...I'll do it! ^_^

Total Number of Books I’ve Owned:
Maybe 200. Yes, I'm pathetic. But my mom has such a huge library that I usually just read her books...

Last Book I Bought:
I bought three books from Amazon: collections of poetry by Pavel Chichikov and George Mackay Brown, and a surreal sci-fi novel by Poul Anderson called High Crusade, in which space aliens invade medieval England and get their butts kicked by a bunch of knights, who commandeer their ship and defeat their tyrannical empire. The book is narrated by a lovable monk named Brother Parvus, and it puts the smackdown on that stupid Connecticut Yankee meme, whereby scruffy, superstitious medievals can be terrorized with an electric can opener.

Last Book I Read:
Evelyn Waugh's biography of Edmund Campion. It was truly amazing. I love St. Edmund Campion, and Waugh's writing is fabulous. Of course the college bookstore started selling it at the same time I was reading it. Sigh...

Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me:

1. The Lord of the Rings. A no brainer; it's been my favorite book since I was 12. If it doesn't keep me sane and and ardent for the verum/bonum/pulchrum, nothing will.

2. The Path to Rome. The best thing Belloc ever wrote. That I've read, anyway. It's so full, so satisfying for every mood. It combines the sacred and the profane, irony and artlessness, sorrow and consolation in equal measure. And you can read it online, so there's no excuse. (However, you won't get the wonderful songs and sketches sprinkled through the book.)

3. The Diary of a Country Priest. I'm always astonished at how intricately structured this book is. The melancholy is almost fatal to me, but I keep coming back for more. It is a saint's story, but so artistically told. An unusual combination.

4. The Red Fairy Book. I loved this collection of fairy tales when I was a kid, especially The Twelve Dancing Princesses and The Nettle Spinner. They made a very deep impression on me. For what it's worth, Tolkien also read it as a child.

5. Heaven, by Peter Kreeft. I read this when I was 14, I think. It completely changed my superficial understanding of Heaven, and of the purpose of our Faith. It tied together all these things I loved - music, Tolkien, etc. - and showed me why I loved them and where they were leading.

And I guess it isn't a book, but the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.