Tagged by Johnny D - 5 books etc.

Mr Embiggen Fever Tagged me with the challenge to blog about the following:

How many books do you own: Around 300 give or take 100 (probably give).

The last book you purchased: Essential Russian Grammar by Brian Kemple.

The last book you read: The Ballad of the White Horse by GKC. If epic poems within an anthology don't count.. then, Scribbling in the Sand by Michael Card

5 books that are important to you: I've chosen to define "important to me" as meaning a book that has shaped me significantly.

1.) Digger Dan the Steamshovel Man by Patricia Lynn
In this children's book I learned the importance of trying hard even if you don't feel like it.
2.) Biography of Lenin that I read in 9th or 10th grade
This book taught me that ideas are really important, and he who controls the ideas is boss. Another book that reinforces this truth to me is Soul Tsunami by Leonard Sweet. It didn't make the list but I did consider it, and would likely put it in a list of top 20 books important to me.
3.) Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott
When looking at the bookcase last night thinking about writing this I couldn't find Basic Christianity on the shelf. Later I discovered it was on my nightstand. I love this book. I read it often. It is a really great basic apologetic and firm summary of the key doctrines.
4.) A Godward Life Vol. 1 & 2 by John Piper
In the last 3 years these books have pointed my heart toward Christ more than any other. It is written as a series of short chapters with a point intended to make you want Christ more. It works. I return to these volumes often. They get me reading the Bible.
5.) Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
This was hard to put on the list because I have only read this book once all the way through. However I have read parts of it many many times. Also it represents all of the books by GKC that mean a great deal to me. The reason that it stands in their stead is that many of the lines of his other books are reflected in a more codified version in Orthodoxy. For example in the Father Brown Mysteries, more times than not Father Brown's insightul dialouge is just a paragraph out of Orthodoxy that GKC has revamped to fit the situation. I know that is not really what happened but the flow of ideas can easily be seen. The Man Who Was Thursday almost made it in Orthodoxy's place, because it is so much fun to read and is one of the few pieces of fiction that I have returned to again and again for either a laugh or to find something to make me think. Nevertheless Orthodoxy stands at number 5.

Books that get honorable mention are Basics of Biblical Greek by William Mounce, and The Confessions of St. Augustine. The best computer book I've read is Steal This Computer Book byAllan Wang, and the scariest book I've ever read is Biohazard by Ken Alibek

Along with this offering I would like to give a TAG back to John and anyone else who will bite . I want to know what 3 poems are your absolute favorites, and why. Don't tell me in the comments tell me on your blog.