Book-tagged..

I was book-tagged today, by Ajit. Here I go then :)

For every book I own and have read, I have 3 or 4 that I bought, but haven't read. And I am very comfortable with that. I think having a full bookshelf, with a lot of books to choose from is a really good idea, rather than be stranded without one. The mere thought that there are so many more books to read excites me and provokes me to read. And it doesn't slow me down in purchasing books. Even when I am not really interested in making a purchase, I still like to visit bookstores, just to browse, wander and lose myself amid the stacks of books, and the seemingly infinite world of knowledge and fantasy that man has built.

Living in a city like Ann Arbor is a great advantage in that regard. Ann Arbor is the home of the Borders bookstore chain, and has a nice independent bookstore Shaman Drum. A greater benefit however is that it has numerous used and rare bookstores such as the Dawn Treader Book Shop, After Words, David's Books, and many more. These are places of regular visits for me, and every visit holds a new surprise.

Number of books I own
I don't count, its probably around 250 or 300.

Last book I read
I often read several books at a time, switching from one to the other as takes my fancy. Thus the multiple entries below :)

The last book I finished was Absolute Friends by John Le Carre. The last non-fiction book I finished (the same weekend as the above) was From Socrates to Sartre: the Philosophic Quest by T.Z. Lavine.

Last book I bought
Being Logical:A Guide to Good Thinking by D.Q. McInerny. I bought this book as a gift.

Books That Mean A Lot to Me
Fiction: The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham, MukhavaTaa (मुखवटा) by Arun Sadhu, Catch-22 and Picture this by Joseph Heller

Non-fiction: Man's worldly goods by Leo Huberman, जग बदलले by Sulakshana Mahajan

Books I wish I had completed
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel C. Dennett

People I am tagging
Tapan | Ashutosh | Shrihari | Pradnya