Stuck

Blast.  I was beginning to think that my strategy of laying low so as not to be tagged for the book meme was going to succeed, and then PZ has to go and hand me the "stick."  Grumble, grumble.  I suck at these things!  (As would you, if you read -- and forget -- as many books as I do, and in as omnivorous a fashion.)  Given, too, that I tend to pick crap off the shelves to take home even when it looks awful, I don't know how far this will get anyone who's looking for good things to read.

Oh well, here we go.  With lots of whining.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?

Gah!  How the hell do I pick one book!?  I'll do something by Shel Silverstein.  At least it'll be easy to memorize.  Or Dr. Seuss.  Something with meter and easy rhythm.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

No.  At least as far as I can remember.  I've wanted to live in a number of book worlds, though.

The last book you bought is:

How the hell am I supposed to remember this?  Especially since I'm at work and can't see what's still sitting out.  The second book by the dude who wrote Bridge of Birds -- The Sound of the Stone or Something.  How to Spin Silk (if pamphlets count).  Japanese for Busy People.  The Smart Girl's Guide to Shacking Up (or something like that).  Tried to buy Rodney Yee's 8 Weeks of Yoga, but it was out. 

What are you currently reading?

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears.  Jared Diamond's Collapse.  One of the four books by Dianne Wynn Jones (I think that's how her name goes) that I checked out on a whim last week. 

Five books you would take to a deserted island:

A book on wilderness medicine.  A book on knots and other survival techniques.  A book on the edible plants and local wildlife of the region.  A book on regional meterology.  A blank book.

Yes, I have thought about this particular question before.  I still think it's a stupid one.

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?

Heather Armstrong

Manolo

flea

Because most of my blog buddies are already taken care of, and if I pick bloggers who are likely to ignore me, maybe the meme will die.  If not, I'll get to read something entertaining as these people join in the whining.

Comments

[yami]

Yes - of all the possible questions to use for hitting people with a meme-stick, why these?

[profgrrrrl]

I would love to see Manolo pick this up!

[Rana]

Me too.

I reiterate my dislike of "favorite thing or whatever" memes. I just can't do them in the spirit with which they were intended. (THE most horrible question I got on my orals was to name and describe the book that "got me started" in my field. GAAAAAH.)

So why did I do this one? I guess I'm not as much of an independent soul as I sometimes would like to think. ;)

[Laura (geekymom)]

I used to never do memes. Now I do them only in the "party" spirit. I pretend (though I sometimes don't have to) that I've had one too many beers and I get swept up with the enthusiasm.

[Scrivener]

See the problem with us academic-types is we want to acutally analyze questions like these, to wonder why they are structured in this way, to edit them into something more interesting, to critique their effectiveness. And I certainly do it too. But look, the point is to be a kind of conversation starter, right--to get you to reveal something about yourself that might not come out in the routine of your average posting life. My response to this meme got Phantom Scribbler and me talking about Louise Erdrich and she's saying she'll give one of Erdrich's recent novels a chance now. That's what a meme is about in my book.

Or a better example would be for me to say I jsut bought this book and to have someone else say, hey, me too! (or, better, I just finished reading it!) And then we know we've got something in common we didn't know about and we might find ourselves in conversation from there.

Are those memes dumb? Youbetcha. But I still often enjoy reading them.

[Rana]

Oh, I'm not opposed to stupid memes on the grounds of stupidity. :) (If that were the case I wouldn't have a category called "Silly Stuff.")

No, I'm objecting to this one in particular, because it's like asking someone to name their favorite child. I'm not grousing so much because I don't _want_ to do this meme; I'm grousing because I _can't_ do it. At least the questions that require me to single out a particular book for a particular category.

Asking what I've recently bought makes a little more sense, but only a little, because I'm as likely to buy something because it's cheap and the cover art intrigues me as because it's something I'll actually read. So it makes as much sense as asking what shirt I'm wearing today; it shifts, and the shifts have as much to do with not having done laundry or having been given it as a gift as the shirt being intrinsically appealing and indicative of my tastes.

I also dislike the drugs/beer/sex/"things you've done" question sets for much the same reason. I was awful at these things when done as ice-breakers when I was in high school, and I still dislike them. (In my own case, they inevitably served more to isolate me as a weirdo freak than as a way to connect with other people of similar bent.)

If other people find them useful/fun, I have no problem with that. It's the coercive nature of this particular "stick" thing that rankles, ultimately. That it's also hard for me to do is merely additional aggravation.

(Thus I have no beef with PZ in particular; he's just playing the game, But I somewhat resent the larger social implication that one has to play a personally difficult game in order to fit in.)

Ah, high school. When you think you've moved beyond it, it seems that all the old resentments and hang-ups still linger.... *sigh*

(I'd say that you learn far more about me from my reaction to the meme than from the meme itself. *wink*)

[wolfangel]

I always take these as a fun way to recommend books -- and get recommendations. The desert island one was irritating (I took it too seriously), but I rather liked the others.

[Rana]

Hey, if they work for you, more power to ya. :)

[Scrivener]

Rana, you beat me to the point I was going to make right at the end of your long comment.

I do agree that I prefer memes that are not so coercive.

[MisterBS]

Rana--
I have a couple of those Japanese for Busy People adjundant texts lying about. Yours for nothin' if you want them. Email me if you want.

[wolfangel]

If it helps, I will admit to being really relieved that it hit me early, because (a) it's easy to find people to ask and (b) I'm not there wondering why no one has asked me. On the other hand, I spent a while deciding who to ask because I didn't want to offend anyone by not asking them.

I do skip the other memes (for much the same reasons as you do), but I like books.

[Rana]

I like books too -- which is the problem. :)

MisterBS, I may have to take you up on that.