Patricia at the Booklust blog has two groovy posts that you should check out. The first is about In the Library, the first perfume to capture that old book smell. I for one can not get enough of ladies who smell like musty pages and dust mites.
Her second post points to a “What Book Are You” quiz. Here’s what is says about me:
Moby Dick
You are 63% Great Book
“Among the greatest adventure books ever penned, you charter the development of both deeply sophisticated characters and a genuinely artistic plot. Dynamic, thrilling and gripping, you are Moby Dick - the tale of the white whale…”
That is so spot on, it’s spooky. Actually, I have no idea what that means. 63%? More like 110%! I haven’t actually read Moby Dick, which is my secret shame. Take the quiz and share your results in the comments.
Also: Friend of BGB, Frank from That Truncheon Thing, passed along a link to a recent Slate article about Neal Pollack’s Alternadad. I vow not mention this book again until I’ve read it.
February 19th, 2007 at 8:26 am
“A Clockwork Orange
You are 57% Great Book
A Clockwork Orange is perhaps one of the most bold works of literature ever penned. It charts a lengthy although ultimately circular change of character, concerned with a protagonist who is truly ‘fucked up’. Despite the best attempts at the outside world to change him, he remains as he is. Chaotic, passionate, vivid and robust - you are the proud and destructive Clockwork Orange. You are a wild person, often driven by impulse and prone to ignore rationality over raw passion. You are intelligent, and well aware of the weaknesses of your personality, but you are also aware of the strengths. Where others are prone to indecision and a lack of originality, you are bold, imposing and often artistic. You can be violent, not neccessary physically, but certainly emotionally - imposing your will on others through aggressive dominance. Clockwork and Orange are not words which traditionally go together. Clockwork is a mechanical method of creating artificial movement, where an Organe is an organic creation. Trying to force one to work with the other will always be foolish. Alex, the main character, is something of an Orange. He is an organic person, growing and changing - even evolving - but ultimately sticking to his nature as an orange. The clockwork seems to represent the word around him, trying to change him and force him into a certain way of life - perhaps for his own good - but ultimately doomed to fail. The freedom of individuals to make choices becomes problematic when those choices undermine the safety and stability of society, and in A Clockwork Orange, the state is willing to protect society by taking away freedom of choice and replacing it with prescribed good behavior. In Alex’s world, both the unfettered power of the individual and the unfettered power of the state prove dangerous. Alex steals, rapes, and murders merely because it feels good, but when his violent impulses are taken away, the result is equally as dangerous, simply because freedom of choice, a fundamental element of humanity, has been taken away.”
I haven’t read it or seen the movie, but I apparently I live it every day of my born life. Anthony Burgess would be so proud if he weren’t stone, cold dead.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:23 am
“A Clockwork Orange” spent a long time at the top of my “Favorite Movies” list; it’s still in the top five I think.
I took the quiz, and get this — I’m “1984″, a book I read in high school that already happened to be first in the queue of my “to read” list. Pretty freaky. But I’m only “55% Great Book”; I’m fairly certain the rest of me is slapstick comedy.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:42 am
I had taken the quiz on Patricia’s site and ended up Count of Monte Cristo. Out of curiosity, I just did it again with the result - Watership Down. Which leaves me with some questions.
What is truth? Who am I - really? Which question did I change the answer to? Or did I?
And what the heck does 71% Great Book mean?
February 19th, 2007 at 10:50 am
I am Moby Dick, 62% Great Book.l Damn! Bested by DJ Cayenne once again.
I’ll get you, DJ Cayenne, or die trying.
February 19th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I recently did that “What Book Are You” quiz: I am, I’m proud to say, “Lolita.”