Saturday, June 04, 2005

Roped into a blog meme game

This is a public health blog so I don't ordinarily do blog meme games. But Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway tagged me, so it's a special case. I'm already feeling guilty about the five people I'm supposed to tag after I do this. But this is the internets, right?

If you don't have a blog and I don't tag you (lucky you) you can still play by leaving your list in the comments. If you have a blog, leave the link in the comments. If you want to blame someone for this, blame Melanie. I am innocent.

Number of books I own: Not sure exactly, but latest estimate is somewhere around 6000. They are everywhere. I am an accumulator (my son's diagnosis of me). I haven't read them all or probably even most of them, but I have read the first few pages of all of them and sometimes even more. Sometimes I have even read through to the last page. One thing I don't do is read the end of a book before I get to it. Mainly science and mathematics books, lots of politics and history, fair amount of sociology, not much psychology, a lot of fiction. Some religion, just to know what it's about.

Last book I bought: I'm not sure, since I buy so many books. I believe it was Spin Dynamics: Basics of Nucelar Magnetic Resonance, but it might also have been Web Foundations on OS X. I know. Pretty nerdy. What can I say?

Last book I read: Depends what this means. Last book I read in was Critical Mass by Philip Ball, but I am only 2/3 done with that one. Last one I completed was an old Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe book, To Be a Villain. Before blogging I used to read 30 - 40 books a year. Since getting my sleeve caught in the blogging machine and being dragged into its gears, I think I've read two in six months. Pathetic. But I've read bits and pieces of about 30 others, but each time had to quit to go and post for the day.

Five books that mean a lot to me: Well, lots of books mean a lot to me for different reasons. I suppose at the top of the list is Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith. After that it gets tougher. Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, probably. Then Colin Wilson's study of existentialist authors, The Outsider. That's four. Hmmm. Maybe Somerset Maugham's The Summing Up.

OK, Melanie. I did it. Now whom will I tag?

Wayne at PSoTD, because he gets me to do things and I want to hang this on him
Cervantes at Stayin' Alive (except I think he's on vacation, probably trying to stay alive)
Coturnix at Science and Politics (because I want to see what he has time for when he isn't studying body clocks)
The Phantom Scribbler, because she scribbles
Phila at Bouphonia, just because

This post is in lieu of Friday Blogrollin'. Go visit their blogs and find about what books they read (assuming they have time to read books, being bloggers and all).