If you don’t respond to this, your computer will explode and assorted bad things will happen
Weird, I swear I left a comment on the post that started this, too. Anyways, he’s right: I read a lot more than I blog about, mostly cause I think people wouldn’t want to hear about as many books as I read (over the course of a year, nearly a book a day, fewer sometimes, but far far more when I’m on vacation and usually on weekends, too: yes, I read very fast).
Anyways, PJM at Flashes of Panic told me to post this, and, like a chain letter of evil, I am supposed to pass it on to 3 people, so I’d better do that fast before all the bloggers I know already fill it out. I’m not sure what I get in the end, except more suggestions, which is always good.
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
NB: this question is “which book do you memorise”, because, as I recall, people memorised books — or parts of them? — to keep them safe. Let’s assume that the memorisation isn’t a issue, because it is an undeveloped skill in me.
I think I’d be Art & Lies, by Jeanette Winterson. All I can really say about this book is that it has some of the most stunning writing I’ve ever read, like reading a stained glass window. I need to reread it.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Not that I can think of, really; crushes are less intellectual than that. (Fictional in books; I have had crushes on movie characters and stuff, but . . . look, I’m a fan of the teenage girl movie, so you can imagine from there.)
The last book you bought is:
I recently bought two discount books, one about the Lusitania and one about some mutiny in the 1800s (not the Bounty, though I read the non-fiction book about it, too, last summer). I like books about sea disasters, man-made or otherwise.
The last book you read:
I just finished A spectacle of corruption by David Liss and The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory. I was somewhat disappointed in both. I just gave up — again — on Oryx & Crake.
What are you currently reading?
I am reading some silly mystery, No great mischief and Some great thing. I like having a choice.
Five books you would take to a deserted island:
Well, I already *am* Art & Lies, so I can ignore that.
Now, I need to interpret this as “five of your favourite/most rereadable[1] books”, because the deserted island question turns straight into “the five longest books you know of and can stand”, and that’s a stupid question. Anyways, if I can plan on this deserted island, I can plan that it’s got a library — a well-stocked one — that has been deserted, too; alternatively, I can get books air-dropped.
- Human Croquet, Kate Atkinson.
- One book by Jane Austen, but I can’t decide which, offhand.
- The Autobiography of King Henry VIII, with notes by his Fool, Will Somers, by Margaret George. (Conveniently, this book is also very long, so if I really am on a desert Island, it would be good.)
- The Annotated Alice, Lewis Carroll/Martin Gardner, a gift I think I will give myself very soon.
- Collected Fictions, Jose Luis Borges.
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?
- Michelle, because she recently went to the library with a week off.
- Cindy, because it might spur her to post, and she too just had a week off.
- Bill Tozier, because I suspect I will get interesting answers and because I want to ask someone who isn’t teaching English.
[1] I reread *everything*, though.
March 21st, 2005 at 4:01 pm
I can’t leave a comment on the other thread!!![update: I moved it to the right thread -wa]***
What! You’re sticking me w/a chain mail meme obligation! I thought we were buddies!
Oh well, it’ll give me something interesting to do after watching my 2:00 WL students sleep through Lanval.
March 21st, 2005 at 8:13 pm
Well, I’m apparently susceptible to simple suggestions, today. You got me. I’ve passed it on, too. Just don’t let it hurt my computer!
March 21st, 2005 at 10:24 pm
Michelle, it’s because I love you that I asked you to do this.
Bill (can I call you Bill? I’m going to, apparently, but it feels weird), you’ve saved your computer, as well as your bicycle, your job, and you might just win a lottery now that you’ve passed it on. That’s the power of chain-memes.
March 22nd, 2005 at 8:15 am
Amusingly enough, I went to a Detroit casino yesterday as part of my regimen of auctorial work
avoidance(it was “research” for a thing I’m thinking about maybe writing on folk understanding of probability. Really. No — really! Stop smiling….), and did in fact win $600 from a very friendly nickel slot.Which I then proceeded to lose half of, of course.
But that was before responding to this. So now, if I go, I will win $600 and learn not to stick it back in the machine??
