Sunday, June 19, 2005

Tag, I'm it!

Crap! Shawna got me!

Actually, this Book Meme is kinda cool. Except this weird use of meme makes my academic eye twitchy. But such is the nature of language...it changes with use.

Total number of books owned: I have absolutely no way of knowing. Not counting comics and scripts (which is truly frightening), I know from my recent move that I can fill two rooms with them. What's that statistic? 80% of books are bought by 20% of the population?

Last book I bought: Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. By Bruce Campbell.
Last comic: Blue Monday Volume 1
Last script: My Dog Skip

Last book I read: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Last comic read: House of M
Last script read: Supermodel by Sarah & Susan Vaill

Five books that mean a lot to me:

Mists of Avalon - The final nail in the coffin of my Catholic upbringing. First read it in seventh grade. Best experience of my life was visiting Glastonbury three years ago.

The Chronicles of Narnia - Got me through a lonely childhood.

Every Volume of Greek/Roman/Egyptian Mythology - I was obsessive about these in my youth.

The Nancy Drew Books - Still cherished. Love my collection.

Enders Game/Snow Crash/The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - my sci-fi trinity.

And of course...Mom's Cancer.

Tag, you're it:

The Babbling Brooke
Modigli
Ronnie Cat
Christina Wickers
Funnigirl

Let's see what the Lady Bloggers have to say.

I added the comics...feel free to ignore in your meme.

NN (and anyone else!) you can post here in my comments!

20 comments:

ronnie said...

Total number of books owned: No idea, but I know that they're so thick here that in some parts of the house, we've literally created pathways between the stacks. That can't be healthy, can it?

Last book I bought: Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks
Last comic: In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman
Last script: Monty Python: Just the Words. (Do TV scripts count?)

Last book I read: Small Island by Andrea Levy (lent to me by a co-worker. I'm not done yet.)
Last comic read: Mom's Cancer (took the opportunity to re-read it while it was online for the Eisner Awards. Can't wait to own my own copy in book form.)
Last script read: Reservoir Dogs (I saw it before I got my implant - in other words, I was deaf 24/7 - and the captioning wasn't great so I missed a lot. So I found the script online and read it.)

Five books that mean a lot to me:

Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary (the first 'big kids' book I ever read. That was when I realized I was big enough to read books with just a few pictures and not just 'picture books'. It opened the whole rest of the library to me.)

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Got me through my lonely childhood.)

The Riverside Shakespeare (A big, gorgeous hard cover collection of the complete works that I bought while in University. It cost nearly $200 - and that was 20 years ago. I ate a lot of Kraft Dinner and ramen noodles to pay for it. I've never regretted owning it.)

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien (I'm counting them as one book. Is that cheating?)

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I read it while in the middle of a passionate, but ultimately doomed, relationship. It was the Right Book for a certain point in my life.)

Cool meme. I must go tag some people...

ronnie

Modigliani said...

Oooohhh! I got tagged! Sweeet! And thankyou. :)

I will post my responses on my blog; but I must say I absolutely
L O V E the MISTS OF AVALON!!!! Oh my god.... loved that book. (BTW, I can't believe you read it in 7th grade!)

I'll probably post my blog entry tomorrow.

:))

Modigliani said...

PS. How does Bruce Campbell make love?

Kidsis said...

Modigli, VERY CAREFULLY.

Sorry. i was thinking of Ash.
Can't wait to read your picks! Will Mists be there? 7th grade for Mists: yeah, I was a little precocious. Slowed down as I got older :)

Ronnie, great choices! And explanations behind them. Even a Serious Literary Book like Cholera. The books that were right for me at a certain point in my life were the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles. But Monty Python is ALWAYS appreciated, whether I'm up or down...

Funnigirl, loving your enthusiasm! A meme is a big word thrown around in academic circles to describe purposeful thought viruses. Especially those used by hackers and media hacks like me who study and use mass media to spread propaganda. The Websters definition of Meme as Philosophy is pretty much how we used it at New School University when I was getting my Master's in Media Studies.

While chain letters are viruses, I wouldn't call them a meme. Yes, technically anything that makes you think can change how and what you think, but then what's the point of defining a meme. Using it for something so innocuous makes it seem wimpy. But maybe that's the point. Maybe hackers WANT you to think memes are wimpy so that people submit to their mind control...

I'd love to see your partial books! Now We Are 6 and Charlotte's Web are so meaningful to me, too. Mom used to rub her belly when she was pregnant with me and say "That's Some Pig."

Anonymous said...

Total number of books owned: I don't even want to talk about it. A forest died in Brazil for my sins.

Last book I bought: Dot in the Universe, by Lucy Ellmann. Terribly funny -- especially the part where she's reincarnated as an oppossum only to be trapped by a scientist bent on vivisection. Great diagrams, too.

Last book I read: Synopsis Papismi, by Andrew Willet (1592). Not f*ing kidding. Stupid Latin schoolboy, here.

