Jonathan Assistant sends a meme my way, which is nice as I was starting to wonder if I’d ever get one of these memes sent my way. That music one just passed me by completely. In fact, I think this is the first time I’ve ever done one of these which goes to show you can blog for years and there are still new challenges, new adventures. This one is about books. For the record, I’m leaving comics out of this cos that’s a whole ‘nother medium. This is strictly fiction.

Total Number Of Books I’ve Owned
Ooh, hundreds if not thousands. I used to be a bookseller and that generally means one acquires books without even trying. That said, I’ve currently only got about 80 or so after a number of clear-outs. The other side to having been a bookseller is I don’t put quite so much value on books as physical objects – it’s the words that count.

The Last Book I Bought
That’d be Kafka on the Shore, the most recent novel by Haruki Murakami. I’ve nearly finished it and it’s terrific.

The Last Book I Read
Prior to the Murakami, that’d be Super-8 by Craig Smith. When you get sent a book by your mate that’s been published by some teeny little press skepticism about the quality abounds, but it’s a really good book, telling the story of four normal teenage lads in the early 80s who go on a canal-boat holiday. Lovely observational stuff.

Five Books That Mean a Lot To Me.

The Wind-Up Bird Chonicle by Haruki Murakami is a really huge book that’s quite daunting, especially as nothing seems to happen for the first 150 or so pages. And then suddenly, without you noticing, everything kicks off and your brain explodes. Very difficult to describe exactly what this book is about but it’s somewhat perspective-changing and highly recommended.

The Crow Road by Iain Banks was my favourite novel when I’d just turned 20. Not so sure I’d rate it so highly now, but at the time I really identified with it. Of note is the TV adaptation which, unlike so many adaptations of novels, was pretty much accurate to the story, characters and feel of the novel.

The New York Trillogy by Paul Auster kinda sits next to the Murakami in the life-changing stakes. This was probably the book that taught me what fiction was capable of in that it’s eminently readable and exiting yet also incredibly experimental and philosophical. Also worth checking out is the comics adaptation of City of Glass (the first in the trilogy) by Paul Karasik David Mazzucchelli.

Stone Junction by Jim Dodge is a somewhat obscure novel that only booksellers, and fiction buyers at that, really know about, but it deserves to be more widely read. It’s a speculative account of underground America, brought to life as the Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws who do crime but for a higher moral purpose. It’s one of those novels you really wish was true, as well as being a fun read.

Finally, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon is just brilliant. I was drawn to it because of the comics connection (the title characters are comic book creators in the 40s) but it’s about so much more, tying in the Jewish immigrant experience, the notion of myth-making and the practice of stage magic. Above all it’s wonderfully written with characters you can fall in love with.

Special mention to Underworld by Don DeLillo, mainly because I was so proud of myself when I finally read it. And then I wanted to read it all over again.

Hmm. All written by blokes with an emphasis on big fat American literary novels. Ah well.

What is the correct terminology for passing this on? I see “batton” used quite a lot but I rather like the image of jumping out of a bush, waving my hands around and shouting “Aha! I meme you!” like some tragic live-roleplayer with straggly hair and a late-breaking voice. And a pointy, yet mournfully bent, hat. So, Marv, Garen, Matthew, Craig and Jeremy, I meme you!

(Names picked somewhat randomly, should you feel slighted, and while I tried to strike a gender balance it doesn’t appear that way as the girls are trading as boys. See if you can guess which are which.)