September 19, 2008 • Uncategorized •

TBIF – Thank blog it’s Friday!

Tuesday Thingers (hosted by The Boston Bibliophile)

Today’s Question: Have you ever added a quote to the quotation field in common knowledge? What’s a quote you particularly like from a book, one that you know by heart?

I haven’t added anything to Common Knowledge. I actually haven’t used Common Knowledge all that much, to be honest, although it was quite helpful in last week’s Thinger about book awards. I have noticed that a lot of the books in my LT library don’t have many of the Common Knowledge fields filled in; it might be fun to see what I could contribute there if I ever had the time to play around with it, but so far, I haven’t had that time. Now, there’s something for the “when I retire” list…

Here’s a book I could contribute some quotes from, but I’d have to double-check whether they were actually in the book, or just from the movie.

“You’ve fallen victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia.’ But only slightly less well-known is this: ‘Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!’ Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha [thud].”

If you love to quote The Princess Bride as much as I do, leave one of your favorite lines in the comments!

Teaser Tuesday (hosted at Should Be Reading)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
  • Please avoid spoilers!

Since I got a little ahead of myself with Teasers a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d try something a little different – sharing Teasers from the books other people in my house are reading.

> The Boy (age 8.5, in third grade) read this today:
“You’re going to be spending the afternoon in detention if you don’t settle down, young man!” shouted Miss Anthrope. (page 121)
 – Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets, by Dav Pilkey (Would you believe 225 LibraryThing members have this book listed?)

> Mom-in-law was reading this a couple of weeks ago, but she left it at our house by mistake (we’ll return it this weekend):
“Gee, three colors.”
“You should try it out,” Sunny told me. “Make sure you know how to use it.” (page 81)
 – One for the Money (A Stephanie Plum Novel), by Janet Evanovich

> I’ll be reading this one pretty soon, but it’s on Tall Paul‘s nightstand right now – he’s got first crack at it:
“An abstraction where all the laws of literary theory and storytelling conventions break down – the Nothing. It doesn’t support textual life and has no description, form, or function.” (page 80)
 – Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde

Autumn Reading – Booking Through Thursday 

Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

There was a similar BTT question back in the spring, and here’s what I said then:

(I)s there a seasonal factor involved in my reading choices?

OK, I’ve thought about it – the answer is “no,” or at least, “not that I’ve noticed.” I tend to try to keep a mix of books going year-round. I’ll alternate lighter and heavier fiction, and mix in some nonfiction every third or fourth book.
Sometimes I’ll make a deliberate choice to save a particular book for a vacation or day off. I may decide that because it looks like a book that I want to have time to concentrate on, or because I expect that it’s a story that will grab me quickly and be difficult to stop reading…(But) the season and the weather really don’t influence those decisions very much.
The seasons don’t change very dramatically in California, but the changes do affect what I wear, what I eat, and how I spend some of my time – not my reading time, though. My choices about that are far more motivated by internal factors.

The same reasoning pretty much applies to fall as well. As the days get shorter and staying in becomes more appealing, I may feel more inclined to curl up in my favorite chair with a book, but that’s more about the reading habit in general than about what I choose to read while I’m in that chair. I read all year long. What about you?

Friday Fill-Ins #90

1. There is no need to panic – look! The book says right there on the cover, “Don’t panic!”

2. Where in the heck did the kids leave the TV remote?

3. Half the work I was supposed to do is all I managed to do.

4. Prospects for a white Christmas are very remote (in Southern California, that would be a genuine Christmas miracle!).

5. “Read more” is the message.

6. Simplicity and tranquility are pretty rare commodities around this place.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to packing for the weekend, tomorrow my plans include driving down to Mom-in-law’s for the big birthday party and Sunday, I want to NOT get stuck in traffic on the way back home!

***Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win a personally-autographed copy of the paperback edition of Joshua Henkin’s novel Matrimony – the deadline is Sunday 9/21, and the details are here! And speaking of Matrimony, would your book group like the opportunity to discuss the book by phone with the author himself? Granted, it’s short notice, but sign up by midnight September 21 (the same day entries close for my giveaway!) and Vintage will set up a phone chat for your book group with Josh! Here’s the link to do so: http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/chat.html. 

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9 comments

  2. hahaha if I hadn’t seen the movie I did last night, I wouldn’t have known what you were talking about in #1 🙂 Have a great weekend, Florinda and thanks for playing!

    “For now that people knew how to bind the essence of flowers and herbs, woods, resins, and animal secretions within tinctures and fill them into bottles, the art of perfumery was slipping bit by bit from the hands of the masters of the craft and becoming accessible to mountebanks, at least a mountebank with a passably discerning nose, like this skunk Pelissier. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be, they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public’s momentary fancy.” (page 55)
    – Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer, by Patrick Suskind

  3. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.”

    That was always my favorite.

    Have a good road trip!

  4. Lori – My gosh, I love that movie :-).

    “Bye bye, boys!”
    “Have fun storming the castle!”

    Janet – I’ve encountered a few bloggers this week who are reading that one.

    Mike – “Stop saying that!” But that’s THE quote from PB.

    This is just a drive down to Oceanside (north of San Diego) – 2-3 hours each way, depending on traffic. Nowhere near the scale of the LAST road trip.

  5. That’s quite the title on the book the boy is reading!
    I look forward to hearing your thoughts on First Among Sequels, especially if it would be worth rereading the other books first because I’ve forgotten so much or if it works on it’s own.
    Have a good road trip and birthday party!

  6. Tanabata – THAT was a fun one to type, I have to say :-).

    My husband has read all the Thursday Next books far more recently than I have. He says that this one picks up about 12 years after Something Rotten, so I suspect it could work on its own, but I’ll definitely let you know.

  7. I didn’t even know what Common Knowledge was until I started reading responses to the Tuesday Thinger question.

    The seasons do not really impact my reading either. Although TV season does, does that count?

    I love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy! I read somewhere that a sixth book is in the works. I can’t remember the author’s name. The one who wrote Artemis Fowl, I believe.

    I hope you have a good weekend. I’ll be glad when you contest is over because I keep wanting to enter. 🙂

  9. Literary Feline – But you already have the book :-)! (With so many bloggers doing giveaways for it, I’m actually surprised anyone DOESN’T have it yet.)

    The TV season affects my reading as well. Thank goodness for the DVR. It makes it just a little easier to manage it all!

    I hears that about Hitchhiker’s too! That was one of things that first things that interested me in Tall Paul; that’s what he had listed as “favorite book(s)” in his online-dating profile :-D.

    Gautami – It’s kind of an odd question, I think. I’m not sure why seasons WOULD affect reading very much.