MEME TAG - Books, books, books ... body wearying books!

I've been "books" tagged by John at Blogotional ... I believe bloggers play this fun little game to get to know one another (I hope it's not just to increase traffic ... naw!).

Each of the four captions below are passed to someone they know from someone who knows them ... and so it goes. Scroll to the bottom to see who I've tagged ... after all, The CRIB doesn't want to be a spoiled sport!

Total number of books owned, ever:

I’ve owned virtually every book I’ve ever read (as an adult) … let’s see ... well over a thousand fiction; same for non-fiction ... hmm ... closer to 800 possibly; over twelve years of college texts, perhaps 400-450, those related to my work as a pastor ... maybe 1,500 – 2,000, Louis L’Amour alone counts for over a hundred (great American writer ... had breakfast with him in 1985, before he died ... really nice guy, too bad about hell); collectibles/antiques perhaps 100-200.

Now, if we average the questimates at 4,325 and factor in exaggeration/duplication at say 20%, I’d figure I’ve owned something around 3,400.

However, I have to quote from a letter Solomon sent me, I have several copies if you’d like one ...

The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person; for God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:11-14

Last book I bought:

The last book I owned I didn’t buy, I got it from Blog for Books, Tracy Harp’s ingenious blogbiz – The Jordan Tracks, by Steven W. Wise, I plan to post a review on this next week.

The last out-of-pocket book was actually two ... shipped via Amazon together: Right Turns, by Michael Medved, and Men In Black, by Mark R. Levin – one inspires, the other gets me mad as H__l ... I’ll let you guess which is which.

Last book I read:

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be An Atheist, by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek; see my review of the book; this is another freebie from Blog for Books.

Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey – without which I’m not sure I'd be saved.
2. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London – the first adult book I can remember reading; actually I remember one before this by Hemingway that my cousin gave me; my mother burned it in the furnace when she caught me with it ... something about the running of the bulls in Barcelona ... still don’t know why she burned it.
3. The Source, by James Michener – the book that made me really realize that reading was a blessing I couldn't take lightly.
4. Clarke's Commentary on the Whole Bible, by Adam Clarke – took me over six months but I read the whole six volumes my first year as a Christian; at the time I couldn’t tell the difference between a covenanter and an Edsel, an Armenian and a Halloween costume but this early 19th Century commentator helped me understand God and His word almost as much as 3.5 years at Talbot Theological Seminary did.
5. Modern Management and Machiavelli, by Richard Hobart Buskirk - using principles espoused by Machiavelli in "The Prince" centuries ago, the author (a professor at Stanford's "B" school) explained how those principles applied to politics, business, and leadership in general – a little volume which helped me understand what was going on behind the scenes in the political and business world.
   

I’ve deliberately left out the Bible, the Word of God, because it is in a class all by itself as the only inspired, infallible, inerrant, plenary volume whose writing, publication, and preservation have been superintended by God Himself.

Now for my victims: the following bloggers have been selected deliberately and without remorse ... Bryan's Nonsense, Crucified Living, The Spirit Formed Life, The Lord My Dad, and our newest SoCal Alliance member Randy Kirk at The Truth About Everything.

I haven't reviewed the entire blogosphere yet today (I plan that for tomorrow), so if any of my tagged ones have done this already, I apologize ... but I really am interested in what books are important to ya'al.