Memes!

[tarigwaemir]

Lowell House, on the Feast of St. Ambrose

So I'm supposed to be in bed now because I have to volunteer at the shelter at 6:30 tomorrow, but for some reason I couldn't resist the allure of all these shiny memes.

You know, the one thing I don't like about the paranoia meme is that you never know if you're on the list or not...but that doesn't stop me from doing it. Taken from karabana and petronia: Write 10 statements intended to 10 different people. Never tell which one is to who. (But if you guess I might tell you.) (I said might.) (If you guess correctly, I'll tell you to put you out of your suspense.)

1. I really wish I could maintain the same air of calm detachment that you seem to have on your LJ. I consider you to be the epitome of reason.
2. You are such a lovely, sweet person! Everytime you leave a comment, it brings a smile to my face. I don't comment on your LJ nearly as often as I should, but nonetheless, I always look forward to your entries.
3. You have an inner ruthlessness that's completely at odds with your image. I still don't know if I admire you for it or not.
4. A secret: I'd been reading your LJ for years before I mustered up the nerve to add you to my friends list, even though I've added other people without any qualms before. Even now, my instinct is to lurk and I almost never comment. It's not so much that you're intimidating as that I'm afraid of leaving a bad impression.
5. You are such a cool person, far too cool for me, in fact. I suspect that if we ever met in person, I'd be too tongue-tied and awkward to be anything more than a disappointment. Nonetheless, I'd really like to meet you!
6. Another secret: It's my dream to grow up to be just like you.
7. I suspect out of all the friends I met in fandom, I have the most things in common with you: tastes in fiction, goals in life, obsession with order, etc. This despite the fact that our fandoms don't actually overlap that much.
8. I sympathize with all your anxieties, but to tell the truth, it's hard for me to take you seriously because almost everyone I knew when I was your age went through the same thing. With time, I think you'll find that it isn't as bad as you think it is now.
9. I consider you to be one of my best LJ friends, even though we talk relatively infrequently. I think...I hope you'll say the same of me? I admire you most for your writing, of course, but I also adore you for the warm-hearted way you treat everyone.
10. I think out of all my real life friends, we have the most similar personalities. Well, you're not quite as neurotic as I am, and I think I'm a bit more cynical than you are, but it all evens out more or less. You have no idea how much it relieved me to know that I wasn't alone.

(It occurs to me in hindsight that some of these actually apply to more than one person.)

From a whole bunch of people: Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2005. Post the first line of it in your journal, and that's your 'Year In Review'.

January - Announcement: I posted the Sandman FST to [info]fst two days ago, if anyone is curious and doesn't check that community on a regular basis.

February - I've just posted the review that ate my brain for the series that took over my life (at least during breaks) on [info]televida, after much copious fact-checking and agonizing over translations.

March - I slept all evening, so now I'm awake and ready to pull an all-nighter.

April - I typed up portions of LJ posts while at home, but never got around to posting them, which I think is a good thing because they became particularly convoluted since I wrote the bulk of them while in the midst of sprinting through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

May - Have been in throes of paper writing since yesterday night.

June - I've caught up on my friends list, starting from skip=260, and am I overwhelmed!

July - I'm supposed to be packing for my trip at the moment, but of course, I haven't started.

August - [info]31_days is turning out loads of great fic.

September - All the fic I wrote for [info]31_days can be found here, but I thought I ought to put up a more informative list of links here.

October - On Thursday, Nan and I went to the Silk Road Ensemble concert at Sanders Theatre.

November - The Hana Yori Dango drama is eating my mind.

December - Bleh.

That sums it up pretty well, doesn't it?

And finally, from worldserpent: Let's pretend that someone wants to get me a book for Christmas/Winter holiday of your choice. But! They go to the store and don't know what to get. There are just too many books. So they turn to you, my flist, asking for suggestions. What would you suggest? Price is no object, nor is out-of-print-ness. If you really cannot think of anything, you may suggest books that ought to exist (or maybe really shouldn't) but do not. The only rule is: no gift certificates.

What a great idea for a meme! Please do comment.

Yours &c.

Comments

book meme

[jaebi-lit.livejournal.com]

Go to the middle of the bookstore. Spin counter-clockwise five and a half times. Go to the bookshelf directly in front of you. Go two shelves to the right, one down, and pick the book five to the left of the middle of the shelf.

Re: book meme

[troisroyaumes]

You know, I think I'll try that, one day. XD

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

An old, leather bound collection of fairy tales, the real kind where the good guy doesn't win, the bad guy doesn't get defeated, and the the love interest either ends up marrying someone else or dies. Collected stories probably told by grandmothers that may or may not teach a lesson, undoubtedly send shivers down a spine out of fear or suspense, and hopefully scare the living daylights out of children so they won't get out of bed at night.
Best kind to curl up with on a cold day.

