Book Meme

Thieved from Ritu’s place…

1)Total number of books owned?

I have no bloody idea, but it took a serious hit because about five boxes were lost in transit, and even the pittance of insurance offered was never collected upon.

In my apartment in Korea I have about 230 books, plus about 20-odd on loan to different people around the country. I think I must have thrice that at home. Of the 230 in my house now, I’ve half-read about 30 (especially omnibus editions like the collected HG Wells, Douglas Adams’ omnibus HHGG, and so forth) and fully read about 60 of them, but some are reference books and language-study texts and such, or are unreadable to me at this point (such as several of my Korean comic books). Since I have very few comic books and most of them are “graphic novel” sized, I’d counting them as “books”.

2) The last book I bought?

Ah, it was a Korean translation of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, which was a gift for a friend of Lime’s.

3) The last book I read?

The last book I read right to the end was the graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, which I read straight through in one afternoon.

4) 5 books that mean a lot to me

David Brin’s Earth, which was the first SF novel I read as an adult. Though I have my issues with the guy, I do respect the importance that book has had for me in my development as a writer.

Greg Egan’s Diaspora for showing me I was on the right track, and that there was so much more to SF, and Bruce Sterling’s Holy Fire for confirming my suspicion that it was worth pursuing.

EF Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, for being such a wonderful little book.

Albert Camus’ The Plague, because it’s brilliant.

China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station, for opening the door to fantasy for me, after I slammed it shut.