The book challenge

You know how you get those emails asking you to answer a survey and send along to a certain number of people? I ignore those emails, usually, but when a friend calls me out on her blog to participate, I really have to comply. (Just kidding, Sheila.) Anyway, here goes:

1. Total Number of Books I've Owned:
Like everyone else who answers that question, I have no idea, and I question the sanity of anyone who does.

2. Last Book I Bought:
Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern American Witch Hunt by Debbie Nathan and Michael Snedeker

3. Last Book I Read:
The Road to Wellville by T.C. Boyle

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:
Anastasia Again, by Lois Lowry. Everyone else had Judy Blume, and yes, I too loved the Judy Blume, but there was something about the Anastasia books that just resonated with my nerdy young self. Plus, she lived in a motherfucking tower, and that was really cool.

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. Nothing I've ever read has inspired me to write the way this book has.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. My favorite book, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Ariel, by Sylvia Plath. Beautiful, haunting, raw. I read this all the time. Still.

Diary of an Emotional Idiot, by Maggie Estep. So much I can identify with in this book. It's like a window into the darkest, ugliest parts of myself.

5. Tag five people and have them do this on their blog:
Most of y'all will probably not do this. But that's okay, because you'll look like big jerks if you don't.

Favorite Ex
Jake
Miss Tanya
The Pie
Linus