Book Meme

Whining about not being tagged for the Book Meme in my post on the Personal History Meme managed to get me tagged by Nuthatch at bootstrap analysis. So now I must put my money where my mouth is and show that I really am witty, erudite and sophisiticated.  Sigh, this is the post where they find out I’m not.

TOTAL NUMBER OF BOOKS I OWN/OWNED

Impossible to answer, although I still own most every book I’ve ever owned.  Boxes and boxes of them (the vast majority of my books are in storage right now in a seacan).  Probably in the neighbourhood of a couple of thousand over all.  A story might illustrate what I mean.  When I was transferred from Saskatoon to Fort Providence a young woman was part of the packing crew, her first move she worked at.  After being in the den for sometime she came out and asked the foreman "Does everyone have this many books?"  His reply? "Come and see the CD’s".  Can’t help myself, I enjoy books and can not comprehend why anyone would want to part with them afterward.  I subscribe to these thoughts by Gilbert Highet —

"These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice, as inaudible as the streams of sound conveyed day and night by electric waves beyond the range of our physical hearing; and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the far distant voice in time and space, and hear it speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart."

FIVE BOOKS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED ME ALOT

• The Hobbit (and subsequently The Lord of the Rings Triology) by J.R.R. Tolkien.  When I was sixteen years old I worked at the campground office at a nearby provincial park, and one day I needed something to read to make the shift pass.  I asked my sister if she had a book I could borrow and she gave me The Hobbit.  When I asked what it was about she told me it was about elves and hobbits, and dragons and wizards, and I’m sure my distain was palatable.  But I took it anyway as I really didn’t have anything else to read and did not look forward to staring out the window for eight hours (it was the kind of job where I cut the lawn really high so I could cut it again the next day with the mower lower). I had no idea that a book could grab you by the shirt and involve you so much. A book that made you feel. I couldn’t get enough of it. I searched for other similar books and triologies afterward, but nothing could grab me as much as it did.  I still read them every couple of years.
• The World Book Encyclopedia.  What can I say, I was a committed nerd by the time I was twelve. I would spend a portion of each evening in my room reading the volumes, A through Z. And also the science annual they put out each year.  I still have those.
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. Although technically not a book but a play I was captivated by seeing a performance by Len Cariou in the title role at the Manitoba Theatre Centre while on a school field trip to Winnipeg. I picked up my now well worn copy of the play later that day. Romance, language and swordplay, what more could you possibly want.
• Hens Teeth and Horse Toes by Stephen Jay Gould.  Logical and lyrical. I began to buy every one of Goulds book as they came out (in paperback) and am only missing a couple. His writing educated me more than many of my classes, and turned me into the Darwanist that I now am. I get it now. There are days when I’m saddened that we’ll not have anymore of his writing now that he is gone.
• Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez.  A book that made me discover the joys of Nature prose, great vivid writing.  It led to people like Diane Ackerman and others. It is how I wish I could write. It probably indirectly led me to where I live now.

LAST BOOK I BOUGHT

Hmm.  It’s been a little while.  I haven’t been reading a lot lately, and my sister is pretty good at supplying me with books (she knows me too well and knows what I like).  I think the last book I actually bought was Fury Beach – The Four-year Odyssey of Captain John Ross and the Victory  by Ray Edinger and actually I bought two copies.  Two copies, well I registered the book with Bookcrossing and plan on releasing it into the wild at Fort Ross on the east end of the Bellot Strait, whenever we bring the Fort Hearne through the Northwest Passage.  Although I really like the idea of Bookcrossing, I couldn’t bring myself to give up a book, so I had to buy one to release.

THE LAST BOOK I READ FOR THE FIRST TIME

The Big Year by Mark Obmascik.  Okay, I know it only just arrived but I was due to sit and read a book at one fell swoop.

FIVE OTHER BLOGGERS TO TAG WITH THIS MEME

Okay, this is tough. This meme has been around awhile and most bloggers I know have already been tagged with it.  Have to find somebody who is still new and shiny.

• My sister at I know you don’t have a blog, you can answer in my comments.
• Cindy M. at Woodsong (Sorry Cindy, but you’re one of the few "new" people I know)
• Art Lad, at the Adventures of… (Not even sure that he ever stops by this site though)
• Jeff at the Boreal Songbird Initiative Blog (hope he reads me, probably not though)
• Swamp4me at Swampthings (again, hope she reads me, probably doesn’t)