Task completed!

Thanks to Stacey, I've been charged with the task of sharing some of my most personal information with the known universe. I'm a firm believer that if you want to know about someone, all you need to do is look at the books they read. One's book collection and reading habits can provide infinite information into what makes that person tick. Add to this the other things a person reads (magazines, newspapers, blogs) and the music and art a person prefers, and you have a pretty full picture of that person.

So, without further analysis, here are my answers to the bookish questions posed:

1. Number of books I have owned. I note the original question is past-tense, so could encompass all of the books I have ever owned. Since my Nancy Drew collection has departed years ago, and I got rid of the vast majority of my books about baseball last year, I'll spare you the long answer (since I'm not too sure of it). I've purged 15 boxes of books this summer from our collection to make space for the books that arrived following my parents' move last month. One of the benefits of having a brother who has absolutely no desire to go into ministry (let alone go to church) is that I had first pick of my father's library as he was going through his books. I'd estimate that we now have close to 1,200 books in the house right now. I bought a "pastor's library" on Craigslist last year that had close to 500 books in it, and many of these books have yet to be read.

2. Last book I bought. A Song to Sing, A Life to Live, by Don Saliers and Emily Saliers. And Emily signed it for me at an autograph session last week.

3. Last book I completed. A trashy detective novel whose title and author escapes me. But, it was really good nonetheless.

4. Five (or more) books that mean a lot to me.

• My great-grandmother's Bible
• I Dream a World - a book that I received from one of my favorite teachers in middle school as a confirmation gift. It includes photos and biographies of significant African-American women. Over the years, I've read and re-read it, while at the same time collecting several autographs including Betty Shabazz and Shirley Chisholm.
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• I Write What I Like by Steven Biko
• The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thuscydides
• Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lourde
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor

4b. What I am currently reading.

• The Tipping Point
• Dealing with Anger and Frustration
• Some other detective novel by the same author as the previous one whose name I can't remember.