What, meme worry?

I've answered these things before, but I've never been tagged before. Weird. Kinda feel like an unwashed new ex-virgin. In any event, thanks Hillary. Although I think there are like two people who read this, and you're one... so I'm not sure who gets this next...

Here we go:

Total books I own:

Including text books and law bullshit, probably around 175 or so. I've left behind a bunch in different moves, so it was probably around 400-500

Five Books that had a big influence on me:

1. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - No book punctures the heart of the dreamer, the rueful man, the lover, the man as much. And it is the funniest book ever written. The only thousand page book I could read over and over again.

2. The Simon and Schuster Young Readers' Atlas - Memorized the fuck out of this back in the day. This and the world map shower curtain form the basis of like half the shit I remember from ages 8-14. I've gotten drunk for free (trivia, not "Buy me a drink because I know the capital of Belize") many a time thanks to this book, which is good enough to make the list.

3. Sartor Resartus, or The Tailor Retailored by Thomas Carlyle - Personal choice here. The furthest I'll go is to say no book has changed my point of view of the world more than this.

4. Tie: The Dog Star by Donald Windham and Brighton Rock by Graham Greene - Two books of angst-ridden youth. I probably like the writing in The Dog Star better, it's set in ATL, and the author is a Georgian. Brighton Rock it so tight, though. And for a while I've thought about writing a screenplay based on it, but set at Coney Island, with Hot 97 as the radio station that does the promotions, and DMX in the role of Pinky. Both these books should be required reading for 18 year old boys/men.

5. Tie: The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald and A Harvard Education in a Book by the Editors of the Harvard Lampoon - Sense of humor means something, right? The Great Brain series gave me the scheming, the Harvard book gave me the snark.

I'd like to mention something newer that would've made the list had I more room (and yes, I know I cheated) - Read We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda by Phillip Gourevitch. An important, harrowing and oddly uplifting read.

Last Book I Bought:

It was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, but it was a gift for mi madre. For myself I think it was Bobby Fischer Goes To War: How The Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of all Time, and it was a while ago when I bought it (I seem to buy enough for a stack, and then work my way through them). So long I can't really remember why I got it. But now that I think about it, I kind of want to read it.

Last Book I Read for the First Time:

I'll probably finish See No Evil by Robert Baer tonight, but technically it's Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Hit and miss funny. The chapter on his brother "The Rooster" made me shit my pants though.

Five Bloggers to tag: Heh. Nobody reads this drivel, especially when I only post once a fortnight.

Commenters, both, are free to post something.