shewhomust | Entries tagged with meme

There's a meme that's been going round:

sovay introduced me to it, but it's been popping up across my f-list. Ostensibly a confession of reading sins, it provides a framework for talking about books under not-the-usual headings:

Lust, books I want to read for their cover: Not guilty, though possibly only on a technicality. If lust is what causes me to order a copy of a book NOW!, it springs from description or recommendation, here or in book reviews. I like a pretty cover, of course I do (here's the prettiest one I've read lately); the cover might make me curious enough to pick up a book and leaf through it. But lust provoked by the cover alone? No. The nearest I can think of would be the days when I trawled through the library in search of the yellow Gollancz covers...
Pride, challenging books I've finished: I was omnivorous in my teens: I remember reading Crime and Punishment. I've read the whole of Proust (in French, though actually I think that made it easier) over several years in my teens and twenties. More recently, not so much - though I read Alan Moore's Jerusalem during lockdown, even the Lucia Joyce chapter, and that was as tough as anything I've read.
Gluttony, books I've read more than once: That's not gluttony, if anything it's fidelity: are we not to be allowed comfort reads?
Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest: I don't have a to-read list, but I do have heaps of books, purchased and waiting to be read - and some of them have been waiting for a very long time. First example that comes to mind is Moby-Dick.
Greed, books I own multiple editions of: Librarything informs me that I do indeed now own two copies of The Enchanted Castle. I blame my memory for this sort of duplication, and often discard onee. There are two copies of The Lord of the Rings in the house, both the old three volume edition: my own very tattered copy and the one we inherited from durham_rambler's father (less well-read). Neither of those is going anywhere.
Wrath, books I despised: I don't often persevere with reading a book I despise: but it does happen to me to take a violent dislike to a perfectly respectable book. I'm sure I've posted about some of them, but right now the only one I can think of is Rose Macaulay's They Were Defeated. Mostly I love Rose Macaulay, and this is often described as her masterpiece, but no.
Envy, books I want to live in: I wouldn't mind visiting Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, but I wouldn't want to live there. Howard's End, maybe, but I'd have to be one of the affluent characters...

In 2012,

shewhomust resolves to...

Drink four glasses of wine every day.
Spend less time on orkney.
Be nicer to

athenais.
Backup my prose regularly.
Volunteer to spend time with phil ochs.
Lose ten graphic novels by March.

Some of these will be a pleasure; some of them will not happen: the two sets are not complementary.

Not the post I had planned for this evening, but

lil_shepherd tempted me with a meme, and when

fjm re-tempted me, what could I do but succumb? Besides, it's about books...

The book I am reading:: The Gallows Curse by Karen Maitland. (Its real title is The Mandrake's Tale, but Marketing decided at the last minute that no-one would know what a mandrake is, or would think it was some kind of duck, or something.)
The book I am writing:: I'm not. This...?
The book I love most:: If you'd asked about my favourite book, it would be harder to choose. But the book I love most, the one I sidle up to and stroke in bookshops? That'd be the one that's dedicated to me (I have to share it with durham_rambler, but that's OK): Hand of the King's Evil, last of the books of Outremer, by Chaz Brenchley.
The last book I received as a gift:: Excluding books by or published by clients, The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson.
The last book I gave as a gift:: Christmas presents, probably - a little book about the Victoria Tunnel produced by the local library, for D., and a very battered and scribbled on copy of One Man Wallopem for my brother (it's about a one-man band).
The nearest book on my desk: Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox - it's supposed to be reminding me to put an extract on the author's website.

It's a meme! And this is how it goes:

1. If you'd like to play along, reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. You then list (and upload or link to the video, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Then, as I'm doing here, you'll post the list to your journal with the instructions.

valydiarosada gave me a J -

- which was more of a struggle than I'd anticipated. My mind was suddenly awash with songs I don't like (Just a song at twilight...) or don't like enough to want to list (Jennifer Juniper) or which don't actually begin with J. That said, I'd include I see the joker as a bonus track if I could find a recording. Because the second hurdle was finding links to the songs - and the more obscure the song, the harder that was, and the more it seemed worth doing. Bang went my first really good idea, Martin Simpson's Jazzman... None of the songs which follow are on my list of all-time favourites, I had to look further afield than that: which is rather the point, isn't it?

