Thursday, August 30, 2007

TAGGED!

Devon tagged me with this meme...

1. Total number of books I own:
Coincidentally, I just bought a dozen large underbed storage containers, stackable and with wheels, to try and get my books organized. Right now, books are stashed all over the house. I might even weed a few out for the first time EVER. More than likely it will be some of the tamer historicals from before I discovered spice. But I HAVE just GOT to get organized. I think I'm up to a THIRD set (fourth for some) of LKH books because it's easier to buy more from ebay than try to track them down when I'm craving a re-read.

But right now I'll have to guesstimate that print books are well over four digits, plus a few hundred ebooks, and about three dozen audio books.

2. Last Book I bought:
Well, I just hit Walden's then Border's then K-Mart to pick up the 08/28 releases. But the absolute last one for that trip was Immortals: The Gathering by Jennifer Ashley

3. Last Book I read:
(Gwen's gonna laugh her ass off at this) Lucinda, Darkly by Sunny

4. Five books that mean a lot to me: (in no significant order)

1. Stories for Late at Night - anthology edited by Alfred Hitchcock. I'd always loved scary movies. This book showed me that I loved dark and macabre BOOKS even more. I "accidently" forgot to return this to my junior high library. Years later, I loaned it to my oldest niece, LissaNY, who "accidently" never gave it back to me and lost track of it. And, yes, oddly enough, I do still acknowledge her.

2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - the first book that was truly emotional for me. I remember crying inconsolably at Beth's death scene. Walter Farley's Black Stallion books are a close second because of the sense of power and movement they invoked.

3. Black Lace Publishing and Red Sage Publishing. Okay, technically, not a book, but they are responsible for my first experiences with Erotic Romance and the beginning of my spice addiction. Black Lace gave me Menage by Emma Holly (and, IIRC, my 1st M/M), A Gentleman's Wager by Madelynne Ellis, Continuum by Portia Da Costa, and so very many more. The Secrets anthologies from Red Sage introduced me to Erotic Paranormals through authors like Angela Knight and MaryJanice Davidson.

4. Romantic Times Magazine and Ellora's Cave Publishing. Again, not technically books, but reading RT's reviews for EC's Romantica compelled me to buy my first PDA just so I could read the ebooks RT recommended. I think my first purchases were by Jaid Black and Lora Leigh. To this day, if someone says they are new to ebooks and asks where to start, I ALWAYS recommend Lora's Breeds series and I've yet to find ANYONE that didn't end up devouring each and every story.

5. Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry and Anita Blake series. If you've been reading this blog, then you already know I'm a vamp victim in The Harlequin, so that's a "gimme". However, Narcissus in Chains and Blue Moon remain my all time favorites in the AB series. The characters are so real that, when I turn the last page of a book, I shout (in my head, of course), "NO! WAIT! I'm not ready to leave them yet!" It takes me awhile to wrap my head around the fact that I can't just go to St. Louis and catch up with these "people".

With the exception of Mistral's Kiss, which was the weakest book of the series, I believe LKH's Merry Gentry series is a modern American masterpiece. The complexity of the fantasy world building that started with Kiss of Shadows is far beyond anything else I've ever read. So far, my favorite is Seduced by Moonlight.

5. Tag 5 people:
This is the toughest part because I should probably check and make sure who has or has not already been tagged for this meme. I know I've been seeing it around for awhile. I THINK the people I've listed are tag free.

1. Sybil/Gwen/Lawson - see, I'm being nice and letting YOU choose how many to do, however, I'd REALLY like each of you to do it. You can even put your own TGTBTU spin on it

2. Mandy - because I think she's a meme virgin and it's her birthday

3. Chantal - because, except for a few, we have VERY different tastes in books

4. Ann Aguirre/Annie Dean - consider it a belated birthday present chica

5. Anyone else that thinks this is a fun and/or interesting meme. Either copy the questions to your blog and post the link here or post your answers in the comments for this post if you don't have a blog

14 comments:

Vincent Copsey said...

