Susie tagged me with this last week. I ignored forgot about it during Memorial Day weekend. Now Debbye has tagged me with the same meme! I guess I'll just keep getting tagged with it until I finally post some answers, so he-e-e-e-re we go...
Number of books I own: I have no idea. Most of them are still in boxes from when I moved three years ago. But, remembering my overflowing bookcases, I'll guesstimate I have more than 500 but less than 1,000. Most of them were bought at tag sales, flea markets and the annual four-day Southport Booksale.
Last book I bought: Hmmm, it's been a while. In fact, I'm not sure I've bought a single book in the last three years except for a Goldmine Price Guide to Collectible Record Albums.
Last book I read: I rarely read a book cover to cover unless it's something I borrowed from the library. I use my books mainly for reference. The last book I refered to (besides the dictionary) was Fred Emery's Watergate. This was a couple of days ago, just after W.Mark Felt announced that he was Deep Throat.
The last book I read cover-to-cover was probably Fair Ball by Bob Costas.
Books that mean a lot to me:
1. Case Closed by Gerald Posner. It was the book I always wanted to write if I'd had the time and money to spend on the research.
2. The Psychopathic God by Robert L. G. White. A fascinating examination of Adolph Hitler. Much more readable (and shorter) than Will Shirer's excellent Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and focuses on Hitler's personality, not just his actions.
3. Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett. Simply brilliant and the writing and argument styles suck you right in.
4. Einstein's Relativity by Max Born. This is a math-heavy, must-have reference for anyone who wants to explore relativity theory. Most books you'll find about relativity/gravity/quantum theories concentrate on getting points across through anecdotal analogies that keep the reader from understanding the underlying source of the knowledge they the books are trying to impart. Max Born, on the other hand, went right to the guts of the theory and allows you to explore it yourself, not just take the author's word for it. Like I said: lots of useful mathematics.
5. The God Particle by Leon Lederman. It's not like one of the books that I just criticized above, this is a fun read and Leon doesn't pretend to know everything. Richard Feynman's books are great, too, because he tells you what is known (or generally accepted) and, also, what isn't known. In other words: they're educational, not pedantic.
Okay, now it's time to tag some more suckers bloggers! I think this meme has been around a while because most of my regular mid-to-lower-ecosystem reads have already answered it. So, I'm going to go for some big fishies. I'm tagging Emperor Darth Misha, Kim DuToit, Bill Whittle, FrankJ, Michelle Malkin and, of course, Evil Glenn! Let's see if any of 'em actually respond. I hope someone does, 'cause this is one huge amount of pingage!
(I'd tag the Blue-Eyed Infidel, but she doesn't read her email. :()
UPDATE: One more tag: bbrother of Winter Songs. Let's have it, "Big I"! :)
(And go read him and leave some comments, peeps! He's stopped posting again... :()
Actually, I tagged you with the DVD one, so you're really still on the hook... ;)
Posted by: Susie at June 5, 2005 10:29 AMOh. But I don't have any DVDs, just VHS tapes and no VCR. My Alfred Hitchcock collection is going to waste!
Hmmm. It musta been Stephen who tagged me with the book meme.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at June 5, 2005 12:10 PMI saw you went to my mu.nu address and didn't find me. Hopefully you found me at blogspot. I am at a complete losss about what to do. The only reason Blogger is up and running is because Harvey of Bad Example set it up for me. Once he set it up, all I had to do was post. I haven't got a clue as to what I'm doing - and they know that. With being computer stupid and ignorant, I don't even know how to start moving what I have over to the mu.nu site - so that's why I'm not there yet. If someone stood behind me and showed me what to do, when to do it,how to do it, etc., and I might have a chance. I am even offering to pay for phone calls so I can get this done, learn it, understand it and eventually be able to do it without any problems.
That is why I was not at mu.nu. Had to explain but you have no email address on your website. So I had no choice but to write you this way.
Posted by: firstbrokenangel at June 5, 2005 12:46 PM