The Old Hag (www.theoldhag.com) refused to pass this meme to me, on the grounds that I was too well-dressed. Unfair! So I’m taking it anyway.
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
So I have to memorize a book? Then it’s Lolita. But if I’m living in a book, I want it to be one of the later Oz books, probably Glinda of Oz, or an Edward Eager, either Half Magic or Seven Day Magic.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Joe Willard (Betsy-Tacy) and Jules of All-of-A-Kind Family
The last book you bought was…?
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The last book you read was…?
Last Call for Louis MacNeice by Ken Bruen
What are you currently reading?
Several, but Saturday by Ian McEwan seems to be pulling in front and will enjoy solo positon until I’m finished.
Five books you would take to a desert island…
The Collected Stories of John Cheever
Portnoy’s Complaint
Marjorie Morningstar
Beany Has a Secret Life
Whatever important, long and so far unread volume is making me feel most guilty at the moment I pack, but not Proust because I took it Mexico for three months and still managed not to read it despite a short supply of books in English. On the plus side, I read Graham Greene’s The Lawless Roads and, in Spanish, The Valley of the Dolls, breaking down the various verb tenses/cases. (El Valle de Las Munecas. “La temperatura subio a 42 el dia de su llegada. Nueva York ardia como una bestia de hormigon sorprendida por una oleada de fuego.” Excuse the lack of proper accent marks.)
(I don’t have to take Lolita because I’ve memorized it, right?)
Okay, who’s next? You can do it here or take it to your own pad.
Hmmmm, post-bar polls. I’d have to vote for Thomas Parker, Jeff’s son, for best under-12.
some people just can’t HELP how they look. i tink the Old Hag was mean. I mean I’m still Laura’s friend. I don’t hold it against her that she looks good wearing ANYthing. Sheesh. (and off I slink to post the meme on my blog.)
Andi
For the record: Without Old Hag’s tip on the Spanx, I would have been lost.
Is this a guy question?
What’s a Spanx?
Tommy was definitely up there. And amazingly well behaved (he was at our table). At that age I would not have been so grown up if my parents dragged me along to an awards banquet.
And the bar poll was all Sarah’s idea. We had her on the phone and she wanted all the details. We did declare all our comments off the record so we wouldn’t be quoted on the blog.
Crush on a fictional character: Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
Book I’d Memorize: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Could I take some time to learn Spanish so I could memorize it in the original?)
Book I’d Live Within: My Family and Other Animals, by Gerald Durrell…in other words, on the island of Corfu in the years leading up to WWII.
Last Book I Bought: David Thomson’s Biographical Dictionary of Film.
Last Book I Read: Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl
Currently reading: Blindness, by Jose Saramago
Books I’d Take to a Desert Island: Hmmmm….this to follow.
Joe
P.S. It’s been simply years since I heard the phrase, “Without Old Hag’s tip on the Spanx.”
Spanx — a comfortable undergarment that doesn’t create VPL’s.
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemmingway–and not just because it’s short. I’m beginning to understand the meaning of the sharks attacking the fish and of the tourists’ bemused attitude toward the wreckage of the old man’s greatest work.
I’d volunteer to memorize and pass on Herman Wouk’s
Winds of War/War and Remembrance set, or his lesser-known Inside Outside.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Hmmmmmm.
I fantasized that I could take Zhivago’s Lara away from all that privation and sordidness and take care of her.
I think the closest I have come to a crush on a fictional character, however is Kitty Monaghan (honest!)–Irish American, blunt, independent, lapsed Catholic, a little young but in the right age range, etc.
The last book you bought and read was…?
Compulsion by Keith Ablow
What are you currently reading?
Fiction: Princes of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd
Non-fiction: Farm to Factory: Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution by Robert Allen; A Social History of Soviet Trade by Julie Hessler
Five books you would take to a desert island…
The Collected Stories of John Cheever (really a great collection)
Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
Huckelberry Finn or Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Jude the Obscure or Adam Bede
Treasure Island (no joke intended)
The Autobiography of John Stuart Mill
The Complete New Yorker Cartoons
(I know, it’s 6 not including the alternates.)
I would have listed Baltimore Blues (honest), but it would sound too much like pandering.
Mike Bradley
Spanx – the things you learn on blogs. Amazing.
I have the 3-book REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST box set. I’m not getting anywhere either, but the book-sized vacancy where I removed Volume 1 looks impressive on the bookshelf.
Well since I’m the one who took the picture mentioned by Old Hag, I figure I would take it on from Laura.
