Book Tagged

Gadzooks Batman. I just checked out Paul Cella's fine blog, Cella's Review only to discover that I've been tagged in the great book tag parlour game of 2005. Well, on with it:

1. Number of Books I own: Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,500, give or take a hundred or so. My basement recreation room is walled with books. Like Paul, I am a regular library hound.
2. Last book I bought: Last week I purchased David Cannadine's, "In Churchill's Shadow" and Philip Zeigler's, "Soldiers." The former I have yet to crack. I am part way through the latter and it is a wonderful collection of short biographies of British military pensioners living at the Royal Chelsea Hospital.
3. Last Book I read: Margaret MacMillan's very well written history of the Paris Peace Conference that led to the Treaty of Versailles, "Paris 1919, Six months that changed the world." Excellent!
4. Five Books that mean a lot to me: (Good Lord, only five?):

• John Henry Cardinal Newman's "Apologia Pro Vita Sua." Newman's writing is superlative, his intellect is outstanding and his character is that of a saint. His journey from Anglican priest at Oxford to Catholic Cardinal is fascinating, inspiring and compelling.
• G.K. Chesterton's, "The Dumb Ox," Chesterton's marvellous biography of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Pick any Chesterton book and enjoy.
• Murray Peden's, "A Thousand Shall Fall" the autobiographical story of his experiences as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force Bomber Command during WWII. Wonderful!
• Winston Churchill's six volume "The Second World War." What a writer! What a statesman!
• Evelyn Waugh .... pick any one .... okay.... "Brideshead Revisited."
• Mordechai Richler's "Barney's Version," Timothy Findlay's "The Wars," C.S. Lewis "The Screwtape Letters," George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series - WARNING - WARNING - Your allotment of five books has been exceeded. Cease and desist enumerating immediately!
  

5. Tag Five More Bloggers (see my sidebar):

• Kermit of Bubba's Bog
• Bob of Either Orr
• Damian Brooks of Babbling Brooks
• I'll add more tomorrow. I'm very tired. Good night. Yawn.