Woo hoo, thanks for the mention, although it's A Gentlemen's Wager, not agreement. The sequel goes off to Black Lace on Monday.

Vincent Copsey said...

I posted my answers on my blog.

Ann Aguirre said...

Ok, I'll do this next week, Bev. I have to keep pimpin' Boundless until the release. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

GAK! Madelynne, you'd think that I've pimped A Gentleman's Wager enough times that I just might notice when I got the name wrong. What's REALLY sad is that I do that all the time, but I usually catch it myself. Sometimes I swear my string has a few bulbs flickering out.

Well, Annie, you could always combine the two like Madelynne did on her blog. Her last book read is her upcoming book Phantasmagoria! And, like her, you get the bonus ebil tease in because the rest of us CAN'T read them yet!

Anonymous said...

Bev - I'll take up the gauntlet! Come read the blog and you'll see my response.

I don't think you should let Syb and Lawson off the hook, though.

Anonymous said...

Gwen, you are TEASING me. I don't see it over there! :(

Anonymous said...

Never mind. NOW it's there and it's pretty interesting and revealing, too.

Anonymous said...

Have I got some news for you! I looked on the upstairs bookshelf, and there it was - recently unpacked from about 10 years of being safely packed in the attic along with all my other childhood books, with the Turner stamp right in there. I don't know if I even remember your loaning it to me - I have found that kids kill brain cells devoted to memory.

I will try to get to the post office in the next week or two after the schedule settles (the two older kids start school this week) and get it back to you.

I'm sorry for keeping it from you all these years. :(

Anonymous said...

Aw, it's okay. At least it's safe. Don't worry about getting it back to me anytime soon, just whenever you're down here next. Just don't give it to your Mother to bring down- she'll burn it as a tool of Evil. ;D

By any chance, do you still have Grandma's The Proud Breed by Celeste De Blasis? I know at one time she was looking for it and thought she had lent it to you. It was a hardcover.

Anonymous said...

Don't know about that one. I will have to look. Is it one of the old hardbacks she gave me a few years ago?

I think that Hitchcock is okay with her. He was mainstream enough to have movies and tv that were shown on Saturday Afternoon Superhost theater.
;-)

Unknown said...

Okay!! I finally got my answers up- although the date says yesterday since that's when I started my draft! Thanks for being my first meme tagger or whatever the heck you kids are calling it these days!

Anonymous said...

Mandy, VERY interesting list, grasshopper! LOL!

Chantal! CRAP?! I bestow this glorious meme gift on you and you say CRAP?! Hmmmph. Now you HAVE to do it just to make up for hurting my feelings. *sniffle*

*snicker* Think she's falling for it?

Unknown said...

Are you psychoanalyzing me? LOL My list is that way because I was too interested in boys and going out to pick up a book from ages 13-23! I've only been reading paranormals since Jan. and just discovered ebooks a month ago. I will definitely take your suggestion and read Lora Leigh's series. I was so excited to get tagged, I didn't give my full attention to your answers till now! That is so awesome you were in The Harlequin, I'm gonna have to go thru my copy here in a minute. I looked all over your blog the find the details- I can't believe you got the ARC! And you've only been blogging since Feb? You are a master! I thought your blog was at least a couple of years old, it's so good!

Anonymous said...

Well, DAYUM, Mandy--- THANKS! I'm just a pervy old bitch who likes to say what's on her mind. So it makes me all kinds of happy to know people actually want to read it.

If you go over to the far right and click on Patissiers: Hamilton_Laurell_K, you will be able to find the story of how I ended up in both the Acknowledgements and TWICE in The Harlequin. Although she has had other Bevs in previous books, I'm the only Bev in this one.

And before you buy any Lora Leigh ebooks, go to www.loraleigh.com and click on Breeds Chronology. That is the recommended reading order instead of publication date.