June, 18 2005

Chris tagged me for the Book Meme.

Total number of books owned:

Somewhere over 1900, including a hundred or so recipe books, but not including several boxes of books in the garage.

Last book bought:

Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh. Interesting read, more history than mathematics and just fine for a plane trip.

Last book read

Err… Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh.

Before that I’d just finished Sherri S. Tepper’s Sideshow/0553762893/qid=1119131393/sr=8–2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002–2888801-2480828?v=glance&s=books&n=507846, third in a set of stories that explore the moral tension between society’s rights and individual’s rights. Tepper’s other books in this set (Grass/055376246X/qid=1119131946/sr=8–1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002–2888801-2480828?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 and Raising The Stones) are also very readable.

Five books that mean a lot to you

1. The Bible. More than any other, this book has shaped my life and my thinking, both directly and indirectly.

1. What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey. Made me consider what is and isn’t important to God

1. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. First long book that I read from cover to cover with my eldest son.

1. Snow Crash. At the time, the first really good sci-fi I had read in many years.

1. XP Explained by Kent Beck. Interesting bunch of ideas and, while the XP utopia will never be realised, the overall effect of the XP movement on the software development community was lasting and positive.

Tag five people to continue this meme

Five people? That’s a lot. You do realise that if all five participate, and they each tag five people who all participate, and so on, and so on, within 14 generations the entire population of the world will have done this survey?

• Kate

• Keith

• Charles

• David

• Andy