MEMEMEMEME

Well my buddy Kate challenged me to a meme about books. Here are the resulting bits:

1. Total number of books we own (I counted "in our house" since we are believers in the library): 2005. This includes 608 books in the room of the fourth grader who doesn't like to read.

2. Last book I bought: Joel on Software.

3. Last book I read: Joel on Software. If you manage people who write software, get this book.

4. Five books that meant lot to me:
a. Lead the Field, an audio book about how one approaches their work and life and how your outlook deeply influences your outcome. It sounds southern-preacher hokey, but this book actually changed my life for the better.
b. The Fifth Discipline, a book on systems thinking. This knowledge in this one book has made me more money than anything else.
c. Catcher in the Rye, the timeless icky highschool classic about Holden Caulfield, what a schmuck. I absorbed the pathos in this book and felt pretty good about myself, even though I was a geek in highschool.
d. Tom Corbett; Space Cadet, When you are in the fourth grade, kids in space are really cool. This was actually a series of books that came from school. I had a bunch of them and read them all several times. I have no idea where they are now.
e. Carpentry, A small book, but filled with the greatest pile of practical wisdom about carpentry you could ask for from an old timer. Imagine talking to your grandfather about how to build houses for about eight hours straight and getting a transcript with illustrations.

5. Five people to take this challenge... I wonder if I have five readers?