Tuesday, July 05, 2005

I'm It!

I was just 'tagged' by my buddy James over at Consolation Champs with the latest meme that's making the rounds. So, here goes...

Number of Books I Own:
This is a tricky one. Because I'm in the book distribution business, I have books floating around my office and around home constantly. I've also got books packed away in boxes because I don't have enough shelf space right now to get them all out. A quick count of what is actually on the shelves or piled somewhere around the house comes to 514.

Last Book I Bought:
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Next to Doug Coupland, Hornby is my favorite fiction author and I can't wait to get into this book but I will wait for my week of vacation before starting because I can't deal with a lack of sleep right now!

Last Book I Read:
A bit of a tie here because I tend to be reading more than one book at a time. I finished both of these on the Canada Day long-weekend: Prayer: A Cry for the Kingdom by Stanley Grenz and Terry by the aforementioned Douglas Coupland.

Prayer is just a small book but is a good summary of the concept of prayer from an intellectual point of view. This isn't an emotional call to pray more frequently, rather, it considers what it means for the Kingdom of God to break into the present and the ramifications of that as we bring our petitions to God.

Terry is part memoir, part photo essay about the life of Terry Fox and what exactly it is he accomplished on a personal and a public level with his Marathon of Hope in 1980. Coupland emphasizes how drastically an ordinary person's life can change in an instant and he asks the question "what if?" What if Terry had never lost his leg? What if he had never decided to run from coast to coast? How would his life have been different and how would our lives have been different? Reading about Terry's accomplishments and the inspiration he has been to so many people will leave you with a tear in your eye and a lump in your throat.

Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me: This is really tough. There are so many, old and new, but here are some recent reads...

A New Kind of Christian - Brian McLaren
The Table of Inwardness - Calvin Miller
Mudhouse Sabbath - Lauren Winner
Intimate Moments With The Savior - Ken Gire
The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

Five Books I'm Currently Reading: I'm adding this category because yes, I do have five books on the go right now!

A History of Britain - Simon Schama
Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places - Eugene Peterson
The New Testament - The Message
The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

Who's Next?
I don't personally know anyone with a blog other than James so I guess if you're reading this just leave a comment about some of your favorites. Thanks!

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