Got me!

OK, Diane from Tough Enough (and Upper Left comments and guest blogging fame) has tagged me with one of those infernal blog memes...

How Many Books Do You Own? More than I used to, but not as many as I will.

Last Book Bought: Three at once - Robert Reich's Reason, Todd Gitlin's Letters To A Young Activist and Like Young, mostly jazz criticism by Francis Davis.

Last Book Read: The last round of purchases are still in progress. The last one finished was John Perkin's Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man, highly recommended, if somewhat scary.

Five Books that Meant A Lot: Hmmm, only five?

OK, first some stuff from the literature shelf…

Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. Deciphering the real-life identities of the characters and looking at their own work introduced me to the world of beat literature, especially the poetry, and expanded my consciousness as much as any chemical could.

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, by Richard Farina. The campus life I wish I'd lived.

Confederacy Of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. The back story alone, involving a tragic end, a devoted mother and a posthumous Pulitzer, offers hope to every frustrated author. The story is insanely magnificent, or magnificently insane, or…it's a great story, told brilliantly.

Rules For Radicals, by Saul Alinsky. Because you can't win the game if you don't know the rules.

The Tanakh, by G_d. Because.

You know, Diane's right. That was kind of fun. Now I guess I'm supposed to pass it along…so how 'bout it, Carl? And maybe the Carpetbagger has something to share…

Update: Carl takes the bait.