...Here's a little something that's making the rounds that I picked it up off someone else's blog... (trust me, I'll be talking books in this)

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Ok... ready folks? Here's the sentence from the book that was closest to me when I first saw this:

"A second and better way to summarize the rentals is to organize them directly into a frequency distribution." Enlightening, isn't it? Boring is more like it. Or scary.

No joke. The closest book to me was the 7th edition of "Statistical Techniques in Business and Economics" by Robert D. Mason and Douglas A. Lind. It was the text from my stats course in college. Keep in mind, I graduated over 10 years ago. I just keep the book around on my desk at work because it's handy if I've forgotten how to do a histogram.

Really. That's why I dug it out and have kept it at work for the last 15 months.

But that's radically different than the first book that I would find in any other room at my house. If I were at my desk at home it would probably be either the Sims strategy guide, or the new Jack Reacher paperback (Persuader is out in paperback for those who love following Lee Child's hero). In my bedroom, it would be Clayton Christensen's 'Innovator's Dilemma' or Mitch Albom's 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven'.

This gives a bit of insight - I'm an analyst who likes to play games and read. I have lots of books. There are books in almost every room of the house. In DH's office it would most likely be a toss up between some Sci-Fi and Business books... in our bedroom, depending on where I'm standing it could be more sci-fi, business, or pure relationship fiction. Or a Kellerman book (either Jonathan or Faye, I have all of both of their series').

In the hallway upstairs it could be more fiction, some childhood favorite, or a 'classic' story. In the kids bedroom it would most likely be a Nancy Drew Notebook story or a Mercer Mayer. In the kitchen? Cookbooks... anything ranging from Mexican to Asian, Better Homes and Garden's to Betty Crocker, and all sorts of other specialty Italian books and speciality cookbooks in general... Oh, and baking.

It's a little mind-boggling when you think about it. There's books and bookcases everywhere in the house. And boxes of books in the garage (of this I am fairly sure). Even in the front entryway with all the garage sale stuff - there's books there too. It's almost a disease - I love to read, I pick up a book, and it ends up somewhere in the house unless I truly hate it and then it gets donated to the Book Go Round.

I should visit the Book Go Round more often - more books for less money. I guess that's part of why I'm looking forward to this weekend when they have their paperback sale. 25 cents a paperback. And on Sunday is the $2 a bag sale. *Can you picture the grin on my face? Yeah? I thought you could.*

It's a crying shame I don't have a library card, but it's like going to the video store - I could be after something specific and if they don't have it, then I walk away disappointed. Yeah, I could roam the shelves but when I used to do that at the video store I'd usually find that I've seen everything already and anything that I *would* want to see, I already owned a copy of. I've never trusted the recommendations someone at the video store gives me when I'm searching for something to watch, and I equally don't trust the blind recommendations someone at the library gives me. They don't know my tastes, or my mood, or what I would truly be interested in. Even if I explain it, they usually are off the mark.

That's not meant to be a slam on librarians, library lovers, or those who work in video stores... that's just the experiences that I've had over time. So, I'll stick with my own private collections of books, and be happy with them....

.... so how many rooms in your place have books in them?