(Sigh.) I don't think I've ever passed on a chain letter in my life. Wait. That came out wrong. I don't think I've ever passed a chain letter on in my life. But there's always a first time. Even though Sari already tagged a good chunk of my "A list" (just kidding).
But to commence the task at hand:
Number of books I own: I'd guess about 1,000. Probably more. I like books.
Last book I bought: That would be Fate and Destiny - From the Holocaust to the State of Israel by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. But I haven't read it yet.
Last book I read: Well the problem is that I haven't been reading many books lately because I'm still trying to catch up on the journals and magazines that stacked up while I was reading the last book I read. Oh, which was The System of the World, Part Three of Neal Stephenson's 2,700-some page epic The Baroque Cycle. (I read all three straight through -- hence the back-up.)
Five books that mean a lot to me:
Very, very tough and the list is almost nonsensical without more explanation (forget it), but without prejudice to other books that probably meant more to me but just don't come to mind right now:
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism by Gershom Scholem. It's the book that made me realize my soul was Jewish, back in the days when I didn't "like labels." It's a very heavy read, but I was so fascinated with the depth of Jewish tradition that I'd never known (or cared much) about that I forgot to be bored.
Night (and just about everything else) by Elie Wiesel. I think that's self-explanatory.
Biko by Donald Woods. When Peter Gabriel's third album came out, I was inspired to read this book by his song. And then I was inspired by the book to spend weeks at the library researching newspaper and magazine articles from the time of Stephen Biko's murder. One of the reasons why the mere mention of the word "apartheid" in connection with Israel sends my blood pressure through the roof.
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. Don't laugh. In high school, I named a whole littler of kittens after the characters and a friend of mine was trying (without much success, I'm afraid) to teach me to read and write in Elvish runes. I was captivated. And I think it's idiotic that they now have photos from the movie on the covers of the paperbacks.
I'm going to cheat and throw four books into a final category: science fiction books that changed the way I look at the world. There are actually quite a few more, but these are the ones that come immediately to mind: Dahlgren by Samuel R. Delany (so nice to see it in print again!), Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson, Shikasta by Doris Lessing and, the grandaddy, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.
And that about wraps it up. Tossing it over now to Sol, Mitch, Omri, Stan and Moira ("A list"ers all).
