(no subject)
Jan. 6th, 2005 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eye_of_a_catThere's a meme going around where you grab the nearest book on your desk and post the fifth sentence from page 123 in your livejournal. This seems interesting, but too abrupt. Ten sentences from ten books would be better.
So, this is what my desk (and the stacks of books within grabbing distance of the desk chair) would like to say:
HEDGEHOG - To dream you see one, denotes you will meet an old friend whom you have not seen for years. 'The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs', by the excellently named T. Sharper Knowlson, published in 1930.
During the early seventies, in a similar effort to promote greater discipline and dedication among the troops, Catholic charismatic leaders in Ann Arbor, South Bend, and elsewhere began setting up what they referred to as "covenant communities." - 'American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty', Michael W. Cuneo. If there's a limit to interesting books I can pass off as needed for my university work, I haven't found it yet.
On closer inspection of the infants, however, I saw that their fur was not electric blue but was certainly a sort of Persian cat blue. - Gerald Durrell, 'Beasts in my Belfry', about his first job as an assistant zookeeper. The infants here are bear cubs.
'God does not play games with His loyal servants', said the Metatron, but in a worried tone of voice.' 'Good Omens', by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, who thoughtlessly placed only three sentences on page 123 - this one's from a randomly chosen page.
'In the first place, the argument depends on an unreasonably pessimistic view of what we can know.' James Rachels, in 'The Elements of Moral Philosophy', taking apart Kant's categorical imperative. He's right, but I still love Kant.
'This might be, for example, alternate weekends and all bank holidays plus two consecutive evenings every week, or you might be in a position to take a whole week off work for uninterrupted application to your research.' - Estelle M. Phillips, 'How to get a PhD', which is easily the most pointlessly depressing book on the subject anywhere. But thanks, Estelle, I'll remember that about the bank holidays.
'How long must you be dead before your body becomes no more than an archaeological relic?' Joe Simpson (the author of 'Touching the Void') discussing the ethics of finding dead climbers in 'The Beckoning Silence'.
'He said, 'God!' in a tightly controlled whisper, but he managed to put seventeen exclamation marks after it.' Isaac Asimov's 'Complete Stories' - this one is called 'Hostess'.
'This dream was sent.'. Aeschylus' 'The Choephori', the middle play of the Oresteia, the Best Tragedy Ever. The speaker is Orestes, having heard that his mother's dreamed of giving birth to a snake.
''Exactly,' said Dirk, 'bravo!' Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, possibly the best book ever written about time travel and Electric Monks.
'Of course, I wanted to hear my future, get my charm, change my bad-luck future. Amy Tan, 'The Kitchen God's Wife'. I don't care if all her books are the same book with differently-named characters - it's a good book, and she can write it as many times as she likes.
So, this is what my desk (and the stacks of books within grabbing distance of the desk chair) would like to say:
HEDGEHOG - To dream you see one, denotes you will meet an old friend whom you have not seen for years. 'The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs', by the excellently named T. Sharper Knowlson, published in 1930.
During the early seventies, in a similar effort to promote greater discipline and dedication among the troops, Catholic charismatic leaders in Ann Arbor, South Bend, and elsewhere began setting up what they referred to as "covenant communities." - 'American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty', Michael W. Cuneo. If there's a limit to interesting books I can pass off as needed for my university work, I haven't found it yet.
On closer inspection of the infants, however, I saw that their fur was not electric blue but was certainly a sort of Persian cat blue. - Gerald Durrell, 'Beasts in my Belfry', about his first job as an assistant zookeeper. The infants here are bear cubs.
'God does not play games with His loyal servants', said the Metatron, but in a worried tone of voice.' 'Good Omens', by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, who thoughtlessly placed only three sentences on page 123 - this one's from a randomly chosen page.
'In the first place, the argument depends on an unreasonably pessimistic view of what we can know.' James Rachels, in 'The Elements of Moral Philosophy', taking apart Kant's categorical imperative. He's right, but I still love Kant.
'This might be, for example, alternate weekends and all bank holidays plus two consecutive evenings every week, or you might be in a position to take a whole week off work for uninterrupted application to your research.' - Estelle M. Phillips, 'How to get a PhD', which is easily the most pointlessly depressing book on the subject anywhere. But thanks, Estelle, I'll remember that about the bank holidays.
'How long must you be dead before your body becomes no more than an archaeological relic?' Joe Simpson (the author of 'Touching the Void') discussing the ethics of finding dead climbers in 'The Beckoning Silence'.
'He said, 'God!' in a tightly controlled whisper, but he managed to put seventeen exclamation marks after it.' Isaac Asimov's 'Complete Stories' - this one is called 'Hostess'.
'This dream was sent.'. Aeschylus' 'The Choephori', the middle play of the Oresteia, the Best Tragedy Ever. The speaker is Orestes, having heard that his mother's dreamed of giving birth to a snake.
''Exactly,' said Dirk, 'bravo!' Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, possibly the best book ever written about time travel and Electric Monks.
'Of course, I wanted to hear my future, get my charm, change my bad-luck future. Amy Tan, 'The Kitchen God's Wife'. I don't care if all her books are the same book with differently-named characters - it's a good book, and she can write it as many times as she likes.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-07 02:50 am (UTC)Oh, the relevant sentence from the nearest book:
I saved the state ten million rubles in lowered production costs!
Be bloody grateful that's all it is. It's from the first volume of Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, which is about the Soviet concentration camp system, and it's from a fifty-page section on torture methods. Wonderful set of books, but a harrowing read. Funnily enough, I'm a bit stuck on that one at the moment. On a cheerier note, here's one from Saki's short stories:
The king gave orders for Vespalus to be taken down to await further orders, and stalked silently back to his midday meal, at which he was careful to eat heartily and drink copiously as though nothing unusual had happened.
The first few sentences on that page were very long and convoluted, and it was some strange business about bees. Can't for the life of me remember that story.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-07 08:24 am (UTC)i want to do ten books now!!!