Book Meme for a Sunday

A quick meme, via the lovely Litlove at Tales From the Reading Room:

The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

That's a tough one. I have a bunch of books on my shelf that I got when I was in college, and some from my early childhood. Plus there are a whole bunch of books my husband had in college and they are indistinguishable from my college books. I'm not sure what's what any more.

I also have a battered 1942 hardcover copy of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' memoir Cross Creek on my bookshelf that I believe used to sit on my grandmother's bookshelf. I don't know if it is technically the book that's been on my shelf the longest, but it's been on my family's shelf for a long time. And I love the book. It takes place near where my grandmother lived and my mother grew up in Florida, and it is a really great memoir.

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

There are so many of these that it's difficult to pick. Almost every book I've read reminds me of something specific in my life. But I have a few books on my shelf from my childhood, that represent some of the earliest and best memories I have of reading, and of being immersed in a story: Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie.

A book you acquired in some interesting way.

I wrote about this in a Booking Through Thursday post, but I have a wonderful copy of Jane Eyre that my husband gave me as a gift. It is the 1847 "cheap" edition, in one volume, of Jane Eyre by "Currer Bell", Charlotte Bronte's pen name at the time. It's probably the only truly collectible book I have, and one of the best gifts I've ever gotten.

I wish I could say I'd acquired books through Bookcrossing, but that hasn't happened to me yet!

The book that’s been with you to the most places.

It would probably have to be Pride and Prejudice, as I've schlepped a copy of that most comforting read with me across many a mile.

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.

My current reads are The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich, which I am reading for my book group, and Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News?, which I am reading to keep up with a friend's book group. Not that I need any more incentive to read, but a good friend of mine dropped by a week ago and left a copy of Atkinson's book, and proposed that we swap books from our respective book groups. Since we belong to two different groups, that way we can double our reading pleasure--or so the theory goes.

My last read was The Last Days of Dogtown, by Anita Diamant. It's a historical novel set in a poor area of Cape Ann, Massachusetts in the nineteenth century, and I enjoyed Diamant's descriptions of the hardships of that life.

The book I'll read next is tougher to pin down. There are several titles vying for my attention at the moment. I have three memoirs on my shelf that I've been considering: Istanbul: Memories and the City, by Orhan Pamuk, Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived, by Penelope Lively, and Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali, by Kris Holloway. Oh, and the author Rosy Thornton just sent me her new book Crossed Wires, which I've been looking forward to. Hmmm...any advice?

And feel free to play along with this meme!