Well, since I keep getting asked to do this!

1) Total number of books in your house:
Let’s put it this way. Every six months, my library has a used book sale, and usually afterwards, I have to buy a new bookshelf. lately, I’ve managed to stretch it to once a year, but you get the idea.

2) The last book you bought was:
Um… Wow, it’s been a while. I usually grab books from the library (me=poor). Oh, I bought Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce for my sister, does that count?

3) What was the last book you read before reading this?:
The DSM-IV Casebook? It’s actually been pretty entertaining, all these short stories about crazy people. Actually, I have been reading Trickster’s Queen over the past couple of days – the first book I’ve read for pleasure in ages.

4) Write down 10 books you often read or that mean a lot to you:
I reread books constantly. If I don’t get the urge to reread, then it wasn’t a good book. I’m pretty weird about it too. I can pick up a book and open it at random and just start reading. It drives people around me nuts.

And I couldn’t limit it to 5 or even 10! And while it might seem different, I really did leave out a good portion of the fantasy writers that I love and read on a frequent basis.

1. Anybody who knows me, knows what #1 is. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. There hasn’t been another book that has moved me as much as this one. I couldn’t count any more the number of times that I’ve read it and every time I find something new to think about, a new character that I hadn’t appreciated entirely before. Please believe me, even if you saw the movie and hated it, give this book a chance. It’s a completely different experience.

2. Any by LM Montgomery, but especially the Anne series and the Emily series. Anne has been my idol since I was six. I’m still waiting for my Gilbert. 😉 Her descriptions are beyond compare–every scene, every character just lives. Anne of the Island is probably my current favorite, and everybody (and that means you) really needs to read The Blue Castle.

3. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. I know it’s a children’s book, honestly three fourths of the books I read are written for children or young adults (I wonder what that means?) because I enjoy them so much. This won a Newberry Honor and I probably pick it up to read it at least twice a year. If you’ve seen the movie, *shudder* do yourself a favor and purge your mind of those memories and read this. It bears almost no resemblance.

4. The Way to the Lantern by Audrey Erskine Lindop. This book was written in the 1940s and probably never sold more than 500 copies before going out of print. One of my good friends introduced me to it in college and I loved it. It’s historical fiction, taking place in the French Revolution and it’s just so much fun. I’d love to somehow get it into the hands of some film producer because it would make an amazing movie.

5. The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley. I love Robin McKinley’s style of writing and adore all of her books. I think I got this book from the library when I was in the 7th grade and promptly went out and bought it. The pages are battered and the spine automatically opens to my three favorite scenes.

6. Phantom by Susan Kay. Normally, I despise, hate stories that are “sequels” or “revisions” of the original literature. But I will make an exception for this one. The retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, from Erik’s POV, just breaths life into his character. It gives Erik a past and reasons for his behavior. And the ending still gives me chills. A very good read, but probably difficult to find.

7. Miss Manner’s Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior by Judith Martin. You laugh. As do I, every time I pick it up. Her dry wit gets me every time. For example:

DEAR MISS MANNERS:
Please list some tactful ways of removing a man’s saliva from your face.
GENTLE READER:
Please list some decent ways of acquiring a man’s saliva on your face. If the gentleman sprayed you inadvertently to accompany enthusiastic discourse, you may step back two paces, bring out your handkerchief, and go through the motions of wiping your nose, while trailing the cloth along your face to pick up whatever requires mopping along the route. If, however, the substance was acquired as a result of enthusiasm of a more intimate nature, you may delicately retrieve it with a flick of your pink tongue.
Miss Manners can’t believe she said that. Please disregard that, and use the more delicate method of resting your cheek momentarily on his shoulder, until his jacket absorbs the mess.
****
You just can’t beat that!

8. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowlings. I am proud to say that I discovered Harry Potter way before the mania exploded. A roommate brought it over, saying that her mom had picked it up in the library and really enjoyed it and I loved it from the first few pages. Luckily, the second book came out about 2 weeks after that. I’ve been addicted since then. Her creativity still amazes me–I mean, really, who honestly sits there and thinks, hmm, to get down to the kitchen, one must tickle a pear in a painting?? And even almost two years later, I’m still hurting over Sirius’s death.

9. A Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L’Engle. I just rediscovered her writing a year or so ago and have just been eating her up, both her young adult and adult novels. She writes this amazing mix of science and religion–the balance between both in life, and then weaves in mythology, and history lessons, and finishes it up with insights into life that just blow me away. This particular story is about death and suffering, and I don’t think that anybody has ever captured the essence of it so completely before.

10. Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander. The Prydain chronicles are some of my favorite children fantasies in general, but this one is my favorite in the series. Nothing happens in the overall story, but there’s something in the search for one’s identity and finding out who you really are, that deeply resonates with me.

Honorable mention: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (and his Women of the Scriptures series), all books by Patricia C. Wrede (current favorite is Sorcery and Cecelia), The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper, The Hunchback of Notre Dome by Victor Hugo, Persuasion by Jane Austen (really any but Mansfield Park), The Complete Works of Robert Frost, the Elemental Masters series by Mercedes Lackey (you won’t find more original reworkings of fairy tales anywhere) and lastly, His Dark Materials series and The Sally Lockhart quartet by Philip Pullman.

5) Who are you going to pass the stick to (three people) and why?
1. Ellie (shirerain). I know she always has a collection of books by her side and I’m dying to get some new books to try out.
2. Kim (kimarama). Every book that she introduced me to through her story Being Right is Overrated has been well worth the read. I want more suggestions!
3. Tay (fileg I have seen pictures of her bookshelves and I’d love to know what she’s reading now.

I’ll do the music one tomorrow!