Cool. Visualize me rubbing my fingers on the screen showing this blog post. For luck….
March 22nd, 2005 at 8:22 am
Oh — and which part of signing every post, everywhere, as “Bill” implies that I don’t feel comfortable hearing the name? It’s not you; it seems to be everybody. What’s with that?
Is it that it’s something close to “buttock” in Dutch? Because I’m OK with that. Really.
March 22nd, 2005 at 9:04 am
I reserve the right to claim that the magic luck fairies knew you were going to respond so gave you luck.
Maybe it’s the part where you sign with your last name? I’m not sure, but I am super neurotic about naming issues. Is it appropriate to use first names? It’s probably inappropriate to call you Mr. Tozier on a blog, or is it? I also have further issues with nicknames, and I gather your given name is actually William.
Yes, yes, I *already* know I’m nuts.
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Maybe it’s because of the different way that names work in blogland? I mean, I don’t call New Kid “New” or you “wolf” or Another Damn Medievalist “Another”.
(I’m not a great case study though; I have no problem calling PZ Meyers PZ, Chris Clarke Chris, or Tim Burke Tim.)
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:44 pm
Heee heee heee. You could try wol, or wolfa, even. But I really want to do that now, and I couldn’t tell you why.
I have issues with Tim Burke; I’ve never addressed PZ Myers in comments, so I don’t know. (I would use a full name to link.)
March 22nd, 2005 at 9:12 pm
Wolfa!
(Sounds like an opinionated Viking woman in furs, doesn’t it?)
I don’t think I’d use their first names if I didn’t feel on a par with them, and if we didn’t have some sort of prior blog-relationship. It’s definitely full names for folks like Michael Berube, who I don’t know.
March 22nd, 2005 at 9:13 pm
WhoM I don’t know. rrr
March 22nd, 2005 at 9:36 pm
Well, I prefer “Tozier”, frankly.
I’ve worked on too many projects and sat in too many classrooms and conferences with supernumerary Bills. But only rarely are there more than a couple of Toziers in the room.
Pronounced “Toe-zhur” (approximately), because the people in this family are the ones that didn’t stay in Frenchified Canadia. So: forget the given name. Stick with the identifier. Wolfa.
[Heh. That’s gonna stick. Very Valkyric.]
When I was in high school, I was called “Toz”. This was not a cool thing. It was because our Industrial Arts teacher made us use a router to inscribe our names in a plank as part of our training in the arts industrial, and then he would snap it in half over his knee so we could learn all about fasteners and glue….
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:00 pm
I’m now going to be Wolfa, I just know it. It’s sort of amusing; better than WA (which I don’t mind, but Wolfa has a — yes, Viking appeal).
I can try to do Tozier, which, as you have guessed, I have been pronouncing wrong all this time.
March 22nd, 2005 at 10:03 pm
I have now changed my display name for comments. Why not?
March 23rd, 2005 at 5:28 am
I always find it strange to refer to you as WA because that’s Western Australia. Incidentally, Wolfangel is an anagram of No Flaw Leg, even though it really ought to be No Flaw Brain, but unfortunately the latter is only an anagram of Wolf In A Barn, which is not nearly as interesting.
Even more incidentally, if you like things with a Viking appeal, then you might pass by and look at http://tale.cunobaros.com/ which is a sort of story that was written in serial format on a certain newsgroup. For extra fun, visit http://tale.cunobaros.com/awvf/awvf.html (a page that lists all the literary and cultural references in the Tale) and do a text search for “flesh eating dragon” (the hyphen is missing).
March 23rd, 2005 at 6:53 pm
I would say that a wolf in a barn could be very interesting. Depending on who and where you were.
March 24th, 2005 at 2:08 am
A wolf in a barn certainly would be more interesting than a barnangel.
But did you know that WOLFA is(t) “der Name für Qualität und preiswertes Bauen”?
March 24th, 2005 at 10:10 am
I did not know that. I also do not know German.
March 24th, 2005 at 11:22 am
I don’t actually know what it means either; it just happens to be the first google result for “wolfa”.