Book Memmme

Finally!....Gosh.

Total Number of Books I've Owned:
It feels like a kabillion, but it's probably more like ~2000+
I got rid of half a kabillion books last summer at the Bookman in Orange and the La Habra Library.

Last Book I Bought:
I just ordered a book on Boat Building by the Gudgeoun (sp?) Brothers that emphasizes strip plank construction with epoxy. It seems to be a really cool cost effective way to build round hull shapes. Wood combined with epoxy has a stiffness to weight ration that way outdoes steel, aluminum and fiberglass.

Last Book I Read:
Hmmmm....I've been reading LOTR since Pascha. Before that, I had just finished The Count of Monte Cristo and Watership Down ?(Can't remember which one came last). The Count was a solid bit of reading, but I'm not into it like Chance. Maybe it's the translation. I am also continually dipping into books on boats and sailing.

5 Books that Mean a Lot to Me:
I'm with Chance on this one; you never really know about a book until you've read it more than once. A lot of these are repeats from other people's lists, but I guess that makes some sense.

1. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien have both been my constant companions since I was in fourth grade. I've read them both about once a year or so since then. I read The Hobbit to my fourth grade class every year, and I'm currently on my way again to Isengard with Gandalf and Theodan after the Battle of Helm's Deep. What keeps drawing me back? I know the story cold. I don't have anymore real questions to be answered. But, there is a beauty of place and culture and character that makes we want to repent and create more beauty in my own life. That's my key definition of a great piece of art.

2. The Silmarillion, also by JRRT, deserves it's own place on my list. It now lies at the top of my personal list of fictional works of art. The story of the creation and fall of the elves and of their dreams and their doom spans thousands of years all taking place ages before the events of LOTR and in a realm of Middle Earth that is now under the sea. Myth and piercingly beautiful english prose makes this worth reading again and again. (Plus, their are so many new names and places that the first reading is really just like a good stretch before the real marathon.)

3. Watership Down, I've already commented on in a previous post. Let's just say it's a kick ass read that doesn't get any less powerful the fifth or sixth time around.

4. The story of Ernest Shackelton and the Endurance. This real life adventure of trauma and heroism would be impossible to believe if it weren't true. Just one of the many amazing feats these men accomplished to reach safety after having their ship crushed by the grinding ice of the Weddell Sea near Antartica, is an open boat journey of 800 miles across one of the most treacherous oceans on the planet.

5. There are a ton of books that should probably go here, but right now Harry Potter has earned the right, because it's the one series of books that I'm ready to read all over again (this will be read number 4 or 5 I think). Why? I love the characters. I want to hang out with them again. It's that simple.

If the books on my shelves got together to fight their way onto this list, the one with the best chance (and it should probably go right below The Silmarillion) is Herman Melville's Moby Dick. BAM! This book packs a powerful vision and language that I can't find anywhere else. And it's hilarious! Over half the text is an exquisite rendering of the english language into a verbal weapon of wit. The first time I read it in high school, i didn't get more than the basic plot, and that was good stuff. When I read it again during my student teaching, the light came on, and I became a Melville apologist. I wish I could do him justice.


I'm defecting from the infection.