Book meme

As you've probably worked out, I'm gradually catching up on reading other blogs after having been away from computers for a bit. Michael, from the fabulous Evangelical Catholicism blog tagged us (10 days ago!) with the latest book meme. I also spotted that they're involved in a fascinating new blog: Vox Nova, which is described as Catholic perspectives on Culture, Society and Politics and already has a huge amount of interesting material on it.

Anyway, taking up the book meme:

How many books do you own?

Good question, to which I'm not entirely sure of the answer. I have four floor to ceiling bookshelves (7 shelves each). With a conservative estimate of 40 books per shelf that's 1120 books. I also have 5 smaller bookcases (3-4 shelves each), so that's a further 600 at least, thus a total of at least 1720. I think I've probably fully read about a third, skimmed or used as a reference another third and a further third are yet to be read.

Last book I read:

Two Sisters in the Spirit: Therese of Lisieux and Elizabeth of the Trinity, Hans Urs von Balthasar

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me:

1. I can't resist putting the Bible in here. I've been too lazy to learn Hebrew (perhaps The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow would also be an apt choice for this list) so I read the OT in translation and have an idiosyncratic preference for the Douay-Rheims version.

2. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, John Paul II. The full importance of this is only just beginning to be understood by scholars, let alone me. I love Waldstein's new translation. His headings are excellent and the introduction is very interesting, and has sparked lively debate on the extent of different influences on JPII.

3. Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus

4. Hermitage Within, A monk

5. My mother's book, whose title/author I can't give you, for obvious reasons! I love all of my family's books, but this one has a particular beauty in itself as well as because of my love for my mother.

Now tag five other blogs:

East Anglian Seminarians

Viking Vocation

Non Typical Winger

Faith and Country

Catholic mom of 10 (bet this is one where you can make it to five :)