Das Tagebuch Murnaus

I was looking through my old LJbook (your LJ blog made up into a large single PDF document, don't think you can get these made anymore but I did it not long before I finally left there) for something I wrote a long time ago, and it reminded me again how many q&A memes I did, and how I sort of communicated through them at a somewhat troubled time in my life.

But this one's for fun, yoinked from pal Sabs:

1. Are you an Essential Worker? No, I'm working from home. Don't really care for it.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started? None.

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? My kid is 25 and out, He worries about his health a lot, and caught a bad cold recently that he thought was the Plague, but he is back at work now. You never stop worrying about kids, but my main worry right now is that he keeps his job (working at a small manufacturing company). He's just getting started on his career, and now this nonsense.

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this? None, I had plenty to keep me busy before, and working from home has not given me a lot more spare time.

5. How many grocery runs have you done? Two.

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on? I'm still earning my regular income.

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine? I was supposed to go to Hawaii for the first time in my life in about two weeks! Also, all of the professional wargaming conferences I was planning to go to this year have been cancelled or moved, and the one big gaming convention I was planning on is not likely to be a go either.

8. Are you keeping your housework done? Ish? Lianne is cleaning everything, and then cleaning it again.

9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine? Lots of movies so far, but I like to watch movies anyway. New to me were Joker and It Part Two or whatever it's called. Also re-enjoyed were How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Tunes of Glory, Battle of Algiers, Repo Man, A Very British Coup, etc.

10. What are you streaming with? I have Netflix but don't watch it.

11. 9 months from now is there any chance of you having a baby? Mmmm, no!

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal? I've been cooking a lot of different things, one thing I've made a few times is roast chicken parts and potatoes on a sheet pan.

13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid? I was kind of rattled and worried the first week or two but I think that was a reaction to having my work routine disturbed; also I was very worried about my mom and sister, who would be killed pretty quickly by this virus if they got it but they seem to be OK so far. I'm getting more angry than paranoid about the stupid hand-lickers out there who have gotten tired of their brief spate of responsibility and are out there wandering around. It's a long weekend with nice sunny weather so I expect another spike of infections in about, oh, 8 days. Above all else, I am more than ever aware of just how privileged I am, in so many aspects.

14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time? No, thankfully. Cable boxes/PVRs are screwing up a bit which causes major domestic disruption (not to me).

15. What month do you predict this all ends? It won't. First wave should be receding by May, but there will be others.

16. First thing you’re gonna do when you get off quarantine? I will go back to working in the office. There's lots to do.

17. Where do you wish you were right now? Actually, this isn't bad right now, but I kind of resent the division I used to have between "day job work" and "home creative work", they are in the same place right now.

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most? Eating in restaurants, I suppose, though I never did much of that before. 

19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer? No.

20. Do you have enough food to last a month? We are victualled for a siege, verily.

- nicked from emmabovary who got it from.

Proof that I haven't dated much in my life.

Your favorite qualities in yourself: My sense of humour, and appreciation of the absurd.
Your favorite qualities in a woman: Sense of humour. Intelligence. Books. Interest in the outside world.
Deal-breaker in a woman: I don't know, they usually walked out on me first.
Your favorite date activity: Dinner or coffee, in a quiet place so we can talk. Not a movie because I concentrate on the film.
Your favorite date outfit: Adequate layers for the environment, with pockets.
Your favorite date food: I usually go with "safe" not-messy food.
Your favorite date experience: First night I met Lianne (13 years ago yesterday). We walked for miles during a lunar eclipse, talking and talking.
Your least favorite date experience: Getting stood up, of course. Or realizing our "coffee date" was just an excuse for me to review her resume and suggest formatting.
Your main relationship / dating fault: Being overly eager to please.
Your idea of relationship happiness: Be friends. Be good and do good for each other.
Your idea of relationship misery: Disdain, disinterest.
What natural talent you would like your partner to be gifted with? Languages.
What fault do you have most tolerance for? Not sure, there are some I don't tolerate.
What is your greatest relationship regret? Taking it personally. Sometimes it is them, not me.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? More insight into what other people are really saying or feeling.
What is your present state of mind? Tired. It's been a long and busy year and it's not over yet.
What is your favorite dating advice / motto? Be yourself; a mask will inevitably slip.

Snagged from sabotabby.
More memes means more posts.

1. Do you like blue cheese?
No.

2. Have you ever smoked?
Yes, once in a while when I was in the Army. When you are tired, hungry, wet and cold and can't do anything about these things, a cigarette can make you feel better.

3. Do you own a gun?
Yes.

4. What is your favorite flavor?
Chicken.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor visits?
No.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
Court of penultimate resort.

7. Favourite Christmas movie?
The Nightmare Before Christmas.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Coffee, and lots of it.

9. Do you do push-ups?
I can crack off 40 or 50, but I don't like it.

10. What’s your favourite piece of jewelry?
I guess a wristwatch counts. Otherwise I have never worn jewelery other than a wedding ring and dog tags.

