of real-life weirdness. It was a pretty comprehensive compendium of forteana for the time. I have no idea where my copy is now, but fortunately [livejournal.com profile] murasaki_1966 still has hers.

2) Shudders / Night Frights / Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV. My first introduction to Robert Bloch, M.R. James and Ray Bradbury's nasty side. Appallingly influential. Shudders was the first collection of horror stories I remember reading (I still have that copy.) Night Frights was edited by Peter Haining and I borrowed every other anthology of his from Central Library in Canberra. My dad had Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV supposedly edited by Alfred Hitchcock (but later I realised it was a collection from the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.)

3) The Phantom Tollbooth / A Wrinkle in Time Used to read both of these books each year when I was in primary school and early in High School. [livejournal.com profile] murasaki_1966 bought me a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth when she was in LA.

4) The Illuminatus Trilogy - for those too cool for Lord of the Rings. Primed my occult conspiracy fascination.

5) Bridge of Birds - [livejournal.com profile] murasaki_1966 and I bonded over this book. I keep thinking of it though as Minder in Ancient China. One of the best non-Western mythology based fantasies.

5. Tag five people and have them fill this out in their Ljs...

I'll try...

[livejournal.com profile] murasaki_1966 (of course)
[livejournal.com profile] chrisbarnes hasn't done it yet
[livejournal.com profile] kalenture definitely has to do it
[livejournal.com profile] iwoolf should join in the fun
[livejournal.com profile] gurudata should be able to offer a foreign perspective