Books

Pulled this from Karen Traviss's weblog earlier today:
1. Total number of books I own:
722, at last count. Years ago, I went and cataloged all of my books. I'm guessing that I haven't read about 25% of them, but I don't feel like counting them all up again.
2. The last book I bought:
Americana, by Hampton Sides and Crossing the Line by Karen Traviss. Americana: Outstanding set of essays on America, on a very wide range of topics. I've got a review stashed away here somewhere. Crossing the Line, also outstanding, already noted here.
3. The last book I read:
Crossing the Line, by Karen Traviss, Currently working on finishing Cagebird, by Karin Lowachee, which is proving to be very good. Also reading some random parts from Americana right now.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me:
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Vol. 1: An amazing anthology of short stories that is just packed. The book is like a brick, and I can't tell you how many times that I've read it. It's got a huge number of great authors. To name a few of my favorite stories: Helen O'Loy (Lester del Rey), The Roads Must Roll (Robert Heinlein), The Microcosmic God (Theodore Sturgeon), Nightfall (Isaac Asimov), Areana (Fredric Brown), First Contact (Murrey Leinster), Surface Tension (James Blish), The Nine Billion Names of God (Sir Arthur C. Clark), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes), again, to name a few.
Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck - Outstanding work of non-fiction on America by one of the greatest authors out there.
Ringworld, Larry Niven - Wonderful novel on exploration.
Dune- Frank Herbert- Do I really need to explain this?
Foundation- Isaac Asimov- Outstanding novel on space Empires.
A few others worth mentioning: Black Hawk Down (Mark Bowden), The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brian) The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien) His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman), Warchild (Karin Lowachee), Mice and Men (John Steinbeck), For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemmingway), Band of Brothers (Steven Ambrose), Guns, Germs and Steel (Jared Diamond), Ghost Soldiers (Hampton Sides), Americana (Hampton Sides) and many more...
I need to read more...