A Momentary Taste of Being

The Bestsellers for the Week you were born via Books Inq. Well, I'm pleased to say, that at least a few of mine have lasted.  But should I be coy and withhold vital information?  Perhaps. . .

How About a Little Quiz?  Literary Quiz? My retention of detail for most things is such that these questions just made the eyes spin in my head.  But perhaps you all would find some amusement in them.

This list was telegraphed me by Dylan through facebook, and it seemed a public response would allow others to play as well.  So, this is supposedly a list from the BBC of books which most people will not have read 17 of.  I have bolded those that I have read.  And added some annotations.   1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte 4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling 5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee 6. The Bible 7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte 8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman--Never got through the entire first book despite many abortive attempts.  There is something lacking. 10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller 14. Complete Works of Shakespeare 15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien 17...

As tempting as the prize, I'm afraid I'm too ignorant (and maybe too lazy--you can probably google the answers)-- but Lydia Davis fans should enter the contest

What is the most difficult book you've ever read? One answer here, mine follows. I'm doing to confine my answer to fiction because no one really wants to know about Ascpects of the Dynamic Manifold in Planck Space , or even worse for sheer tedium  Advanced Igneous Petrology. So, the most difficult piece of literary fiction I've ever read has to have been The Golden Bowl In terms of sheer technical difficulty, it blew Ulysses out of the water.  Part of the reason is that so precious little actually happens in the book and the same six or so characters float around one another endlessly.  There is no compelling narrative to sweep you through the deep complexities of the story--and so in this stark environment, James's deep insights stand out.  The book is worth every minute you put into it, but you will, in all likelihood put a great many minutes into it.   

His list of 15 My List of 15 Authors Whose Work I Just Can't Forget--some of which will surprise no one who's been around for any length of time 1. Jame Joyce 2. Virginia Woolf 3. William Shakespeare 4. Translators of the KJV 5. John Donne 6. Wallace Stevens 7. H. P. Lovecraft 8. Edgar Allan Poe 9. Charles Baudelaire 10. Henry Fielding 11. John Keats 12. Bram Stoker 13. Mikhail Bulgakov 14. Yasunari Kawabata 15. Rohinton Mistry 16. Henry James The first 10 came very rapidly, the last five, I had to think a bit.  The last two trailed considerably and then popped into my head simultaneously so I didn't know which one to choose--mon lecteur (we'll avoid the harsher epithet), mon sembable, mon frere are thus blessed with both.  I did try to weed out anyone I've read very recently because I'm not certain the work has stayed with me yet. Oops, and two that I thought about at the top of the list, but names were pouring out were Flannery O'Con...

How Millenial Are You? I scored a 12--he only got a 7.  Guess I'm marked for life. I should note that changing just two answers bumped me up to 67.  (It said video games, and I always think WII and such, but reality is, I played iPad games and that may count even more than video).  And I always have some trouble characterizing my political views. There are some who think of me as a progressive/liberal (which would cause great gaffaws from the progressive/liberal camp) and when a progressive/liberal looks at me, I am incurably and insufferably hidebound and conservative.  So, making no one happy in either group probably lumps me as post-millenial--what do you think?

Celebrating a forthcoming book--the Good Life Quiz via Books Inq. This weekend, I was entertaining ideas that are represented here.  Most particularly, I was giving myself a good talking to about how I end up creating a reality that has no ostensible connection to the facts of things "as they are."  I, like "The Man with the Blue Guitar"  seem  to think "things as they are are changed upon the blue guitar."  But are they?  Or is it only my perception of them that gives them more portent and more weight?

from The Reluctant Draggard Fifteen Authors who have influenced me 1. St. John of the Cross/St. Teresa of Avila 2. St. John (author of the The Apocalypse) 3. Charles Baudelaire 4. John Keats 5. Stephane Mallarme 6. Basho 7. Lao-tzu/Chuang-tzu 8. Salvidor Dali/Rene Magritte 9. James Joyce 10. William Shakespeare 11. Henry Vaughn/Richard Crashaw 12. Li Po/Tu Fu 13. Virginia Woolf 14. Henry James 15. H.P. Lovecraft List not necessarily in order of degree of influence--and influence includes not merely flavoring the writing by changing my life. Surprise, I had to stray a little because while some of those listed above are not authors in any way that people of common sense would define the term--they certainly are story-tellers. I doubled up on some simply to cheat and have more--because there is probably a list a mile long.  I did not list Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and a host of others who were all profound influences at one point or another....

