If you don’t respond to this, your computer will explode and assorted bad things will happen

Susan Miles ignored this chain blogmeme, and within 48 hours she had become the inspiration for both a grisly waxworks tableau at Madame Tussaud’s, and an unpalatable sandwich at a notoriously unsavory Knoxville delicatessen. Be warned.

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

  I'm not good at lists, tend not to have favorites and, like cheesecake in the deli case, absorb the odors of whatever else is in the case. Ever had dill pickle cheesecake? So, I'd try to be useful, be a reference text of some sort, perhaps the OED. I am cursed with a good memory, which may account in part for my difficulty with favorites, but the indexing system is erratic. As a reference text I would be random access rather than serial access. Just ask.

• Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

  No, but hope springs eternal.

• The last book you bought is:

  I'm in the toolies and so buy books in batches and have them delivered. I haven't been in a book store for a long time. I tend to borrow more books than I buy. It's lots cheaper and more sociable.

  The most recent batch bought:

  • The Roads to Modernity : The British, French, and American Enlightenments - Gertrude Himmelfarb
  • Iron Sunrise - Charles Stross
  • The Crook Factory - Dan Simmons
  • The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History - Robert Conquest
  • The Years of Rice and Salt - K.S. Robinson

• The last book you read:

  Resurgence - Charles Sheffield

• What are you currently reading?
  • The Crook Factory - Dan Simmons
  • A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History - Manuel DeLanda
  • The Gift of Good Land - Wendell Berry
  • Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman
  • Studies in Mutualist Political Economy

• Five books you would take to a deserted island:

  I'd take reference works that might be useful such as How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life, but with a desert island slant that would help me make good use of the resources at hand. I'd have to research the subject to name them. I'd pay special attention to biological texts that would help identify food and medication on land and in the sea, and tool making texts properly focused on feasible skills such as flint knapping, sling making and musical instrument making.

• Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And why?
  • Alex Pang - because he's a cool hunter in a geeky sort of way who often points to interesting stuff and may have an interesting response, if he answers.
  • John Holbo - because he knows what a cool hunter is and has an entertainingly twisted mind. Also, he's a friend of Burke, who Tozier tapped, giving this list a recursive quality. He may be heart broken that Tozier already took The Book of the New Sun. Burke may tap him too which may confuse things. I'm OK with confusion.
  • Jon Christensen - He's an interesting fellow who seems to have some range in his reading as well as some overlap with me. His responses may be informative.

I usually pass on quizzes and lists, "defining yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth", but it came from Tozier and wasn't a request so much as a challenge or a threat or something. I certainly don't want a sandwich named after me. And though it won't improve my Erdos number it does give me a Tozier number of 1 . . . sort of, if you squint a bit and smile.

» I, Me, Meme, Mine from The Uneasy Chair
If you're like the Apocalyptic Historian and feel that: "Going to a blog you like and respect and finding that the blogger has posted a meme is almost as bad as opening your email box and finding that a friend...[read more]
Tracked: March 23, 2005 06:58 AM
» How To from Crumb Trail
Threatened with dire punishment - half-hanged, drawn and quartered or, alternatively perhaps, having a terrible sandwich named after me - I responded to a blog meme. My response to the "Five books you would take to a deserted island"......[read more]
Tracked: March 24, 2005 01:25 PM