11. Favourite hobby?
Game designing.

12. Do you have A.D.D.?
No, just distractible.

13. What’s the one thing you hate about yourself?
Too hard on myself, too second-thoughty.

14. Middle name?
Richard.

15. Name three thoughts right now?
My foot's going numb
I'm more tired now than I was when I left on Friday
the next three game-related blog posts I have to write.

16. Name 3 drinks you drink regularly.
Coffee, water, juice

17. Where's the question?
Got lost, I guess?

18. Current hate right now?
News clowns.

19. Favorite place to be?
Downstairs.

20. How do you ring in the New Year?
Go to bed early.

21. Where would you like to go?
Britain.

22. Name three people who will complete this?
No idea. emmabovary sometimes picks up on these things.

23. Do you own slippers?
Yes! They are destroyed but I wear them anyway.

24. What colour shirt are you wearing?
Feldgrau.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
Never have.

26. Can you whistle?
A little, just enough to be annoying.

27. Favourite colour?
Black.

28. Would you be a pirate?
No.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower?
I don't.

30. Favourite girls name?
Alice.

31. Favourite boys name?
Don't have one.

32. What’s in your pocket right now?
Pen, knife, keys, bus pass, some coins.

33. Last person that made you laugh?
Lianne.

34. Best toy as a child?
Toy rifle that made a hell of a bang (was supposed to make a puff of oil smoke too, but never did). Got left outside for an Ontario winter and that was that.

35. Worst injury?
Having left lower leg crushed by a car.

36. Where would you love to live?
Money no object? London or Berlin.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house?
3.

38. Who is your loudest friend?
They're all fairly quiet. Gray, I suppose.

39. How many dogs do you have?
None.

40. Does someone trust you?
Yes.

41. What's your favorite movie?
Repo Man!

42. What’s your favourite sweet?
Dark chocolate covered cherries.

43. What’s your favourite sports team?
None.

44. What song do you want played at your funeral?
Oingo Boingo, "No One Lives Forever"

I know I kind of slacked off with the 30 days of writing meme but eh, I got busy.
I'll get back to it.

Meanwhile, a reading meme nicked from the excellent emmabovary:

Which book has been on your shelf the longest? Coup d'etat: A Practical Handbook by Edward Luttwak. Had this around since my teens, nicked from my father's bookshelf (no idea why he had it).

What is your current read, your last read and the book you'll read next?
Current read: Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla by David Kilcullen (actually, it should be subtitled The Return of the Urban Guerrilla, and They Mean It This Time, but that's another story).
Last read: The Soldier: His Daily Life Through The Ages by Philip warner (little portraits of soldiers a few centuries apart, from Bronze Age to Ww II, all of them vaguely related to each other).
Next Read: Either Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Algeria by Alf Heggoy (a 1972 work I never heard of and found by chance) or The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Saunders.

What book did everyone like and you hated? Catcher In the Rye. What the hell was that all about?

Which book do you keep telling yourself you'll read, but you probably won't? I dunno - ever since I got a house to live in, the number of books I own but haven't read seems to be greater every year. I look at them when I go to fetch something else, and reflect there may be a few I will never ever get to.

Last page: read it first or wait till the end? Wait to the end, always..

Acknowledgements: Usually a waste of time.

Which book character would you switch places with? None; a book character has to live out the same plot over and over again, and I get to move on.

Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)? Moby Dick reminds me of my time in Japan, when I actually had time to read the whole damn thing. Though my recall of it isn't great.

Which book has been with you to the most places? I've dragged a few books with me hither and yon. I have a copy of Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis I took to Japan and back.

Used or brand new? Either.

Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book? Mmmm, no. Though the film of 1984 (the one with Richard Burton) was pretty much how I had pictured the book in my head.

- from bruiseblue who got it from.

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of:

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers,sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives, electric woks, [miniature] salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, martini glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, and fondue sets languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards.

I use my coffee grinder once a year, but to make tea fixin's.
I use my rice cooker at least twice a week.
I ought to use my slow cooker more, but usually only make comfort food in it and am trying to eat better.

Via jeffreyab.

Bold if you've read it, italicize ones you fully intend to read, underline if it's a series you've read part but not all of.