So, in alphabetical order:

Jacky, by Jacques Brel (with subtitles - (or here's Marc Almond, with Mort Schuman's translation*)

The Janitor's Boy, Natalie Merchant

The January Man, Bert J for Jansch

Jerusalem - Billy Bragg's version

Joe Hill, by Phil Ochs

What, no Dylan? That'll never do.

durham_ramler, who is playing along at home, wonders if he knows which track I'll choose - well, I hope so! Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (BobDylan.com offers a selection of samples, or try Bryan Ferry's version, for a change.

And an interesting oddity: Joshua gone Barbados, which I hadn't realised was written by Eric von Schmidt (and an explanation of what it's about, and why von Schmidt is maybe being unduly hard on Joshua).

*Oh, that's interesting. Neither translator appears to know that a 'maître chanteur' is a blackmailer.

It seems that, at least when breaking crockery,

[There used to be an 'I Write Like' badge here, but then I read Making Light - they do the heavy lifting so we don't have to - and decided to remove it.]

Anyone out there read any Chuck Palahniuk and able to offer an opinion on this? (I admit, I was surprised).

ETA: But I review Georgette Heyer in the style of James Joyce...

( Picking up where I left off yesterday:! )

All the cool kids were doing this back in November, but I was otherwise occupied in November - besides, if I can't have food-related indulgence during the Twelve Days, then - well, I don't want to play, is all. I copied it from

desperance, who says he picked it up from

rushthatspeaks, and I'm pretty sure other people were doing it too...

( Cut for inordinate length )

An hour later, I'm probably more than halfway through this, and taking a break. There's a reason why I do so few of these questionnaire memes: I'm often tempted, and if they run to three or four questions, I might do it. When it's nearer to 50, not so likely. Still, it's interesting, and I might return to this one.

I wonder if the people who compile these questionnaires realise how much they are revealing of themselves?

Your result for The Which Discworld Character Am I Test...

Susan Sto Helit

You scored 94 intelligence, 56 morality, and 65 physical strengenth!

As Death's granddaughter (a long story, which you greatly dislike), you inherited his ultimate practicality and lack of fear. In fact, boogeymen and other childhood boggles fear YOU. Often assisted by the Death of Rats and his raven, you manage to fix the Universe inbetween working as a governness and educating the masses. The ultimate teacher.

Take The Which Discworld Character Am I Test at HelloQuizzy

I feared something of the kind when I noticed how often I was selecting the answer in block capitals...

First

samarcand, then

matociquala - everybody's doing it! (Having no novel of my own, I fed it the lengthiest of my recent posts - which seemed to work).

valydiarosada took me to Diagon Alley, to buy a wand; there was quite a lot of advertising to contend with, but I think it was worth it, because look! I can has wand!

Wood type: birch
Length: 11 inches
Core: Gryffon Feather

get your own wand!

And thus I clothe my naked shewhomust
With old ends stolen out of holy writ.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

shewhomust's Zanpakutō:
(Fourth Division Irregulars)

Your zanpakuto is an arrogant katar named Failure Wrestler. When you cry "I can has cheezburger?" it sings off-key.

What's Your Zanpakutō?

Actually,

desperance, I think this one's yours. So I did it again, and got this:

shewhomust's Zanpakutō:
(Fourth Division Irregulars)

When you invoke shikai with "Catch!" Apple, a dull, husky throwing axe which grows and shrinks to inconvenience the wielder, falls into little pieces that the cat plays with.

What's Your Zanpakutō?

Maybe they're all yours? (Yes, it does explain what a zanpakutö is).