By the way Laura, you did look fantastic at the Edgars. We did an unofficial poll at the bar later in the evening and you consistently came out at the top of the list.
Why does it feel so vain to create this list?
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
Joan Didion’s Book of Common Prayer
Book to Live in: Any Leo Leonini picture book
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Travis McGee
The last book you bought was?
Drama City by George Pelacanos (on whom I still have a crush)
The last book you read was…?
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Currently reading: Drama City
Five books you would take to a desert island…
Ploughing the Dark
The Goldbug Variations
The White Album
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
The Great Gatsby
I caved in joined the lemmings…
http://paulguyot.blogs.com/
Not lemmings! Just a clique. (Joke! JOKE!)
When elitists walk in lockstep, it goes <i>clique clique</i>.
Haha!
I haven’t slept much.
Actually, not to be a total suck up or anything, but I was crushin’ on Rick Trejo for quite sometime.
GRAWR!
What would happen if you or I chose to be Farenheit 451 inside Farenheit 451?
Oh no, now I’ve done it… my brain just melted.
We interrupt this comment to reserve 44 Scotland Street at our library. Annie, I could hardly pass it up after THAT comment. (oh, Tales of the City; I read it daily in the Chron when I lived in Oakland. Ohhh).
Keith? Bad pun. No croissant.
And I see that Dave and I are on the same brain-melting scary wavelength. Hands up? Who else thought “I wana be “Fahreinheit 451″? (cue spooky music.)
Andi
Andi, In the preface to “44 Scotland Street” it’s explained how this book came to be… As he relates it, McCall Smith attended a party at Amy Tan’s in California, where he met & had a conversation with Armistead Maupin about what a pity it is that newspapers rarely run serialized novels anymore. Then, upon his return to Scotland, McCall Smith wrote an article about his trip for The Scotsman newspaper, one thing led to another, and he was asked to write his own serialized novel set in Edinburgh. This book is a collection of those daily installments.. and there will be a second book published of the current installments that are running.
I’m really loving it so far.. laughing out loud at times.. (some marvelous philosophy discussion scenes – brilliant stuff!) but there’s no equivalent character to Mrs Madrigal, well, not yet. There’s still time, I’m only at mid-point. It’s charming, funny and quite witty as, of course, is the author. Do hope you’ll enjoy it too!
Annie
Marika — me, too! (Rick Trejo is a character in In Big Trouble.)
Which book to live in: The Great Gatsby
Crush on a fictional character: Rhett Butler
Last book bought: Drama City by George Pelecanos
Last book read: Elizabeth & Mary (Queens, Cousins, Rivals) by Jane Dunn
Current read: The Salaryman’s Wife by Sujata Massey
Five books on a desert island:
Tom Jones (I will someday finish this book!)
Gone with the Wind (politically incorrect but still a great story)
Moby Dick
Any biography about Henry VIII, his wives and kids
Whatever the latest Rebus book might be at the moment
No blog of my own, so here goes..
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
To memorize, ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’..
If I could actually live in the book, well, then it would be Forster’s ‘Howard’s End’
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Yes, quite a few actually. Almost always the conflicted Alan Banks/Rebus types.. but currently the object of my affection is Patrick Kenzie.
The last books bought.. ?
Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’ and Ian McEwan’s ‘Saturday’
Last books read ..?
ARC of Laura’s ‘To the Power of Three’ and Carla Banks’ (aka Danuta Reah) ‘The Forest of Souls’.
Wonderful, wonderful..
What are you currently reading..?
Alexander McCall Smith’s highly amusing ’44 Scotland Street.’ It’s ‘Tales of the City’ set in Edinburgh.
Five books you would take to a desert island…?
Hmm, difficult to narrow.. but I’ll say
1) K. Ishiguro’s ‘Remains of the Day’
2) I’ve a huge book of Michelangelo’s art works: sketches, paintings, architectural designs, sculptures, etc. It’s glorious and may give me ideas for cool sandcastle designs
3) A comprehensive guide to botanicals. I’ll need it, since I cannot tell one wild ‘mushroom’ from another..
4) The Complete Works of Shakespeare
5) The Giant Book of all Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons!
.. and lots of sunscreen.
(and I didn’t know about Spanx either, so thanks for that tip..)
On the subject of Maupin (and I go way back with Tales of the City), I urge everyone here to read The Night Listener, a brilliant novel and a moving meditation on what’s real, whether “real” matters, what narratives do for us. Then (and only then) go find the New Yorker piece that tells the story behind the novel.