My personal library

I snagged this meme from Captain Dumbass @ Us & Them, who, if you’ve never read his blog, is friggin hysterical.  Three words: grilled cheese men.

What book has been on your shelf the longest?  My boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia.  My sister got it for me when I was a kid, 20-odd years ago.  They’re still in good shape, and still in the original published order too instead of the re-released chronological order.  I still read these, and can get through the whole series in a couple of days when the mood strikes.

A book you acquired in some interesting way:  What constitutes ‘interesting?’  I supposed I could say Lamb by Christopher Moore… when I worked at B&N, we basically had an obsession with this book.  I think pretty much everyone there read it, and we took turns putting on the ‘recommended reads’ shelf.

Most recent addition to your shelves:  The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and Agnes & the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer.

A book that’s been with you to the most places:  Probably Watership Down, by Richard Adams.  The copy I have now is a relatively new purchase from a used book sale, but my original paperback went with me on many camping and fishing trips when I was a kid.  Or at least until all the pages got glued together by a leaky syrup candy tube thingy.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life:  I agree with Captain Dumbass, pretty much all of my books do this.  But if I’m going to talk about one, I’ll pick This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti.  Reminiscent of my Bible-thumper days, but still incredibly good stories.  They make me think of all those years that I spent at church, how much I learned about who I am and who I’m not, and how much I value my ability to think for myself.

Last book finished:  I admit that I didn’t finish the last book I checked out from the library (Stiff, by Mary Roach).  From my shelves, I just recently re-read The DaVinci Code, the illustrated version, which is ten times better than the original!

I'd like to hear about everyone else's book collections too!  So I'm adding a couple of my own questions:

The book(s) you've read over and over and will never get tired of:  Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.  First off, I have a terrible memory so I can read pretty much anything over and over again, but these books are so rich in detail that I always find something new and fascinating in them.  Plus, it's a long series!

The most frequently-referenced book (fiction or non-fiction):  The Beginner's Guide to Gardening, put out by BH&G, and also Cesar Millan's books. While I thoroughly believe that no one dog training technique is gospel for every dog, Cesar really gets to the heart of dog behavior: the owner.

A book that changed your way of thinking about something:  Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.  I challenge anyone who thinks they can just live in this world without taking into consideration the ramifications of their way of living to read this book.