The 'Booknerd' Meme
Jul. 27th, 2005 08:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kennahijja(shamelessly filched from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cluegirl)
Pick passages from five of your favorite books. The first book’s passage should come from the fifth page, the second from the tenth, the third from the fifteenth, the fourth from the twentieth, and the fifth from the twenty-fifth. Do not give the titles and see if your flist guesses the books.
Well, picked from among my favourite English novels. Two of them might be rather tricky... But have fun if you're riddle-ishly inclined :).
ETA: Three guessed, two still open - actually the two I thought would be the easiest and the hardest...
1) She frowned; why should she treat a visit from her own sister as the work of the Devil? Father Columba could say what he wished; perhaps his God was wiser than he was. Which, XXXX thought, suppressing a giggle, would not be very difficult. (p. 5)
2) Like most people – most people, at any rate, below the age of sixty or so – XXXX hadn't exercised his mind much about what happened to you when you died. Like most people since the dawn of time, he assumed it all somehow worked out all right in the end.
And, like most people since the dawn of time, he was now dead. (p. 10)
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, as guessed bynarcissam.
3) On a morning in the springtime of the year, when the snows of the mountains were melting and the rivers swift in their running, XXXX watched her husband ride out at dawn to hunt in the forest west of the castle, and shortly she took horse herself, travelling north and east along the shores of the lake towards the begetting of her son. (p. 15)
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay, picked up bylazy_neutrino and chthonya. Some minds just think alike :).
4) Is it like this, to be dead? What happened to the world, that books are mostly codices and lights come on and off by touching and how do I know these things and why do these people I never met in my life all know me?
Is that what it is, to be dead? Are these shades and shadows?
Is this man Niccolo one of us?
Is he a god like Hatshepsut?
Am I?
What did I die of? Why can't I remember? (p. 20)
5) The children of the Empire were arming for the game.
XXXX was a Lancer. He tested the adhesion of his thick-soled boots, adjusted a strap and found them excellent. He flexed his shoulders within their padding – the armor was slightly stiff with newness; he would have to allow for that. (p. 25)
The Final Reflection, the best Star Trek novel ever, by John M. Ford.frogslayr and cordelia_v recognised it, and awed me to no end with it :).
cluegirl)Pick passages from five of your favorite books. The first book’s passage should come from the fifth page, the second from the tenth, the third from the fifteenth, the fourth from the twentieth, and the fifth from the twenty-fifth. Do not give the titles and see if your flist guesses the books.
Well, picked from among my favourite English novels. Two of them might be rather tricky... But have fun if you're riddle-ishly inclined :).
ETA: Three guessed, two still open - actually the two I thought would be the easiest and the hardest...
1) She frowned; why should she treat a visit from her own sister as the work of the Devil? Father Columba could say what he wished; perhaps his God was wiser than he was. Which, XXXX thought, suppressing a giggle, would not be very difficult. (p. 5)
2) Like most people – most people, at any rate, below the age of sixty or so – XXXX hadn't exercised his mind much about what happened to you when you died. Like most people since the dawn of time, he assumed it all somehow worked out all right in the end.
And, like most people since the dawn of time, he was now dead. (p. 10)
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett, as guessed by
narcissam.3) On a morning in the springtime of the year, when the snows of the mountains were melting and the rivers swift in their running, XXXX watched her husband ride out at dawn to hunt in the forest west of the castle, and shortly she took horse herself, travelling north and east along the shores of the lake towards the begetting of her son. (p. 15)
A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay, picked up by
lazy_neutrino and chthonya. Some minds just think alike :).4) Is it like this, to be dead? What happened to the world, that books are mostly codices and lights come on and off by touching and how do I know these things and why do these people I never met in my life all know me?
Is that what it is, to be dead? Are these shades and shadows?
Is this man Niccolo one of us?
Is he a god like Hatshepsut?
Am I?
What did I die of? Why can't I remember? (p. 20)
5) The children of the Empire were arming for the game.
XXXX was a Lancer. He tested the adhesion of his thick-soled boots, adjusted a strap and found them excellent. He flexed his shoulders within their padding – the armor was slightly stiff with newness; he would have to allow for that. (p. 25)
The Final Reflection, the best Star Trek novel ever, by John M. Ford.
frogslayr and cordelia_v recognised it, and awed me to no end with it :).
no subject
Date: 2005-07-27 08:52 pm (UTC)*is totally awed*
And I thought this would be one of the tough ones! You're brilliant, both!
no subject
Date: 2005-07-27 08:58 pm (UTC)You made an RPG based on this? wow...
but really, it's a pity they don't give those Star Trek books as much free reign as they used to. The early ones were just amazing...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-28 08:33 pm (UTC)Well, more like a fictional universe with no (written rules) and hundreds of characters :).
but really, it's a pity they don't give those Star Trek books as much free reign as they used to. The early ones were just amazing...
I must have read up to the first 50 or 60, but some exceptions aside, the first twenty were the very best. I loved Ford's other novel How Much for Just the Planet? as well, but it was parody and a very different atmosphere...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 09:56 pm (UTC)You're suprised we got this one? It was the easy one! I know Star Trek: TOS even better than I know hp canon and fanon, to be honest. But I drifted away from that fandom about 20 years ago.
Myself, I guess I bought, oh, the first 70 or so ST books before I gave up on them, as the quality did decline. Some amazing h/c however, since Vulcans and Romulans can take a lot of punishment and come back for more. And the homoerotic subtexts (even in the "official" Paramount stuff) just killed me, at the time.
Yes, "How Much for Just the Planet" was very different. Sort of a clever slapstick atmosphere. But "The Final Reflection" had a much greater impact on me. To this day, I could summarize every scene for you in some detail.
You made up a fictional universe based on this? Man, you had one of the coolest set of friends I've ever heard of.