Book meme
I was recruited for this by Carol. I’m not usually a ‘joiner’, but here goes:
You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book would you want to be?
Not being familiar with this story beyond the barest essentials, and because Carol already staked out 1984, I’ll have to go with another Orwell story: Animal Farm. I read this when I was about 10 or 11, and I really liked how the animal characters allowed us to see human behavior from an outsider’s viewpoint.
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Hrm. Not recently. I don’t read much fiction. When I was 11 or so I read A Wrinkle in Time and I remember thinking that I’d like to meet a nerdy smart girl like Meg.
The last book you bought is:
Astro Turf by M.G. Lord. A kind of weird mishmash of history of JPL and the space program along with musings about gender roles and her father. It was tremendously entertaining.
The last book you read:
Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut. Paul Krassner’s memoir of the Sixties. Lots of funny stories about life in the counterculture. Krassner was one of the original Yippies. I still remember all the talk about Yippies and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. It’s funny to find out a lot of it was all a joke. Highly recommended.
What are you currently reading?
This month’s Scientific American and National Geographic. I guess I’m between books right now.
Five books you would take on a desert island:
Rivethead by Ben Hamper. Fear and loathing and lotsa laughs on the assembly line at General Motors.
Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition by Ed Regis. Weird science and even weirder scientists doing it.
The Control of Nature by John McPhee. When it’s Man vs. Nature, guess who usually wins? A very entertaining collection of stories of human hubris.
Floating off the Page by the Wall Street Journal. Funny articles from the center column of the Journal. Radium water tonic, rat restaurants, a reporter eating a five-pound steak. It’s all in here.
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman. I learned lock-picking from this book. It’s also very funny.
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 people) and why?
I dunno. Most of the people I know who read interesting stuff don’t have blogs. If I break the chain, am I going to die?
April 7th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
No, I’m pretty sure you won’t die. Now, blowing your nose may feel like blowing fiberglass shards for a while, but that may have more to do with Los Angeles air quality than breaking the meme daisy chain.
Then again, I’ve got crappy sinuses, so maybe it’s just me.
April 7th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
Oops, hit “Say It!” too quickly.
I also meant to write, “Thanks for the answers and for participating!”