Monday, April 18, 2005

Pouring off of every page like it was written on my soul

Well, Hugh has hit me with the Book Meme, and so I am compelled to answer. All links go to Powells.Com, because real people who run real bookstores in the world we really live in deserve our support.

(Sidebar: "Librarians must have really interesting taste in books" is a common, if beneficial, stereotype. Truth be told, most of the librarians I've known tend towards voracious consumption of paperback mysteries. That said, I've also known a fair number who read nonfiction extensively, some who are into sci-fi, but only a few with truly deep arty tastes.)

You are stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book would you be?
My knee-jerk reaction is the Collected Works of William Butler Yeats. Like Hugh, I hope verse will be easier to memorize than prose. (Also like Hugh, I've never read Fahrenheit 451, so I'm not clear on how much latitude I've got.)

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Yes.

You should really ask more specific questions.

What is the last book you bought?
The last books I bought for myself were on a gift certificate from Amazon: Liberty Meadows: Creature Comforts, and Marvel: 1602. Actually, I think I got America: The Book at the same time. Yes, I read books with pictures.

What are you currently reading?
Neal Stephenson's Confusion, hopefully to progress to The System of the World this week, and Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For More Food. Yes, I also read more dense stuff.

Five books you would take to a deserted island:
Well, if I'm going tomorrow, The System Of The World, for one, because I need to know how this turns out. (For that matter, I could do this off of my to-read pile: Will in the World, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Practical Demonkeeping and ,My Other Life. I got about three thousand pages for my birthday, and another two thousand or so for Christmas, so I'm way behind.)

Of course, there's the old "Boat Building for Dummies" joke. But if I'm going to have to recreate the art of cuisine, I really am going to need Cookwise, the most readable (and edible) chemistry/physics textbook you'll ever see.

I'm going to need a copy of Little Gidding just to survive, so a copy of the Four Quartets or the Complete Works of T.S. Eliot. "The end is where we start from."

I'm going to want a copy of the 1991 edition of the New American Bible, if only so Lemming and I can have theological debates by floating bottle.

Hmmm... here's another non-answer: all 5 volumes of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. In the 1960s printing with the cool abstract covers, please. If I have to pick one, I guess The High King. (Hugh... you were looking for young adult lit a while back, and these might work.)

Who are you going to pass this book meme to and why? (only three people)
OK... I'm going to pick 3 people who might need an excuse to keep their blogs active... Spoon, Alison, and Ben.

2 Comments:

Blogger lemming said...

So who is/was the crush? I am nothing if not specific.

Which books would you pick if given thre months notice?

C'mon, you're my ref lib hero!

7:03 PM, April 19, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Vic beat me to it, dammit.

That dark chocolate with orange should probably not be eaten in public. Wow. *swoons*

7:25 PM, April 25, 2005  

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