So, the book closest to my hand at this moment, the one I am reading most right now; The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. Written by M.T. Anderson.
How doth all that seeks to rise burn itself to nothing.
The men who raised me were lords of matter, and in the dim chambers I watched as they traced the spinning of bodies celestial in vast, iron courses, and bid sparks to dance about upon their hands; they read the bodies of fish as if each dying trout or shad was a fresh Biblical Testament, the wet and twitching volume of a new-born Pentateuch. They burned holes in the air, wrote poems of love, sucked the venom from sores, painted landscapes of gloom, and made metal sing; they dissected fire like newts.
Thank you Lessie, for tagging me. I tag the bibliophile boquinha... as well as anyone out there who wants to continue this meme. What you do is pick up the nearest book that is at least 123 pages long, read the first five sentences, post the next three, and then tag five people. (I know... I didn't tag five, I really suck at these 'chain-letter' things.)
Now, a little bit about fortunate coincidences in my current reading trends... Octavian Nothing has been a quite provoking read, compounded by coming so close on the heels of The Golden Compass. Likewise, A History of the Wife is absolutely FASCINATING, especially as a follow up to the recently finished Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History. And the queue of books waiting for consumption on my night stand contains In Defense Of Food and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; promising intriguing expansions and variations upon similar themes.
love it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I'm so excited to read some of those books as well. I've got Ulrich's book reserved at the library and am ready to check out the final book in the "His Dark Materials" series. I'M SO EXCITED! And you're right, these things are incredibly interesting. They're giving me all new ways of looking at things (did I mention that I was excited?).
Omigosh, I'm SO excited to get tagged by you!! What a thrill--seriously, what a fun thing to see! :) I love blogging . . . I'll post this today--I love it! And, hey, great timing, G . . . Happy Birthday to me! :) Thanks!
Yeah!!! HAPPY B-DAY boquinha!
of course I knew it all along, yep... planned it just for you! :)
lessie, did you read whatEmerging from the Ashes wrote about the His Dark Materials series? it was that (plus the friendly back and forth about them on my post about page turners) that made them a must read...
I ended up waiting almost three months for The Golden Compass to come in to the library due to a technical error on their part (they had made my reservation for a specific copy that had been lost last year. lovely, took the poor librarian a bit of work to find out what was wrong!)
The Subtle Knife is, at this moment, waiting under my name at the library. I'll pick it up today!
(and I am #24 of 34 holds on God's Problem. really excited for that one to come in. I heart Libraries!)
Omigosh, duh, G! I got that NPR article from YOU and then sent it to you thinking you'd be interested in it--does that give you any indication how many tabs I have open?! :P Geesh, I feel sheepish . . .
Okay, so I've posted on our blog as well and here it is in your comments:
My nearest book is one of my very favorites, the great kind of book you can pick up and open to anywhere and be inspired--Selected Writings of Emerson. Like this:
The transmigration of souls is no fable. I would it were; but men and women are only half human. Every animal of the barn-yard, the field and the forest, of the earth and of the waters that are under the earth, has contrived to get a footing and to leave the print of its features and form in some one or other of these upright, heaven-facing speakers.
Thanks again, G! :)
HAHAHAHAHAH! that is the sort of thing I do all th time, boqhina.
beautiful passage,
"...to get a footing and to leave the print of its features and form in some one or other..."
one of the little reasons we blog, no?
Absolutely. Emerson is so timeless! :)
Post a Comment