Well, it looks like I've been tagged by a book meme. I really didn't see it coming. Thank you, Jeremy.
1. Total number of books I own: about 700.
2. The last book I bought: The Xenophobe's Guide to the Canadians and Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry. After all, it's best not to take travel too seriously.
3. The last book I read: The Elegant Universe and The Sandman, Volume VII. I read the first book to learn more about the universe we inhabit, and the second book to learn about the other universe we inhabit.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. This book is a classic on world mythology. Its author collaborated with Bill Moyers on the PBS series, "The Power of Myth."
- Understanding Media, by Marshall MacLuhan. Maybe the medium is only partly the message, but this book could change your life. Or at least your cocktail party conversation.
- Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot. These are four long, high Modernist poems by a Nobel prize-winner. They replace the alienation in Eliot's "The Waste Land" with something more optimistic (in a way), while extending his elegance of language.
- The Stars my Destination, by Alfred Bester. This is simply my favorite science fiction novel. (Samuel Delany seems to agree.) The 1996 edition features an introduction by Neil Gaiman.
- Cyberspace: First Steps, edited by Michael Benedikt. This anthology offers a set of visions for the online world(s). Ranging from inspiring to irritating, these essays pushed the envelope conceptually when published in 1991. The contributions by the editor and Marcos Novak (among others) are still worth reading.
5. Tag five people, and have them do it on their blogs
