one more meme: books
1. Total number of books I own:
I have no idea what the actual number is. I can probably most easily express it by length:
9m of technical books;
3m of general-audience science books;
6m of paperbacks, mostly sci-fi/fantasy;
1m of self-help / philosophy / pop psychology books;
1m of comic / humor books;
1m of reference;
1m of large format atlas / art books
2. The last book(s) I bought:
Two books on Web Services in Java (yawn) and a collection of Randal Schwartz's perl columns (most of which I'd read, but he was going to be in town so I'd have him sign them -- too bad the meeting didn't happen.)
3. The last book I read:
To completion? Hm. Don't remember, actually.
In progress? Understanding Physics by Isaac Asimov. Painfully out of date, but a good refresher in classical physics.
4. Five books that I re-read often, or that mean a lot to me:
David Kiersey - Please Understand Me II: It seems silly to put it this way, but it was my final revelation that it was ok to be weird, and in fact I'm weird in an an entirely reasonably and statistically supported way.
Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksennarion: Not particularly deep (and, in fact, its deeper aspects actively annoy me, with the assumption that humans alone cannot face the world without supernatural assistance) but very well-written, convincing, and easy multiple readings.
Douglas Hofstaedter - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: I didn't read this until a few years after I finished my CS and Math degrees, so much of the technical side was stuff I'd dealt with at least academically. The way he tied it together with art, aesthetics, and philosophy, as well as simply providing an enlightening description of the mathematics, impressed me quite a bit. Also, reading this book gave me the weirdest dreams I can remember.
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Ok, so that makes me a lemming. But there were a few years where I would always take a day or two out of Winter Break and re-read the entire trilogy from front to back. I acknowledge David Brin's points on why it's not entirely happy, but it was still my introduction to high heroic fantasy, and it's still something I can enjoy sitting down and reading a few chapters here and there.
I can't think of a single book for the last position, and I'm sure I'll think of many others later. I'd probably put in anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, due to the sheer beauty of his prose. My only complaint with him is that, while his writing is just getting more and more beautiful, his subject matter is getting less and less magical -- and damnit, I want magic. :)
I have no idea what the actual number is. I can probably most easily express it by length:
9m of technical books;
3m of general-audience science books;
6m of paperbacks, mostly sci-fi/fantasy;
1m of self-help / philosophy / pop psychology books;
1m of comic / humor books;
1m of reference;
1m of large format atlas / art books
2. The last book(s) I bought:
Two books on Web Services in Java (yawn) and a collection of Randal Schwartz's perl columns (most of which I'd read, but he was going to be in town so I'd have him sign them -- too bad the meeting didn't happen.)
3. The last book I read:
To completion? Hm. Don't remember, actually.
In progress? Understanding Physics by Isaac Asimov. Painfully out of date, but a good refresher in classical physics.
4. Five books that I re-read often, or that mean a lot to me:
David Kiersey - Please Understand Me II: It seems silly to put it this way, but it was my final revelation that it was ok to be weird, and in fact I'm weird in an an entirely reasonably and statistically supported way.
Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksennarion: Not particularly deep (and, in fact, its deeper aspects actively annoy me, with the assumption that humans alone cannot face the world without supernatural assistance) but very well-written, convincing, and easy multiple readings.
Douglas Hofstaedter - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: I didn't read this until a few years after I finished my CS and Math degrees, so much of the technical side was stuff I'd dealt with at least academically. The way he tied it together with art, aesthetics, and philosophy, as well as simply providing an enlightening description of the mathematics, impressed me quite a bit. Also, reading this book gave me the weirdest dreams I can remember.
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Ok, so that makes me a lemming. But there were a few years where I would always take a day or two out of Winter Break and re-read the entire trilogy from front to back. I acknowledge David Brin's points on why it's not entirely happy, but it was still my introduction to high heroic fantasy, and it's still something I can enjoy sitting down and reading a few chapters here and there.
I can't think of a single book for the last position, and I'm sure I'll think of many others later. I'd probably put in anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, due to the sheer beauty of his prose. My only complaint with him is that, while his writing is just getting more and more beautiful, his subject matter is getting less and less magical -- and damnit, I want magic. :)