A New Meme for a New Year

I had planned on trying to post something today so as to keep with my New Year's resolution to post more, so the first will be in response to a tag from Annie for this meme.

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest:
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. I don’t remember exactly when I got this book, but I think I was about five or six. Since I’m 52 now, I’ve had it for quite a while. I can still recite some of the poems in it, since I read them so many times as a child. I still pull this one off the shelf every now and then just for a comforting blast from the past.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time, etc.):
This would have to be Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. My older son asked me to read this when he was in middle school. I did, and it helped me understand him a lot better. Card says in the foreword that he has been told this is the book most often stolen from (or not returned to) middle school libraries, and I can see why. I keep hearing that this book is being made into a movie; if that's true, it may be one I can't bring myself to see since I just know it would disappoint me.

A book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used bookstore, prize, etc.):
I’ll pick the one I bought before it was available in stores. I went to the National Book Festival in September 2008, and was able to purchase Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book three days before it appeared on bookstore shelves. I then read a good bit of it while waiting in line for four hours to ask Mr. Gaiman to sign a copy of Coraline for Annie.

The most recent addition to your shelves:
Several mysteries by Karin Fossum, set in Norway. I may take these along on an upcoming trip halfway around the world, on which my return will be from Norway. It might be interesting to read them right before visiting the country.

A book that’s been with you to the most places:
Whatever notebook I’m using as a journal at the time. If I have to name a published book, it would be the Child's Garden of Verses mentioned above. I don't take it on trips, but it's been with me in every residence I've had for the last 46 or 47 years.

A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions:
One of my favorite poetry books is Hailstones and Halibut Bones (Adventures in Color) by Mary O’Neill (author) and John Wallner (Illustrator). The poems really do convey colors in words; in fact, O’Neill says that she has had people blind from birth tell her that the poems helped them understand the concept of “color.”

As for tagging people, I figure that the only reason Annie didn't tag her mom, Debi, is that Debi has either already done this or already been tagged to do it. Otherwise, anyone who wants to can join in the fun and consider themselves to be the next "It."