Bookmeme!

This meme appeared on Ken Macloed's blog, although it doesn't seem to have spread very far, at least through the sections of the blogosphere I read. It appears to be a mutation of the earlier music meme.

1. How many books to you own
Never tried counting them all, but adding up all the SF novels, railway books and RPG rulebooks probably comes up with a figure in the high hundreds. Don't think it's in four figures yet.

2. Last book read
Neil Stevenson's Quicksilver I'm about halfway through so far.

3. Last book purchased
Blue Pullman, by Kevin Robertson, purchased yesterday at the DEMU showcase.

4. Name five books that mean a lot to you

The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe.
An epic in the true sense of the world. I can't think of any other fantasy or science fiction work that rivals this for atmosphere; it's been a big influence on my own RPG worldbuilding.

Pebble in the Sky, Isaac Asimov.
Asimov's first novel, not his best work by any means. Probably very dated now, like so much 'golden age' SF. The reason I'm listing it is because it's the book that first got me hooked on SF, borrowed from the school library when I was about 14.

Red for Danger, L T C Rolt.
Tom Rolt's history of railway accidents. Rolt avoids the tabloid-style lurid descriptions, and concentrates the technical aspects. He shows how the worlds railways are a safe means of travel today because of the lessons learned from the past.

Diesels in the Duchy, John A M Vaughan
An odd choice for "Books That Changed My Life". When I returned to railway modelling in the mid 80s, I was looking for a suitable prototype to follow; John Vaughan's wonderful photographs of class 37s, 50s, and Westerns in the beautiful Cornish scenery made that choice for me; the end result was several Cornish holidays doing 'research', and far too many N gauge locomotives.

The Bible.
Read the whole thing, and discover how the random verses the fundies love to quote often mean something quite different when read in their proper context.

5. Five people to tag
Since I didn't wait to be tagged, anyone not on this list who wants to pick up the meme shouldn't need to wait either! I'm still going to pass on the baton anyway, to Carl Cravens (responded), Ken Hite, Patrick Crozier (responded), Ginger Stampley (responded), and of course, Scott