Book Meme recap: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Whoops. These updates are getting a little farther apart.
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Turtle, from The Westing Game, and Rockets, from What We Do Is Secret. The first because she is so cunning and so brave and so willing to act and not hide her smarts under a bushel, and the second because he is Rockets, and someone needs to have him as their favorite.
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie. I used to think this might make me odd, that I get comfort from people getting murdered, but then it turns out a whole lot of people on book_memes feel the same way. So apparently there are a ton of us who feel this way.
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Either TS Eliot's "The Waste Land", or Daphne Gottlieb's "the frightening truth about desire":
the frightening truth about desire
it's on but
i don't know
whether i want
to be
her, fuck her
or borrow
her clothes.
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
I totally forgot to answer this one over on book_memes, despite apparently leading the charge, memewise. Katherine Mansfield's "Daughters of the Late Colonel" has that great moment where one of them hallucinates that her dead father's popping out of a dresser drawer like a giant jack in the box, which is marvelous and terrifying all at once.
There's also a fantastic Liquor short story, "The Feast of St. Rosalie", narrated by G-man's sister, and I love it for all the ways she sees him and Rickey as both someone outside their relationship, but also the person closest to them in a lot of ways. It's one that is precious to me.
And there's Amanda Downum's Smoke and Mirrors, which is entirely clever.
I am so awesome at picking just one thing! I should do it professionally!
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Okay, I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing in here. I mean, really, it's not every day you find me locked in a closet, crouching behind two boxes of Bibles, three cases of votive candles, and covered by a dozen choir robes. And I supposed you think it strange that all I've got on is a pair of underwear--albeit a snazzy pair of Armani silk briefs. Weirder yet, what am I doing in a church out in the middle of the desert? Not exactly my usual venue, right? Jeez, full of questions and we've only ust begun. Why not save your queries until the end; it'll make this a hell of a lot easier on the both of us.
--Rob Rosen, Divas Las Vegas
And there's the beginning of Liquor, where Rickey and G-man are sitting in a tree in a park in New Orleans, sharing a bottle, because they've been fired from some ratty kitchen job. Again. It's so perfectly peaceful and perfectly *them*.
A lot of people have noted that they keep answering the questions in this meme with the same of their books, over and over, and I think the reason for that is simply that the really good books, the ones you love, just have so much to offer that it's hard to avoid answering all the questions the same way.
Day 14 - Favorite character in a book (of any sex or gender)
Turtle, from The Westing Game, and Rockets, from What We Do Is Secret. The first because she is so cunning and so brave and so willing to act and not hide her smarts under a bushel, and the second because he is Rockets, and someone needs to have him as their favorite.
Day 15 - Your "comfort" book
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie. I used to think this might make me odd, that I get comfort from people getting murdered, but then it turns out a whole lot of people on book_memes feel the same way. So apparently there are a ton of us who feel this way.
Day 16 - Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Either TS Eliot's "The Waste Land", or Daphne Gottlieb's "the frightening truth about desire":
the frightening truth about desire
it's on but
i don't know
whether i want
to be
her, fuck her
or borrow
her clothes.
Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
I totally forgot to answer this one over on book_memes, despite apparently leading the charge, memewise. Katherine Mansfield's "Daughters of the Late Colonel" has that great moment where one of them hallucinates that her dead father's popping out of a dresser drawer like a giant jack in the box, which is marvelous and terrifying all at once.
There's also a fantastic Liquor short story, "The Feast of St. Rosalie", narrated by G-man's sister, and I love it for all the ways she sees him and Rickey as both someone outside their relationship, but also the person closest to them in a lot of ways. It's one that is precious to me.
And there's Amanda Downum's Smoke and Mirrors, which is entirely clever.
I am so awesome at picking just one thing! I should do it professionally!
Day 18 - Favorite beginning scene in a book
Okay, I suppose you're wondering what I'm doing in here. I mean, really, it's not every day you find me locked in a closet, crouching behind two boxes of Bibles, three cases of votive candles, and covered by a dozen choir robes. And I supposed you think it strange that all I've got on is a pair of underwear--albeit a snazzy pair of Armani silk briefs. Weirder yet, what am I doing in a church out in the middle of the desert? Not exactly my usual venue, right? Jeez, full of questions and we've only ust begun. Why not save your queries until the end; it'll make this a hell of a lot easier on the both of us.
--Rob Rosen, Divas Las Vegas
And there's the beginning of Liquor, where Rickey and G-man are sitting in a tree in a park in New Orleans, sharing a bottle, because they've been fired from some ratty kitchen job. Again. It's so perfectly peaceful and perfectly *them*.
A lot of people have noted that they keep answering the questions in this meme with the same of their books, over and over, and I think the reason for that is simply that the really good books, the ones you love, just have so much to offer that it's hard to avoid answering all the questions the same way.