This is one of those "I've been tagged" posts. I probably would have ignored it except it comes from Alix who I would never ignore, and the questions are just right. I've always asked people I met what their favorite books were. It's a great way to find well-kept secrets, and broaden your reading horizons. So here are the four questions:


1. Number of books you own:
I have too many books to count so I'll count the bookcases instead. Two wall book cases. Two as wide and tall as a door, one long one, about outstretched arm's width, waist high, four others, waist high. I think I left out a some. All filled with books. There are also a few boxes of paperbacks in the basement and my son (8) has one bookcase with his books.

2. Last book bought:
Got it today, Sunday, at the Hamburg-Bergedorf Schloss Museum. "Bruno Karbeg Gebrauchsgrafiker in drei Epochen" Saw the exhibit in April coincidentally on the last day. One of the leading ad-designers in Germany from the 20's through the 60's. Some of the logos he designed are still in use today. What interested me most about him is how he refused to use his talents during the Hitler years to further his career. He never worked on propaganda or Nazi themes, though they wanted him to.

3. Last book I read:
Al Franken "Why Not Me?"

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

Winnie the Pooh (read it when I was little, and was always my favorite)

Carl Jung's writings on Synchronicity: it's part of his collected works in several volumes. The breakthrough learning German was working through these texts, sentence by sentence.

Robert Sheckley's "The Journey of Joenes". It's a brilliant science-fiction satire of the cold war period, early 1960's, including beatniks, told in oral tradition, thousands of years in the future.

Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness". The meaning of life is in that book. I had to read it in college but didn't understand anything. But I had to understand it for the exam, so I forced myself to read it again. And then it clicked for me. I read anything by Joseph Conrad I can get my hands on.

Kurt Schwitters Collected Works, Prose volumes. Yes, the famous Merz artist wrote amazing dadaistic prose (in German). The only way I can describe his unconventional brilliance is that it must have inspired Monty Python.


As stipulated by JJ via flutterby, the tagged must choose five taggees. I choose:

Courtney
Jamie Dawn
Qunicy
Princess Dominique
Mushroom: you can post your answers in the comments, since you don't have a blog.