Summer Fun & Book Meme
You know it's finally summer when...
- you've spent the last night downstairs in your Dad's living room, because in your own bedroom it was simply too hot.
- you were lying on an air mattress, watching an episode of the new Dr. Who on your laptop.
- the window was standing wide open and the flimmering laptop screen was the only source of light.
- after a couple of minutes a huge brown moth came fluttering by and sat down right on your screen, on the good Doctor's nose *g*
But since I got tagged by SelenaK, now for something completely different...
Book Meme
1) Total number of books owned:
Phew, good question. If we are speaking about the number of books that I've purchased myself or personally received as a gift, I'd say roughly about 350. If we are speaking about the total number of books that are floating around in the family household, I'd say 10.000. Old books, new books, great books, average books, stupid books, annoying books, obscure but oddly entertaining books, books that no sane person would or should ever have bought. Just don't ask. I stem from a long line of obsessive book collectors. Stuff got handed down from one generation to the next.
2) Last book I read:
Edward J. Larson: Summer for the Gods, The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. A pretty good (and also Pulitzer Prize winning) account of the infamous "Monkey Trial". Thanks to the current cultural climate in the U.S. now more up to date than ever.
Current bedtime read: Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of Vanities. A rather entertaining satire about greed and the forces of public relation.
3) Last book I bought:
A very nice but dead cheap hardcover edition of Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans at the Zweitausendeins shop in Essen, right before heading off to watch F.W. Murnau's Taboo at the Lichtburg.
4) Five books that mean a lot to me
a) Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn. Breathtakingly beautiful fairy tale; full of charm and subtle irony.
b) Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. Originally read for a philosophy class. Shaped my views about the consequences of religion more that anything else.
c) Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway.The book that started my love affair with Modernism.
d) Michael Ondaatje, Skin of a Lion.One of the most evocative, most fascinating books that I know. Ondaatje is one of those rare writers whose sentences somtimes contain entire universes.
e) Bruce Chatwin, The Viceroy of Quidah.I'm not really sure whether it's actually Chatwin's best, but I met one of my favourite university professors over it.
5) Tag five people and have them fill this out in their LJs:
Cavendish
Quiller77
Hianja
vashtan
eretria
- you've spent the last night downstairs in your Dad's living room, because in your own bedroom it was simply too hot.
- you were lying on an air mattress, watching an episode of the new Dr. Who on your laptop.
- the window was standing wide open and the flimmering laptop screen was the only source of light.
- after a couple of minutes a huge brown moth came fluttering by and sat down right on your screen, on the good Doctor's nose *g*
But since I got tagged by SelenaK, now for something completely different...
Book Meme
1) Total number of books owned:
Phew, good question. If we are speaking about the number of books that I've purchased myself or personally received as a gift, I'd say roughly about 350. If we are speaking about the total number of books that are floating around in the family household, I'd say 10.000. Old books, new books, great books, average books, stupid books, annoying books, obscure but oddly entertaining books, books that no sane person would or should ever have bought. Just don't ask. I stem from a long line of obsessive book collectors. Stuff got handed down from one generation to the next.
2) Last book I read:
Edward J. Larson: Summer for the Gods, The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. A pretty good (and also Pulitzer Prize winning) account of the infamous "Monkey Trial". Thanks to the current cultural climate in the U.S. now more up to date than ever.
Current bedtime read: Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of Vanities. A rather entertaining satire about greed and the forces of public relation.
3) Last book I bought:
A very nice but dead cheap hardcover edition of Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans at the Zweitausendeins shop in Essen, right before heading off to watch F.W. Murnau's Taboo at the Lichtburg.
4) Five books that mean a lot to me
a) Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn. Breathtakingly beautiful fairy tale; full of charm and subtle irony.
b) Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. Originally read for a philosophy class. Shaped my views about the consequences of religion more that anything else.
c) Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway.The book that started my love affair with Modernism.
d) Michael Ondaatje, Skin of a Lion.One of the most evocative, most fascinating books that I know. Ondaatje is one of those rare writers whose sentences somtimes contain entire universes.
e) Bruce Chatwin, The Viceroy of Quidah.I'm not really sure whether it's actually Chatwin's best, but I met one of my favourite university professors over it.
5) Tag five people and have them fill this out in their LJs:
Cavendish
Quiller77
Hianja
vashtan
eretria