Because I circle in a group that tends to have intense religious interests, I can say that if I were to pose the same quiz, it would look more like this: (1) What are Halacha? (please pardon transliteration) How many?  How do they (if they do) compare to Shari'a law? (2) What is the word for the dietary laws observed by Muslims and from what source are they derived? (3) Name the most famous avatar of Vishnu. (4) What are Jains? (5) What are the towers of silence, what is their significance,  and to which religion do they belong? (6) What is the tao and who are the two most famous teachers? (7) What is the difference between a Mughal and a Muslim? (8) Of which branch of Islam was Rumi a teacher? (9) Who is Moses Maimonides, what is his best known written work,  and by which name is he better known in the west? (10) What are conversos? Which prominent Saint is thought to have come from a converso family? (11) What is Mohism? Who was its founder?  ...

via Maverick Philosopher Test your religious knowledge Scored 15 out of 15--however, I'd argue that at least three of the questions are less about religion and more about history/civics/demographics.  And these questions don't come anywhere near being a torture test of religious knowledge.  Now, if one were to ask the exact nature of the Albigensian heresy and how it was similar to and different from the Manicheean heresy--or the nature or even the names of the two great divisions in the Buddhist religion or the nature and meaning of a Bodhisatva--there you're getting into true religious knowledge.  As it stands, anyone who has been paying attention to news and general culture should do fairly well on this test. Here are the demographics on the test.   And I must admit to being shocked at the relatively low scores.  And I'm ashamed to say that my demographic scored only middling, while other practitioners of my faith were dead last.  But perhaps ...

From A Guy's Moleskine notebook--this "life in titles" meme (keep in mind, this refers to titles only, not necessarily to content) In school I was: The Man Who Knew Too Much (G. K. Chesterton) People might be surprised I’m: The Man Who Walked Through Time (Colin Fletcher) I will never be: Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe (Edward Albee) My fantasy job is: The Reader (Bernhard Schlink) At the end of a long day I need: The Nightlife of the Gods (Thorne Smith) I hate it when: Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett) Wish I had: Peace (Gene Wolfe) or, perhaps Sanctuary (William Faulkner) My family reunions are: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexandr Solzhenitsen) At a party you’d find me with: The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester) I’ve never been to: The Green Hills of Africa (Ernest Hemingway) A happy day includes: Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury) Motto I live by: "Much Ado About Nothing" (William Shakespeare) On my bucket list:...

Introductory Text below from Quid Plura?   The choices, distinctly my own. Memes come, memes go, and I rarely inflict personal stuff on readers of this blog [I copied this from Quid Plura, but how well you have already come to know how untrue it is for me] . However, this meme is fun: list the ten books that most influenced you . Forget the books you love, or the books you think you need to say you’ve read; instead, list the books that answer the question, “Who are you, and how did you get that way?” Tom Sawyer-- From the time of first reading until today, I have never lost the sense of freedom and of what it is just to be a boy with the interests and the foolishness of a boy, with the pranks and those things that are deadly seriously.  And, there is no skill more powerful than convincing everyone that painting the fence is a privilege worth paying for. Treasure Island --See Tom Sawyer .  Plus--action, adventure, and a sense of coming into your own. Dracula ...

Through Books INQ.  Found at Barbara's Bleeuugh 1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest? Tom Sawyer and Treasure Island 2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next? Currently reading Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi . Just finished Wolf Hall , next to read Under the Lion's Gaze . 3. What book did everyone like and you hated? The Lovely Bones and Bel Canto and Captain Corelli's Mandolin 4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't? The Kindly Ones or 2666   5. Which book are you saving for "retirement?"  I'm not--no guaranteeing that I'll make it there. 6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?  If I'm bored or in the doldrums, I indulge in a bit of ahead-reading, but otherwise sequentially. 7. Acknowledgments: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?  Interesting, always interesting. 8. Which book character would you switch pla...

The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one’s personality. Its name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses given by the French writer Marcel Proust. Proust answered the questionnaire several times in his life, always with enthusiasm. The original manuscript of his answers of 1890, at the time of his volunteer internship or some little time afterwards, titled “by Marcel Proust himself,” was found in 1924.  Your favorite virtue:   fairness/compassion Your chief characteristic: Studiousness and an obsessive sense of responsibility Your main fault: Inveterate irascibility Your favourite occupation: Wandering bookstore, libraries, repositories, anyplace with shelves of (preferably) unfamiliar books Your idea of happiness World enough and time to read what I want to read and still walk the beach from Florida to California (in segments) Your idea of misery: Not being able to choose the next book If not yourself, who w...