Thursday, October 12, 2006

this has all happened before, and it will all happen again. but this time, it happened on my blog.*

i've been blogging in obscurity for quite some time.
i've never been 'tagged' before.
there are two reasons for this, as far as i can see.
1. by the time a started blogging, people were mostly over 'tagging.'
2. not very many people read my blog.

anyway, i've been tagged.**

i guess the rules are that i have to answer the following questions about books, and then 'tag' three other people to do the same.
but, i've decided to tag four people. because, on my blog, i AM the queen of the world, and that's just the way it's going to be.
i hereby declare the following people 'tagged':

1. PWT--yeah, i know you're busy with the new exciting life and all. but i figure this gives you something to post, without worrying too much about being creative. bring it on, girl!
2. Pete, because we have to make sure he's still alive.
3. Dave, because i'm really dying to see what he'll say.
and
4. Steph, because i know that, like me, she sometimes finds herself with nothing to write about, and she might be glad for the challenge.

Here We Go!!!

11 Books:
1. ONE BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
this is a loaded question.
i'm going to have to go with three:
1. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera,
2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and
3. Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins.

2. ONE BOOK YOU HAVE READ MORE THAN ONCE?
i have read The Handmaid's Tale to pieces 5 times.

3. ONE BOOK YOU WOULD WANT ON A DESERT ISLAND?
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. Excellent and thought provoking prose, full of romance, adventure, philosophy, mystery, comedy, sex, history...everything you could want rolled up into one really well written book.
i mean, there is just something about Tom Robbins. in this particular book, we follow the life of a king from primeval england as he searches for immortality--and you get so caught up in the beauty of robbins' story-telling that you're like 'yeah. that could totally happen.'

4. ONE BOOK THAT MADE YOU LAUGH?
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding.

5. ONE BOOK THAT MADE YOU CRY?
The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson.

6. ONE BOOK YOU WISH YOU HAD WRITTEN?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams--i mean, is there anything cleverer than the babel
fish?***
Second choice = the last page of The Great Gatsby...

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.


i mean, come one.
what is better than that?

7. ONE BOOK YOU WISH HAD NEVER BEEN WRITTEN?
Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter.
i'm sorry, but but that woman is a c*nt.
seriously.
godless?
yeah, that seems like a good way to describe the half of the country that worries about making sure people aren't starving in the streets.

8. ONE BOOK YOU ARE CURRENTLY READING?
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

9. ONE BOOK YOU HAVE BEEN MEANING TO READ?
The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy by James Heintz and Nancy Folbre.
and also, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Guitar.

10. ONE BOOK YOU'RE GLAD YOU OWN?
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Good Sex.

HA!!!!
just kidding.

i love all my books!!!

11. ONE BOOK THAT MUST BE READ ALOUD?

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.
anyone in the world who has a daughter or a niece or knows a young female of any sort: you must make sure said child has this book.

this book tells the story of a little princess whose castle in burnt down by a dragon. the dragon steals her boyfriend (a prince) and flies away.
with burnt hair in shanbles, and nothing to wear but a paper bag, the princess sets off to find her boyfriend. when she finds the dragon's lair, she mischeviously uses his male ego against him, tricking him into tests of his strength until he poops out and falls asleep. then she marches into his lair to save her boyfriend, who has the nerve to belittle her on the basis of her hair and clothes.
in the end, she says:
"ronald, your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. you look like a real prince, but you are a bum."

perfect!

*bonus points which will win you nothing if you know this reference.

**secretly, it makes me very happy to be 'tagged.'


***"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. Q.E.D."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
HA! HAAAA!

4 Comments:

Blogger Jen!! said...

Oh, I just love Skinny Legs and All!

5:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have you ever read Godless, Tiffany? It's actually quite interesting; she makes some interesting (albeit insane) points. It was interesting for me to read, because while i color myself a conservative, i really am a more a self-styled neo conservative... (Note that this term doesn't exist to my knowledge, but if it did it would define the new age of (younger) conservative who believe in the smaller government and fiscally conservative philosohies, but are much more liberal- or at very least moderate- about issues like the environment, abortion, and so forth)
Anyway, like i was saying, it was an interesting read for me because the book does not reveal any fiscal conservative leanings on the part of the author, but does elaborate on her EXTREME religious-right conservative philosophies, many of which strike me as laughable.
In light of all this, Ann Coulter is good at debunking. Her BS detector is quite well tuned, it's just a shame that she only aims it at people who disagree with her.
I would recommend the book, even in light of the fact that she is a heartless witch from whom escape cannot be fathomed in absense of a protective rosary. She is the ultimate 'other side of the argument' on many issues (evolution, valerie plame, etc), and is able to articulate herself so well that if you aren't careful, you may have to go look something up to see if she is actually right.
-j
PS: freakonomics is a good one to read immediatly before or after ann coulter, because instead of a spin artist, the author is more of an ambivolent mathmetician who wields statistics like coulter wields the phrase "liberal media." Much more compelling arguments, and equal in readability... although it should be noted that Freakonomics is also much maligned by opponents.

4:23 PM  
Blogger Pete said...

Tiff
i'm not dead. just fell off the earth. i'm back for now. i'll write all about my books, probably tomorrow morning.

also, darn you for this post!! not like my "to read list" wasn't big enough already.

6:57 PM  
Blogger David said...

I have finished my book post, it took a few days. Hard work.

12:23 AM  

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