Book Meme 2026

I got blog-tagged in the year 2026 and it's a strange sensation. I wasn't much of a blogger back in the day (and I wouldn't say I qualify as much of one now) but this seems in line with my proclivity so let's do this. I'm all for making the internet fun. Thanks to Marlon Farrugia for the tag.

1. How many books do you own?

   
   

   There's no way I own more than 150. I have a small bookshelf downstairs in my house and then a more packed drawer full of overspill books in my office. I keep meaning to take a bunch of the books downstairs down and put up cooler looking books, I've acquired more interesting stuff in recent years and they'll make much nicer decorations. It will also vastly increase the likelihood of me reading a few of them, which is good.

   
   

2. What was the last book you bought?

   
   

   I was in Alfriston recently, and they have an excellent bookshop, Much Ado Books. I bought Three Days in June by Anne Tyler, and Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson. I've read Three Days in June already and dug it a lot. It's breezy and easy but that's what I was in the mood for. I'd recommend it!

   
   

3. What was the last book you read?

   
   

   Endurance by Alfred Lansing. It chronicles the fated Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. Absolutely stunning stuff, I went into it knowing nothing about what went down and it's wild. The kind of thing that if you pitched it to a writing room they'd say it was too far-fetched, but this was a real ordeal that happened to real people. The writing is gripping and unbelievably meticulous. One of the best books I've read in years. It's brutal, but the situation was brutal.

   
   

4. Five books that mean a lot to me:

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig

Normie pick, but I love it. I want to read it once every ten years. I did my first decade rereading a couple of years ago and it was super fascinating being intrigued and inspired by totally different parts of the book than I was previously. Looking forward to the same thing happening when I'm 38.

• Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut

I got a copy of this book when we were clearing out a lot of my grandfather's possessions after his passing in 2021. I didn't know anything about it, but I was encouraged to take it. Luckily, they were right, this book is glorious.

• Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

  
  

The only book I think about every day.

• Not A Wake, Mike Keith

This was my first experience with what you could generally call Oulipism. The parameters this book confines itself to (the first 10,000 digits of pi) produce some amazing results. There's a screenplay, poetry, a crossword puzzle, it's extremely unique and whimsical, with some really beautiful passages that only exist because of the limitation imposed on the author.

• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, Rashid Khalidi

  
  

  The only book on this list I'd consider required reading for most people. Get it done.

  
  

  5. Tag five people

  
  

  I don't know five people with active blogs, so I'm doing my best here.

• The most important voice in literature currently, Dua Lipa

• Jose Briones, lemme see what you got

• Sam James, my boss over at Tunescribers. Last time we hung out, he was reading an 1800 page cindeblock that was part 8 in a series, so I'm interested to hear what he has to say.