Well, the boys nearly burnt the blog down when I was gone, but, armed with my brand spankin' new Lappy 486 (or something like that), I'm ready to get blogging again! So, without further ado, I think I'll start by answering Mike's book meme from awhile back, just to prove to him that I actually do read his blog.

1.Total Number of Books I Own

I'm going to take a wild guess and say around 400, although I keep finding boxes full of them when I least expect it.

2.The Last Book I Bought

A vintage copy of The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it's a 1956 book full of POD things to do with your kids throughout the liturgical year.

3.The Last Book I Read

I tend to have more than one going at once, so I'll just list this summer's notable reads:
The Man Who Was Thursday
In This House of Brede
The Cube and the Cathedral
Dracula

4. Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me (in no particular order, and not counting Scripture)

The Lord of the Rings These were the first books that made me scared, that made me cry, and that showed me what a Catholic aesthetic sense was all about. I could go on, but I imagine most people here know exactly what I'm talking about without my saying it.

The Liturgy of the Hours This might be cheating (somewhere along the Scripture line), but my breviary has traveled alongside of me off and on for a long time now, and it always seems to offer some sanity and comfort even just by having it around. It represents the universality and timelessness of the Church to me in alot of ways, and as such, is kind of the warm blanky of my books. Also, carrying it around is a rather obvious visible sign of my Catholic Nerd credentials, which has led to one or two interesting meetings.

Fides et Ratio I read this encyclical once in high school, and have been assigned it 3 or 4 times in college so far. The idea that Faith needs to safeguard Reason as much as Reason needs to defend Faith has always stuck with me.

A Treasury of the Familiar This is a WWII-vintage book of poems, speeches, and quotes that we had in my house when I was growing up. It was one of those big, cozy, old-smelling hardcovers, and I have fond memories of curling up with it and reading Longfellow and Shakespeare.

Goodnight Moon If you don't understand immediately why I chose this one, you never will.

Theo of the Body should be in here, too, as the book that has probably most influenced my thought in my adult life, but I don't know if I can count it, since I haven't actually read most of it.

5. Tag five people, and have them do this on their blog. Well, since this meme has pretty well made the rounds, I'll stick to people I know:

Katie, Holly, Ben, Jess, and Joseph, you're it!