book meme

carrieb tagged me, and now I have been wasting way too much time filling this out:

1)Total number of books owned?
I couldn't even begin to guess. We have three tall bookcases full, stacked at least two rows to a shelf, and a smaller bookcase that's in varying stages of fullness--the bottom shelf is full of smaller hardbacks and trade paperbacks (I think that's what they're called) that don't fit in the other bookcases, and the top two shelves I use for books I haven't yet read. Right now, those shelves are disturbingly empty--very much hoping to rectify that tomorrow at the library book sale.

2) The last book I bought?
I bought two at the same time. Heart of the Sea, by Nora Roberts and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evie, by Marianne Stillings.

3) The last book I read?
Umm. I don't remember. I think I finished at least one book between the two above and the one I'm reading now, but I can't remember what it was. Like I said, I'm very low on books so I'm reading the dregs--if I find used books for sale, especially if they're very cheap, I buy a lot of them since I read so much and so fast. (Do you hear the defensiveness? I just feel a tiny little bit guilty about buying used books because the author doesn't see a profit from it--didn't bother me until I started contemplating a writing career.) Anyway. When I have a huge stack of books, I'll pick out the ones I'm most interested in first, and by the time there are just a few sitting there on the shelf, what's left is the stuff that I might not have bought if I'd looked at it a little more closely, or that just sucks beyond words (someone WAS selling it, after all!) The one I'm reading right now is called Bouquet by Shirle Henke, and I almost stopped twenty pages into it--I DID throw it across the room, but later picked it back up--because the man was unloading hay from a truck with "a youth from Kentucky", and when the youth began speaking ("aw, looks like yore rope sure am a tetch better 'an yore truck" or the like) I induldged in a fit of outrage. I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DO THAT.

4) 5 books that mean a lot to me?

1. Ordinary People, Judith Guest. Although I haven't been able to reread it as a grown-up, even though I did get it for Christmas three years ago, because it upsets me.
2. Wheel of Time, I guess. Techincally a series. I listened to my exbf and one of my good friends extoll upon the wonders of Robert Jordan for countless hours in high school. I hated even thinking about it. But when I started mudding, the mud I started on (Hysteria) happened to be based on WoT. I bought myself the first book as an early Christmas present for getting my shopping done. Anyway, if I hadn't stuck with the muds, I wouldn't have ended up on DarkScapes, and I wouldn't have met M. I got M into it, too--though he has boycotted the series until RJ gets the damned things done.
3. Knight in Shining Armor, by Jude Deveraux. I have read this a thousand times and it still makes me cry. Perhaps I am in love with the idea of a love that lasts throughout the centuries. Also, it's a time travel romance with a bit of an unusual ending.
4. What It's Like to Have a Tail, by one Magnus C. Yayer (coming soon to a retailer near you, I'm sure.)
5. Please don't make me come up with another one. Okay, how's this for a lame, corny and cheating answer: the book (books) I haven't read means a lot to me because I relish the idea that there will always be something new to read.

5) Tag 5 people and have them fill this out on their LJs:
totte, courtesy, stewlis, paradisecowgirl, tarynfogle