Book Meme

I snagged this meme from the Pajama Gardener (Thanks!)

Total number of books?

If you include what's sitting on my floor, I'd have to say over 500 at the moment. But I've owned thousands over the years.

Last book read?

The Prada Paradox by Julie Kenner.

Last book bought?

The Courtesan's Revenge by Frances Wilson.

Five meaningful books?

This is a hard one. The Diary of Anne Frank. Probably the most powerful book that I read growing up. It opened my eyes to the world outside my doors, and taught me about hope, and also about evil.

Forever by Judy Blume. A banned book which is fitting this is National Banned Books month. I read this book when I was 12 in seventh grade. I'd already started reading Harlequin Romances but this was the first book that told me just how painful and wonderful first love could be.

Gone with the Wind - I don't know why it's so weird to be a woman of color who actually likes Gone with the Wind, although I have to say that I love the movie more than I do the book. Yes, its a book about the glorious South, the lost grand life of plantations but it's also a book about survival, and the passing of an era, that had to end whether with war or some other way. And I love Scarlett. She was smart and strong and did what she had to do to survive and was hated for it. Better for her to have curled up and died or whined like her sisters then pull herself up by her high button shoes. It would have been more ladylike and genteel but war isn't genteel. And I always believed that in the end she would find a way to get back together with Rhett, that now that she knew how much she loved him, she would be just as tenacious as she was rescuing her family and Tara.

Motherless Daughters - This book was a godsend for me after my mother died. I don't know how I would have coped without it.

Jane Austen's Emma - I actually read this book before I read Pride and Prejudice. I've always had a soft spot for Emma. She maybe think she knows best, be a little snobby, but her heart is in the right place. And I love Mr. Knightley. He gently but firmly puts Emma in her place, and teaches her how to grow up.

I'm tagging Megan Frampton, Mary over at the Bandwagon, Deirdre Savoy, Patt Mihailoff, and Charlie Horse.

EKM