Caught yet another book meme

I've been tagged yet again in one of these book memes. This time, I curse Skippy the Wonderdog. (Just kidding.) I actually enjoy talking about books. Ask my friends - they can hardly get me to shut up about what I'm reading, most of the time.

Number of books I own: God, I've stopped counting. Let's put it this way: I'm temporarily living in Toronto, and already I've accumulated more books than I have any right to. Thankfully, they're mostly used. Back at home in Ottawa, I've filled six bookshelves, and have not-insubstantial overflow on the floor. That, of course, is after I gave up a whole bunch of books when I moved out to Ottawa - cutting 2/3 of my book collection of three years ago. So... yeah, lots o' books. At least for me. An anonymous friend of mine has a far more considerable book collection, to his wife's occasional consternation.

Last book bought, Used: Books 1, 2, and 3 of the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. A really fun Sci-Fi series inspired by the Horatio Hornblower series of naval adventures by C.S. Forrester.

Last book bought, New: War, by Gwynne Dyer. I think. Anyway, I reviewed it here.

Last book bought, Manga: Planetes by Makoto Yukimura. This is actually the most recent book I've bought, period, so I thought I should put it on. A manga about a group of space workers whose job it is to clear up Earth's debris-ridden orbit. Excellent writing, so far - though I've only read the first volume.

Last book read: Blockbusters and Trade Wars by Peter Grant. Excellent book about global trade in culture (defined broadly as music, movies, etc.) and how nations can protect their own indigenous voices while remaining open to the beneficial parts of global culture.

Five Books that mean a lot to me:

• Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. Before he went all crazy, Card was capable of writing really powerful characters and excellent drama. In the last five years or so, he's tried his hand at writing bad Clancy-esque fiction, and then he kind of went crazy after 9/11. But Ender's Game is probably his best book ever. It's superficially similar to the Harry Potter series - vaguely unwanted child goes away to school, discovers hidden talent. Except there's a bit less magic, and a bit more mass genocide. Anyway, excellent book. It also has the benefit of appealing to maladjusted teenagers in the mid-1990s who think they're much smarter than everyone around them. Not that I would know anything about that...

• The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. I blogged a bit about this not too long ago. I'm going to cheat and count this as one book. Let me just repeat that this is a series that anyone interested in socialism, space exploration, or human relationships should read. That's a pretty wide net - if you're not caught in it, what are you doing here?
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• Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. I really can't express how much this book opened my eyes. It's one of those rare treasures that both informed me and made me realize how little I actually know. There's too much in this book to summarize fairly, but let's broadly say that it covers the ground rules for civilization. How it grows, where it starts, what it needs, etc. Needless to say, these are permanent rules - unless we stop needing protein any time soon. It explains a great deal about the history of western expansion, and so is relevant to those of us fortunate (?) enough to live in North America. If you haven't read it yet, it's the one on this list I would most reccomend.

• All You Can Eat by Linda McQuaig. McQuaig is a Canadian author who writes about economic issues - her previous books have dealt with globalization and central banking, among other issues. All You Can Eat is a very different book in that she deals more with the historical and philosophical basis of modern capitalism, drawing heavily on the works of Karl Polanyi. The book also has an extremely moving description of Polanyi's time in "Red Vienna", when Austria's capital was controlled by Socialists before World War II. For people who need to remember that another world is possible, this is an excellent starting point.

• Utopia or Oblivion by Buckminster Fuller. Given that the blog is semi-named after him, you'd think I'd talk about him more. Utopia or Oblivion is not his most famous book - I believe that would be Critical Path - but it's the one I read first, and the one that really introduced me to Fuller's ideas. Fuller was about fifty years ahead of his time - though we're now fortunate to have people like Amory Lovins of the RMI, I wish Fuller had lived long enough to see the 21st century - his ideas about energy, building, and education are only beginning to be taken seriously, though I haven't seen anyone actually credit him. And if I can't retire in space, I'd just as soon retire in a town covered by a geodesic dome - if you endure a Canadian winter, you understand.

None of these books can really be ranked ahead of the others, in my mind. I reccomend Guns, Germs and Steel ahead of the others only because I think it's the one with the most general audience. As some honorable mentions, I would add:

The Case for Mars, by Robert Zubrin. The technical stuff is fascinating for how easy it should be to land a small crew on the red planet - and why Bush's space proposal will never, ever work. (Essentially, it's his Dad's old plan.) However, the far more interesting part of the book is the last few chapters, where he makes the moral and philosophical argument for the expansion of humans into the solar system. He laid out that plan more fully in his later book, Entering Space, but the Case for Mars makes the philosophical arguments far better, and is a bit more solid technically speaking.

It's the Crude, Dude by Linda McQuaig. McQuaig's most recent book, it deals with the history of the US oil industry, and with the ridiculous notion that this most recent war has nothing to do with oil. Even I was surprised about the evils of the oil industry, and I'm hardly a fan of the Exxon club. The paperback is due out in the fall.

I infect Vicki and Amanda at Battlepanda.