Susan passed this to me a while ago but I’m just now getting around to it… I’ll save my real entry for tomorrow (or well, someday)…
Total Number of Books I Own: Most of my books are in Birmingham… since I am not, I’ll have to guess. I’d say around 50 though. I’ve gotten really good at NOT buying books. Mostly I go through the library first and if the book is SO good that I HAVE to have it in my collection I start looking for a used copy. Not that this process always works…
Last Book I Bought:
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby… which, by the way, did not go through the aforementioned reviewing process and which I could probably live without. It’s good, but it’s probably my least favorite of his so far.
Books I’m Reading Now:
Nothing really. I’m re-reading Blue Like Jazz.
Books That Have Been Important To Me:
Ummm… gosh. I guess I’m not as attached to books as you might expect a writer to be. That’s kind of weird!
I’d say To Kill A Mockingbird, but that’s more because it’s my favorite novel (classic, prize winning novel, anyway). But it isn’t important to me in the sense that Susan described, the “shaped who I am” kind of sense.
Tim Downs’ Finding Common Ground, on the other hand, really got me thinking about my life, my goals, my gifts and my personality… and all of that kind of pushed me back on the path to journalism instead of considering full time ministry. (And by the way, that has to be one of the best decisions I ever made… which isn’t to say anything bad about the ministry I thought about going on staff with, but just that I love my job and I feel like I get to really know people more than I probably would have in that context, given my personality and such. Anyway. Ramble.)
Let’s see. So long as I’m talking about journalism, I really, really love The Landry News by Andrew Clements. I was so excited when I saw that they’re making mass market copies for $2.99 now! I really want it in hardback (and hey! my birthday is in 12 days!), but I couldn’t pass up a cheap copy of one of my favorite books. (And yes. It is a children’s book. And it is brilliant.)
And just so you know, Songbook, by Nick Hornby, is the book I wish I wrote. Only if it were mine, the f-bomb would be there in a few less times. ‘Cause I really hate that word. Unless Damien Rice is singing it, in which case it magically doesn’t matter.