I am, apparently, it.

There has been a book meme going around the blog rings and I have been tagged by Aaron, so here goes. Prepare to be shocked and appalled at the total and utter fluff included herein.

Number of books I own:

Probably about 150 - 200, including the textbooks. I used to be more of a library person, but living with Matt is making me a collector.

Last Book I Bought:

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella. What? I was going on vacation. A girl's entitled to a little chick-lit on vacation.

Last Book I Read:

Last book I actually finished? That would be The Dirty Girls Social Club, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. I read it while I was on vacation. Back in Cuba, in January. It was the last time I actually had time to do any reading, and I didn't want to think too hard; hence, the chick-lit. I've since started and put down three or four books (the aforementioned Can You Keep A Secret?, Reading Lolita in Tehran, The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy), but school keeps me too busy to really get into anything serious. Also, anything totally lacking in seriousness, apparently.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me:

(1) Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. I have a justification for this one that isn't the content of the book though; it was a gift from Matt the second summer we were together. Outlander's not the trashy romance novel it would seem to be; it's a historical fiction with a little bit of trashy romance novel thrown in. Hey, if Damian Brooks had it on his list, I am going to pretend I don't need any more justification.

(2) Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, by Marcus Borg. Yeah, I don't get to church very often, but I still do consider my Christian in my own way. This book really helped me feel more comfortable with my understanding of faith as a personal relationship with God that doesn't require me to be at church every Sunday. I'm definitely not the world's best Christian, but I'm trying to be a better one.

(3) Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, by Eric A. Meyer. This one was a gift from Matt for our first wedding anniversary (the paper anniversary). It means more to me that just being a gift from my husband; it really represents the first time I started learning a skill more or less on my own, without relying on Matt to teach me everything (he might argue this point, but I still did more on my own than when learning, say, c++). This book helped me to learn a skill I wanted to learn - not one I had to.

(4) The Quantum Universe, by Tony Hey and Patrick Walters. This book introduced me to quantum phenomenon. It is a non-mathematical book and I highly recommend it (also, Einstein's Mirror by the same authors) to anyone wanting to know a bit more about science without bothering with all the equations. This book really brought the wonder and the curiousity out in me, and I'll be re-reading it once I'm done school to try to capture some of it back.

(5) Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien. I first read this series back in grade 7 or so, and I've been enchanted by it ever since. Sometimes you can take the morality tale out of it (doing what's best despite personal hardships, etc.), sometimes you can pull historical analogies out of it, and sometimes you can just read it for a good adventure.

Tag Five More Bloggers:

Matt, Walter, Marli, Dave and what the heck, Monte Solberg, it's your turn! It's a toss up in my mind whether Dave (who blogs rather infrequently) or Monte Solberg (who certainly does not read this blog) is more likely to actually do this. ;)