Number of Books I Own: Under 100, when I moved last December I donated hundreds --all I ever owned in the past 30 years -to the Denver University Women's Library Association which holds a book sale every year to raise funds. They even came and picked them up. My record album collection of 30 years ended up with one of the movers who ooh'ed and aah'ed so much over many of them that I figured he'd give them a good home. I can't say enough for downsizing.

Last Book I Bought: Bob Dylan's Chronicles (actually, it was on my Amazon wish list and my sister bought it for me.)

Last Book I Read (that I really loved and could not put down): Cane River, by Lalita Tademy, a family saga about four generations of strong-willed black women, following them from birth to death and from slavery to freedom.

Books That Meant a Lot To Me (At the Time): Everything by Joan Didion, but in particular, Play It As It Lays, which I probably read over a dozen times. I'm one of the few people with a copy of the movie, which I just lent this weekend to movie-obsessed (in a good way) Jeff Goldstein of the right-wing blog Protein Wisdom; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Pippi Longstocking books (as a kid, I loved Pippi because she didn't have adults to tell her what to do); A Stone for Danny Fisher (Harold Robbins); Snowblind by Robbert Sabbag (still the best cocaine-smuggling book ever); Good Night Moon (because in reading it thousands of time to the TL kid, it was comforting every time.)

Now, I'm supposed to tag five people, but I really hate to do this to anyone else. On the other hand, I don't want to be a spoil sport and as a blogger, it's good to have team spirit, so here goes: Skippy, John at Crooks and Liars, Blaghdaddy of the Blaghdad Cafe , James Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review , Natasha of Pacific Views and Howard Bashman of How Appealing.