I've been Tagged!

Tristi Pinkston tagged me with this meme about books, which is a good thing since I really needed something to jumpstart me this week. I've been a little under the weather, and it's Tristi's fault really. See, she started this BIAM (see post below) and I decided to try it. Well, my main character immediately came down with the flu. It may have been the power of suggestion, or a warning from my subconscious, but I got sick too, and sitting down to write just seemed to require too much effort. But I do need to get back in the rhythm of writing, so here goes.

My Reading: My mother claims that when I was a little girl I slept with a teddy bear on one side and a book on the other. After I learned to read I went to bed with a teddy bear, a book, and a flashlight (so I could keep reading after lights out). I was the 7th of 9 children and grew up reading the stacks of books accumulated by my older siblings. I also read my mother's Good Housekeeping, Reader's Digest, and National Geographic (just the captions). I was rarely to be found without a book in my hands. Things have not changed much, except now I can drive myself to Barnes and Nobel. If I didn't have a job and a husband and children I would live there. They have wall-to-wall books, Godiva hot chocolate, comfortable chairs and nice bathrooms. My kind of place.

Total Number of Books I Own: I'm guestimating over 500. That's counting the ones in plain sight, not the ones in a box in storage.

Last Book I Bought: Our local library has a book sale table where they put books that people donate but the library doesn't need or want or have room for. Last Friday I found 4 hardbacks and 4 paperbacks for a total of $1.40. Such a deal! They were:
1. "Off the Beaten Path, A guide to more than 1,000 scenic and interesting places still uncrowded and inviting." (Readers Digest Books)
2. "A History of England" by David Harris Willson
3. "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century" by Barbara W. Tuchman
4. "The Plague and The Fire: London 1665/1666" by James Leaser
5. "Do You Want to Know a Secret/Do You Promise Not to Tell" by Mary Jane Clark
6. "The Warriors of God" by William Christie
7. "Outwitting the Gestapo" by Lucie Aubrac
8. "Billy Straight" by Jonathan Kellerman

Last Book Read: "Billy Straight" by Jonathan Kellerman

Five Meaningful Books: I am interpreting this as books that made such an impression I will always remember them and would recommend them to anyone.
1. "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. This was my favorite children's book when I was a child. I had the story memorized and the illustrations fueled my imagination.
2. "Love You Forever" by Robert N. Munsch. This is my favorite children's book now that I am a mother.
3. "The Romantic Obsessions and Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier" by Louise Plummer. Sister Plummer was my creative writing teacher at BYU. She has captured teen angst so perfectly I died of humiliation right along with Annie.
4. "Street Sparrows" by Rose Ayers. This is a story of two street urchins in 19th century London. Fascinating! It is so well-researched and detailed that if I was caught in a time warp and found myself in that time period, I think I might be able to survive.
5. "The Street Lawer" by John Grisham. I like most (not all) of Grisham's books, but this one is something special. It's the kind of book that makes people think about helping someone less fortunate than they are. At least that's what it did for me.

And now the really fun part where I tag five people. I tag Michelle, Rachelle, "Joan", Shanna, and Stephanie (who really ought to meet my handsome, single nephew, David).