Gratuitous Literary Posting - Book Him Division

Swiped from Sheila, it's the Five Books Meme. Here we go:

Five most recent books you've bought for yourself:

Theodore Dalrymple - Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses. Also, Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass

Derek Robinson - War Story

Sir Richard Burton - A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca, Vols 1 & 2

G.K. Chesterton - Orthodoxy

Fred Anderson - A People's Army: Massachuetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years' War

Five books you've most recently given other people:

The Dangerous Book for Boys, given to the Llama-ettes to help them understand how boys' minds work.

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, on its way to Steve-O's elder son, who mentioned yesterday how much he liked Greek mythology. (Ut-bay on't-day ell-tay im-hay, teve-O-Stay!)

Can't think of any others off the top of my head.

Five most recent books you've loaned other people, and their status:

As a rule, I don't loan books, feeling about them the same way hobbits do about mushrooms. Indeed, Mom and I have a kind of long-standing Cold War in which we don't so much borrow books from each other as steal them, hoping the other won't notice. (For instance, I've got her copy of The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine, lifted over Memorial Day weekend. I'm sure I'll "forget" to pack it when we head up to visit in August. And I'm sure she'll try to resteal it when she comes down at Christmas.)

Last five kids' books you bought:

We have so many kids' books constantly flowing into Orgle Manor that I can't keep track of all of them. I know we ordered that latest J. K. Rowling novel, Harry Potter and the Hoovered Wallet (or whatever it is), but I'm sure there are others as well.

Last five books you looked at on Amazon/Chapters/Powell's/etc.:

See last five books bought for self above.

Top five books on your "to read" pile:

I gave up on a formal "to read" pile quite a long time ago because I find that my interests and attention are constantly shifting. So when I'm ready to move on to the next book, I simply walk into my library and let my eyes roam around at random. When I see something that makes the little machine in my brain go "Bing!" I pull it out. My only real rule is that of the three books I'm generally reading at any one time, at least one of them has to be new to me. (For all that, the Chesterton is probably number one in line for departure at the moment.)

Bottom five books on your "to read" pile

See above. I've got years and years' worth of volumes sitting about that I know I ought to read, but perhaps not just now. I've also got years' worth of volumes - many of them presents - that I have absolutely no intention of reading whatsoever. However, I am utterly incapable of throwing a book away (see my views about borrowing above), largely because something at the back of my mind always says what if you suddenly DID want to read that one? THEN where would you be?