Last script: Blade Runner. Soooo cool. Right up there with Fight Club, for me.

Last play: The Wild Duck, by Henrik Ibsen. (Don't ask.)

Five books that mean a lot to me:

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky. Or maybe Notes from the Underground. Or any of his short stories. Oh, his capacity for sorrow!

Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), by Orhan Pamuk. Pamuk is brilliant. I'm so glad his work is being reviewed regularly by the NY Times nowadays.

A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf. No need to explain, for you feminists out there. Especially those haunted by the Angel of the House.

Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh. Girl with a notebook... who doesn't love that?

Anything and everything by Roald Dahl. I love his strange sense of wonder.

NN

Scarlet Hip said...

My turn!!

Total number of books owned: To repeat you: I have absolutely no way of knowing. Cookbooks and reference books alone number at least 100, and that's not including art books, comics, self-help/advice nonsense, and novels.

Last book I bought: America, A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. I have bought this about nine times this year as I keep giving it to people for their birthdays.
Last comic: Something Under the Bed is Drooling.

Last book I read: Jemima J.
Last comic read: See above.

Five books that mean a lot to me:
The Vampire Chronicles - read them the summer before I went to Europe and I am convinced I met a vampire in Salzburg.

The Prince of Tides - so beautifully written. I practically have this book memorized. The movie sucked.

A Wrinkle in Time - best childhood book ever. I still have my original copy from the third grade.

To Kill a Mockingbird - no explanation needed. Atticus Finch - greatest fictional character ever? Discuss.

Anything by Robert Ludlum - when I wasn't hunting vampires in Europe, I was searching for international spies.

Kidsis said...

NN, Can I borrow Dot? What's a good starter Dahl?

Brooke, I've met two vampires! We have to swap stories!!!! Mom used to get so upset whenever I read Anne Rice. She thought I got too morose. I've actually never read Ludlum. Will have to check him out. But A Wrinkle in Time is a fav.

Scarlet Hip said...

OK...I propose that we write blogs about our vampire encounters. I'll have to wait til I get back from Jersey next week so I can include a picture!

Kidsis said...

Oh man. You got a picture????

Christina said...

Total number of books owned:
Probably about 250. Ugh.

Last book I bought: How to Get Your Music Distributed and Sold. (Not exactly the title, but you get the gist)

Last comic: I bought about 100 comics at an antique store thinking I could make money on them. Turns out only 2 were worth much but far more than I had invested. That $20 really paid off.
Last script/play: The complete works of Neil Simon

Last book I read: The Artists Way.
Last comic read: ??? Read Comics??? Do people really do that??? :)

Last script read: Armor (a rough draft I'm editing)

Five books that mean a lot to me:

1. The Holy Bible
2. The Alchemist
3. Complete Works Of William Shakespeare
4. Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe
5. Some Tarot book I find interesting. Don't remember the name.

Christina said...

I also read A Wrinkle in Time. Great book.

Kidsis said...

Cool, girl! What's the Alchemist? Sounds intriguing!

Just to make me cry, which two valuable comics did you sell?

I loves me some Poe and Shakespeare, too.

Christina said...

Hey Lis:
I haven't sold them yet. I still have em somewhere in my closet. I think it is a green lantern comic but I'd have to check. The price 5 years ago to sell them was $75. I thought I'd wait and see if they would appreciate. Haven't even thought about them till I filled out these Q's.

Christina said...

The Alchemist is a quick read about a boy's journey in finding his dreams. LOVED IT! I highly recommend it...highly.

Kidsis said...

Whoo-hoo!

Anonymous said...

Hey NP,

Roald Dahl... try "James and the Giant Peach" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Or, if you're up for some darker stuff, try a collection of short stories called "Kiss, Kiss."

I guess I should say I'm in to the collected works of Shakespeare, too. -- One of many, here, it seems. (I'm always impressed by how much his work means to everyone. Guess I'm used to resistance in the classroom!)

NN

jayeofmanyhats said...

Just a random tag for you. Being a movie fan and living and working in Hollyweird I thought I would tag you with MY TOP !)) MOVIE QUOTES. AFI is showing their's tomorrow so i did mine on my blog. and now I tag you to do your top 10...don't expect anyone to have the kinda free time I got.

The Dummy said...

Wow, I think you're the first person outside myself who's ever enjoyed Ender's Game. Best Book Ever.

The Dummy said...

Yes, and I'd recommend The Alchemist too. And The Little Prince. Very charming.

Anonymous said...

Too many books!

Favorite books:

the first "The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants" - How cool it is that anyone, regardless of weight and shape, could wear the same pair of pants!

the Nancy Drew series - love my collection

Mists of Avalon - gives me a different perspective from the stories I grew up with

Pride and Prejudice (JA)- helps me deal with others' views (about who I am)

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Matlida by Dahl may be a good starter book for you.

Last book read: the Razor's Edge by S. Maugham
Last comic read: Luann in the daily paper
Last script read: my revised scripts

-Freckles