A Girl...

Between the Sheets*

So several weeks ago Lainey tagged me with a book meme. But in the fuss of my life, I haven't gotten around to it until now, so here it is, in all its shamefaced glory:

1. Number of books I own: Oh, a whole lot. 200? 300? I worked at a bookstore for several years in college, so that explains the bulk of it. In the last four years, however (that being the time since I had to haul twenty-six boxes of books up two long flights of stairs when I moved to Berkeley), I've probably collected only a handful of new novels, trying instead to work through the ones I've already got. A few weeks ago I left three big boxes of books I didn't need out on the sidewalk at 10 or 11 at night, and they were gone within the half hour. I hope they're making someone happy.

2. The last book I bought: I honestly can't remember when I last bought a book. I'm really searching my brain here, and the only thing I can come up with is the copy of Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho, which I got for my baby brother when he started college two years ago. Way to support my industry, eh?

3. The last book I read: I'm in the middle of Confederacy of Dunces right now (highly recommended to me by both Teddy and Simon) and every page has something on it that just cracks me up. The next book I buy will be a copy of this for my baby brother. As for the last book I actually finished, I'm ashamed to say that it's been years since that happened because now that I work all day editing books, the last thing I want to do when I get home is read some more. In the last year alone I've started Anna Karenina, The Master and Margarita, and Doctor Zhivago, but didn't get through one. Has work destroyed my ability to read for pleasure? Maybe.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me: My favorite book of all time is Lolita. It's so fantastic I can't stand to even talk about it. Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was my childhood obsession, the first book I probably ever really read by myself, and just simply delightful in so many ways. The Great Gatsby is my second-favorite book ever. I've read it a handful of times and can't get over its genius: two parts Fitzgerald, one part the stars aligning just right and everything falling magically into place. This next one is kind of cheating, but if I were stranded on an island with one book, it would be a volume of the complete works of Shakespeare. I live that stuff. I hear it in my head. Hamlet's the best. Number five, let's say, is Wait Till Helen Comes, a young adult novel that I read about twenty times between the ages of 9 and 13, and it scared my eyelids inside out every time I read it. It made me want to be a children's author--and for many many years I thought I would be--but even though that's not what I am (and not what I want to be), it still shaped the way I read and wrote throughout my adolescence.

5. Five people I tag: Erm...whoever is looking for something easy to write about. Let me know in the comments if you've accepted the challenge, noble sirs and ladies.

*Made ya look.