Easyjetsetter and Tim Worstall seem to have tagged me with a book meme and I hate them (memes that is, I’m sure EJ and Tim are perfectly wonderful people). Easyjetsetter was first, I should point out.
Number of books I own: Does mental calculation of books per shelf x number of shelves plus books in England and ones “on loan” to other people. 6-800? Give or take.
Last Book Bought: Smoke & Mirrors by Gaiman
Last book read: Das serbische Mädchen by Siegfried Lenz, well, it’s still underway actually, the last book I completed was “On Coincidences”, by Alain De Botton.
Five books that mean a lot to me:
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. Look this IS a meme, after all. My biology teacher gave me a copy when I was 13 or 14, then told me to keep quiet about it. But I think that was because I kept saying “Oh!” out loud whilst reading it.
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. It’s cheap and corny, but it just hit me at the right moment of my life - when I was happily romantically involved, but could still understand the pain of the protagonist - and if we’re doing lists of five favourites, it has to be in there.
Meyers Neuer Weltatlas. Well, any good atlas will do actually. I love studying it, tracing the course of rivers I’ll proably never canoe down, and lands I may never see, except in my imagination. Of course I might see them on documentaries, but they’ll be concentrating on close-up shots of the bloody wildebeest.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing, because I find the tale just so unbelievable that I almost think it should be in the fiction section.
Fremde Leute by Anna Breitenbach, because I know what went into it.
There. So none of the “Great Works of World Literature”, nothing I’ve worked on or translated. Just 5 books, that mean something to me.
Five bloggers to tag:Venial Sin - he’s an obvious one, although he’ll never be able to narrow it down to just 5 books, Lisa, Anyhoo, Ryan and Rocky (and Rocky, if you list “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, as one of your top 5, you’ll probably be allowed to stay online longer)…….
finally, a meme about books!!
oh and i’d recommend ‘On Love’ by Alain de Botton - bit long winded, but a brilliant analysis of everything we go through, while we’re in love. I bet you’d like it.
Fatto, In-Act, thank you for this meme
I too loved High Fidelity, when I read it I told myself: This is the way I’d like to write if I were a writer. What about tha last one he published, btw?
I’d like to read something by Alain de Botton as well…
Lisa: I did like it - but I chose it as much because the protagonist is always making lists of five favourites…. And it’s very hard to do. I could have tried to be pretentious and name great literary works, but these relatively simple works meant more to me because of my state of mind and position when I read them. The last book I read by Alain de Botton that I really enjoyed was “The Consolations Of Philosophy”. And I could have added “French Revolutions” by Tim Moore because I read it during a very happy time of my life.
read my comment to your comment, when/if you can, I tried to articulate the poor products of my mind in English
)
OMG. You read in German, too?! I have my certificates in German and can speak the language well but I sure do not have the patience to read in German, as well. I am impressed!
“But I think that was because I kept saying “Oh!” out loud whilst reading it.” Scho cute;)
“The Consolations Of Philosophy” Alain de Botton - Any good? I got given a copy (having teased the original owner mercilessly for buying a book simply for purpose of leaving it out to impress. He never read it) but was too busy at the time to get far into it.
You meme-bastard!
I just posted
I think I should get a commission on sales of The Calligrapher; with Ryan on the list, that’ now five people I’ve directly or indirectly lead into buying it. Shame commerce doesn’t work that way for word of mouth. Or blog.
You should try Bzzagent Stairs.
any-hoo, i actually really liked consolations of philosophy…it’s easier to read a book that summarizes what nietzsche was saying as opposed to actually trying to read nietzsche.
i know i’m a lazy cow.