[troisroyaumes]

Man, now I want to find a book exactly like this.

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

I remember finding collections of old Russian fairy tales, and those were more grim but never found a comprehensive collection. I think I will be looking for this book too....If only we could access the Dreaming's library. ::sigh::

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

btw, great icon. Spectafabulous

[schwimmerin.livejournal.com]

I hope I'm not #3!! xD...I don't think I am.

I would guess #10 but maybe I think too highly of myself...>_>

And I can't think of a book for you, I think you've read them all already...^_~

[troisroyaumes]

Right on the second guess. I actually began number 10 saying, "RIBOSOME LOVE!" and then realized that was a dead giveaway. ^_^

[schwimmerin.livejournal.com]

Awww I feel so special! Ribosome love INDEED ♥♥♥

[kittu9.livejournal.com]

The books that I would reccomend are:

Willful Creatures, By Aimee Bender
and (probably)
Kafka in Bronteland, by Tamar Yellin

Both are short story collections and the second one is to be published in march. (I actually work at a bookstore, so this was fun.)

(PS, I did the paranoia thing too. It was a great deal of interesting.)

[troisroyaumes]

I've just looked up the books on Amazon, and they both look intriguing. Definitely going on my to-read list. ^_^

The paranoia meme is interesting, although I can never figure out whether I'm on someone's list or not.

[lacewood]

I suspect you might have read them already, and this is VERY randomly based on the fact that I THINK you liked Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but I'd rec Patrick O'Brien's Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin books, if only because of Napoleonic era historical fiction + British navy + lovely prose + Stephen Maturtin being a doctor. XD

And for the first meme, I assume I'm not on it, since we've only met quite recently. XD Also it feel vaguely egoistic to assume anyone would pick you out of their flist when they have a small horde to choose from anyway. XD

[troisroyaumes]

I haven't read them actually, but I've heard good things about them. This is the series that Master and Commander was based on, right? Shall look the books up then.

(This meme is a transparent attempt to elicit book recommendations.)

[lacewood]

Nod, those are the books. XD I personally divorce the movie from the books though, much as I LIKED the movie, because er, it doesn't quite fit my mental image of the characters.

Book recs are always good, so why not, transparent or otherwise? XD

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Gah, twin posts.

Am I seven? Maybe?

[troisroyaumes]

Yup, yup. ^______^ I think mine are on the obvious side. XD

[autophanous.livejournal.com]

Eek! Am I on this list?

[troisroyaumes]

::looks enigmatic:: ^_^

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Am I on the list? I don't think our flists have that much overlap, so I can't really guess well...

Hmm. What books for you? I guess I would recommend:

The Charterhouse of Parma. Great historical novel, even in English it has v. brisk prose, and I find the characters more appealing and the setting more exciting than that of the Red and the Black.

Dreams of Darkness and Light: Short story collection by Tanith Lee. I thought of recommending one of her novels, but I don't know whether those might be too weird or too gothy for you. But her short story collection has a good mix of things from many genres. (This may be out of print... try the library)

The Scar (by China Mieville): So that someone else can share my confusion at the ending.

[troisroyaumes]

Re: list, hm I thought it was obvious. XD;;

Oh, I've been meaning to read The Scar, ever since it was mentioned in your LJ. Just looked up The Charterhouse of Parma on Amazon, and it looks rather neat. I've read a couple of Tanith Lee books, and they've always been a bit of a hit or miss--I didn't really like her Unicorn series, but I did adore Saint Fire and Faces Under Water, as well as her fairy tale retellings.

By the way, I love this book meme. I hope it spreads. ^_^

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, is it one of those that is going to sound egotistical if I say it's me?

Yeah, she has a huge output, actually. If you liked the Venus books, I strongly recommend the Secret Books of Paradys, which I think are better. (They're set in kinda-Paris, just as the Venus ones are set in kinda-Venice. But I am Francophilic, so.) Also maybe her Scarabae ones?

[meril.livejournal.com]

You like Steven Brust's books, don't you?

I think he's had some stuff in the Liavek shared-world anthologies. You should probably track down the first book and see if you like it. Of course, it's been out of print for twenty years...good luck. :)

[troisroyaumes]

Well, tracking down out-of-print books is part of the fun of libraries. Thanks for the recommendation! ^_^

[karabana.livejournal.com]

*sees this absurdly late*

See, the problem with nice guesses is that I would be arrogant to think that of myself. XD