Sylvia tagged me for the book meme. I will always talk about books.

1: Name five of your [many] favorite books Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, Gilliane by Roberta Gellis, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Dear and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell. These I read and reread and never tire of.
2: What was the last book you bought? For myself? America Knits by Melanie Falick, a book I read several years ago from the library and wanted for myself but not at hardback prices. In paperback now and the last thing I bought with the gift card my daughter gave me for Christmas. For the kids, more recently, I bought Messenger by Lois Lowry for K (related to two other books she had read and liked) and Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen for S.
3: What was the last book you read? The last book I read... As in finished? Ummm - I'm in the middle of Martin the Warrior, reading it to S, and I started New Rules by Bill Maher and Why is the Foul Pole Fair by Vince Staten after picking them up at the library yesterday, and the Road to Underfall by Mike Jefferies as a bedtime story, but the one I finished most recently must be Desiree by Roberta Gellis which was my most recent bedtime story.
4: List five books or authors that have been particularly meaningful to you (in no particular order). Andre Norton got me into science fiction and then into fantasy and for years I read everything she wrote. Robert Heinlein was another I read everything by and has always been extremely thought provoking. Stephen Jay Gould has been my hero for explaining things in science in terms even a casual lay person could understand, particularly in putting science in its historical context. Roberta Gellis and Georgette Heyer are my favorite romance authors, in their different ways, because the serious research that underlies both their bodies of work shines through.
5: Name some books you’ve been dying to read but just haven’t yet. I dunno about this one. Most of the books that I really want to read but haven't yet aren't published yet. The last Harry Potter book comes to mind. The next Magdalene la Batarde book by Roberta Gellis, Chains of Folly. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, which is apparently out now (as I look into this) and which I need to get from the library since I laughed myself sick over his earlier books.

The 50 book challenge was something I ran into on Jarret's blog last year and had to go figure out. Technically, it seems to be a challenge to read 50 books in a year. Phah, child's play. I chose to interpret this as a challenge to read 50 new books in a year, not counting those I reread for old times sake, which adds up to many more than 50 and which were cluttering up the list. I'm doing this because I like to read, and because I like to share the books that I read with others, and because I've been losing track of some of the titles that I've read and having a list in one place wouldn't be a bad thing.

(Memory is a funny thing. I generally remember the written word. But if my mind is convinced I have another way to remember something, it cuts out duplication. What was the name of the book of cowboy short stories I read which was always on the middle shelf at eye level in the third stack back on the right in the Howard County main library before they built a new main library in downtown Columbia and shifted all the books around? I still don't know. But the stories were really good, particularly the one about the guy who had a store and could get anything you needed and another guy tried to stump him and eventually ordered a wife. Or the science fiction book that was in the center section (on the other side) of the end of children's fiction in the same library- that one I eventually tracked down mentally (The Secret of the Marauder Satellite by Ted White which sounds very Hardy Boys-ish but was pretty interesting) but so far the cowboy stories is a lost cause. So having a list of book names might not be a bad idea.)

Should I give a blurb on each as I finish them?