Post a picture of your bookshelf.

Note: all my stats-related books are on their own shelf with all my stats notes. Thus, they aren’t included in this survey.

Which book did you last read?
The Calculus Wars by Jason Bardi. It’s an awesome insight to the details surrounding the calculus controversy.

Which book have you had the longest?
Seeing, Saying, Doing, Playing by Taro Gomi. It’s a picture book filled with like 500 verbs. My mom used to read it through with me when I was itty bitty. I still have it ’cause it’s an awesome kids book. If I ever adopt spawn, they shall have it read to them. I also have Dr. Seuss’ A Fly Went By which was the first book I could read (forwards, backwards, upside down) by myself.

Which book did you most recently buy?
A Tour of The Calculus by David Berlinski. I’m about to start reading it, too.

Which book do you wish you’d written?
Lolita. Nabokov is DA MAN when it comes to bending the English language to his whim. Despite the perversion that permeates it, Lolita is a freaking beautiful work.

Do you have more fiction or non-fiction?
Non-fiction.

Which book would you recommend to a friend?
Which friend? I’d definitely pick a different book depending on the friend. But if I had to pick, I suppose I’d pick The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk. It’s still my favorite novel and it’s unfortunately quite unknown for winning a Pulitzer Prize.

Which author’s autograph would you most like to have?
You know it’s gotta be Leibniz.

Is there anything on your bookshelf that is something other than a book?
My diplomas. My binder of art. My high school yearbook? Does that count?

Do you own any comic books?
I own a few books OF comics, if that counts. “Get Fuzzy” is awesome. I also have the three “Action Philosophers!” books, which are all hilarious.

Have you ever done a book report on any of the books?
Nothing that was technically a book report, but I’ve written papers on Mind and a lot of the essays in Curd & Covers’ Philosophy of Science.

Were any of the books gifts?
At least seven of them were, yes.

What are your three favorite books?
Fiction: The Caine Mutiny (Wouk), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald), Lolita (Nabokov)
Non-Fiction: The Structure of Scientific Revolution (Kuhn), Philosophy of Science (Curd and Cover), The Calculus Wars (Berlinski). [Damn, non-fic was hard]

Which has the strangest title?
Darkside Zodiac, maybe.

Close your eyes and grab a book at random. Turn to page 23. What is the first full sentence on that page?
“Phileas Fogg rightly suspected that his departure from London would create a lively sensation at the West End.” Gotta love Verne.