Sunday, May 01, 2005

The dreaded reading meme

I've been avoiding responding to the 9th grade Tuba Player's mention of me in her response to the reading meme. But I figure I'll need to respond sooner or later...

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. What book do you want to be?
To be honest, I've never read Fahrenheit 451, but I did look up the book on (*gasp*) SparkNotes (don't tell anyone). Sounds like an interesting book that I'll probably not be able to read for a good long time. So maybe I'd like to be Fahrenheit 451 if I were stuck in Fahrenheit 451...

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Princess Leia--not Carrie Fisher, mind you, but Princess Leia from the Star Wars book. (When Star Wars came out, I was only 9 and I wasn't allowed to see it, so I read the book. Actually, when I got to see the movie years later, I was very disappointed. The book was better...)

The last book you bought is?
The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation by Hayden White.

What are you currently reading?
The Content of the Form, Is Taiwan Chinese? by Melissa J. Brown, Between Assimilation and Independence by Stephen Phillips, and a bunch of Research Methods proposals.

Five books you would take to a desert island:
I like 9th Grade's choice of the U.S. Army Survival Manual. In addition to that, I would take the Bible (maybe I'd finally be able to read the whole thing, something that 30 years of church-going hasn't been able to get me to do), Black Athena volumes 1 and 2 by Martin Bernal (another work I've been trying to read for years), The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (I read it every summer), and (heh heh) a blank diary (hope that's not cheating!).

Who are you going to pass this stick to and why?
1. last updated, because he probably read Fahrenheit 451 during his science fiction phase
2. ERG, 'cause he's judicious and even-tempered (though he doesn't have a blog--use the comments function!)
3. Clyde Warden, who also doesn't have a blog (probably because, unlike me, he has a life!), because he's such an eclectic reader

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clyde Said:

Thanks for pointing out I have a life. Now, maybe, you could point me in the direction where I can find it???

And shame on you for not having read Fahrenheit 451! Double shame for never having seen the Truffaut film version! However, I'll give you credit, and join with you, for the Princess Lea thing. As for Carrie Fisher, I'm looking forward to reading her new book--about as far from Star Wars as one can get!

Jonathan Benda said...

Help you find your life? Hmmm... I've been mistaken for many things (Julien Benda, for one), but never a guru...

In my defense (or perhaps this will just further scandalize you), I didn't read 1984 until last December...

Anonymous said...

Clyde Said:

Only 20 years after the date passed! This confirms you are not into SciFi or it confirms I'm a SciFi nut case. I'm not sure which.

Jonathan Benda said...

My brother was the SciFi nut in my family... I think every family is only allowed to have one. It's in the Constitution somewhere, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Gosh--28 years or so since Star Wars first came out, right? Can't even remember what I thought of Carrie Fisher/Princess Lea...and now it concerns me even less! But I will try to live up to my judicious and even-tempered reputation, nonetheless!--ERG

Michael Turton said...

Clyde? A life? Clyde doesn't blog because he has even more heinous mental DIY time-wasters to occupy himself with.

What's summer like? Shouldn't we all plan a barbecue with appropriate stimulants at my house, since I actually have yard (even if it does have three dogs worth of poo filling it up...). Maybe there will be a planetary conjunction or something, and we'll all find the time.

Meanwhile, I'm off to post to one of my (count'em) five blogs. I think there's a wife and kids around here somewhere, but I forgot what they looked like.

Michael

Jonathan Benda said...

mmmmm.... piles of dog poo...

I'm still waiting to find out which fictional characters Clyde and ERG had crushes on in their youths... (or even later...)