1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy , by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
3. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
4. The Dune Chronicles, by Frank Herbert
5. A Song Of Ice And Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin
6. 1984, by George Orwell
7. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
8. The Foundation Trilogy, by Isaac Asimov
9. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
10. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
11. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman Saw Movie
12. The Wheel Of Time Series, by Robert Jordan
13. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
14. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
15. Watchmen, by Alan Moore
16. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
17. Stranger In A Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein
18. The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
19. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
22. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
23. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
24. The Dark Tower Series, by Stephen King
25. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
26. The Stand, by Stephen King
27. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
28. The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
29. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. The Sandman Series, by Neil Gaiman
31. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
32. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
32. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein
33. Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
34. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
35. A Canticle For Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller
36. The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells
37. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, by Jules Verne
38. Flowers For Algernon, by Daniel Keys
39. The War Of The Worlds, by H.G. Wells
40. The Chronicles Of Amber, by Roger Zelazny
41. The Belgariad, by David Eddings
42. The Mists Of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
43. The Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson
44. Ringworld, by Larry Niven.
45. The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
46. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
47. The Once And Future King, by T.H. White
48. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
49. Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
50. Contact, by Carl Sagan
51. The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
52. Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
53. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
54. World War Z, by Max Brooks
55. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
56. The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
57. Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett
58. The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson
59. The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold
60. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett
61. The Mote In God's Eye, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
62. The Sword Of Truth, by Terry Goodkind
63. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
64. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
65. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
66. The Riftwar Saga, by Raymond E. Feist
67. The Shannara Trilogy, by Terry Brooks
68. The Conan The Barbarian Series, by R.E. Howard
69. The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb
70. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
71. The Way Of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson
72. A Journey To The Center Of The Earth, by Jules Verne
73. The Legend Of Drizzt Series, by R.A. Salvatore
74. Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
75. The Diamond Age, by Neil Stephenson
76. Rendezvous With Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
77. The Kushiel's Legacy Series, by Jacqueline Carey
78. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin
79. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
80. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
81. The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series, by Steven Erikson
82. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
83. The Culture Series, by Iain M. Banks
84. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart
85. Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
86. The Codex Alera Series, by Jim Butcher
87. The Book Of The New Sun, by Gene Wolfe
88. The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn
89. The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldan
90. The Elric Saga, by Michael Moorcock
91. The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury
92. Sunshine, by Robin McKinley
93. A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge
94. The Caves Of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
95. The Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson
96. Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
97. Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
98. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
99. The Xanth Series, by Piers Anthony
100. The Space Trilogy, by C.S. Lewis

42 of 100. But I don't read a lot of fantasy. Many of these books I read a long time ago, and have never returned to them.

Life Soundtrack Meme
Ganked from sabotabby who got it from.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every "scene", type the song that's playing. Comment on its hermetic relationship to whatever the scene is.
5. When you go to a new scene, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...


Opening Credits:
Devo, "Freedom of Choice"

Waking Up:
Skinny Puppy, "Glass Houses"

First Day At School:
Devo, "Mechanical Man"

Falling In Love:
Soundtrack to Godzilla, "Godzilla's Rampage"

Fight Song:
Man or Astro-Man, "U-Uranus"

Breaking Up:
Klaus Nomi, "Return"

Prom:
Devo, "Mr. B's Ballroom"

Life is good:
Thomas Dolby, "Flying North"

Mental Breakdown:
Nina Hagen, "Russische Reggae"

Driving:
Dead Kennedys, "Holiday in Cambodia"

Flashback:
Devo, "Whip It"

Getting Back Together:
Devo, "Please Baby Please"

Wedding:
SPK, "Romanz in Moll"

Final Battle:
Iggy Pop, "Funtime"

Death Scene:
Wire, "It's a Boy"

Funeral Song:
Pixies, "Monkey's Gone To Heaven"

End Credits:
Severed Heads, "Chasing Skirt"

Hm. Interesting, not least for the amount of Devo that shows up in this random selection - five out of 17, on an MP3 player with over 1,000 items on it. Is it possible for a "shuffle" to be broken, or am I just paying too much attention?

OTHERWISE

Well, a pretty good long Easter weekend, even though it rained for two of the four days. I got some cheap fir 2x10s and gave them a double coating of linseed oil, to make 5x3 foot raised beds for my garden this year. If it hadn't rained on Monday I would have gotten it done. Anyway, it's not too late for next weekend. Going to plant spinach, snow peas, radishes, green onions, cucumbers and soybeans this year, among others.

Made some notes for my Cyprus project. Cooked and organized stuff. Did my and Lianne's taxes.

... cause it's been going around....

1971: Living in the Ottawa Valley, in a town of 1,100 people. Our house was in the last row of houses: behind our back yard was miles of farmer's fields and light woods. There was an old gravel pit full of stagnant water, no more than a couple of feet deep, not far from our place - we would skate on its ice in winter and pole rafts around in summer. I dug holes in the backyard: first they were excavations for dinosaur bones, later they were trenches to fight from.

1981: In Grade 12, bored out of my head with school - there were so many other interesting things to do. I played war games and joined the Militia, which helped. Discovered alcohol and savings accounts; gave up overindulging in the former when my miserly tendencies took over.

1991: Army service and school behind me, now living in Japan, as a special guest of the Kudamatsu Municipal Board of Education. Met the woman who would be my wife. Starting to design games more than play them. Giving up mail art as my daily life in Japan begins increasingly to resemble my more bizarre collages, I substitute by writing long letters and Funny Stuff. Well, it's funny to me anyway.

2001: Living in my first house, bought in 1997. Near the end of the year I get one of these
to help with the ongoing problems in my leg, crushed three years before by a car. Getting kinda squirrelly. Akito is seven years old. Designed seventeen games and written over 115,000 words of magazine articles by now. Working at my present job.

2011: Divorced and happily reattached. Leg permanently warped but it reaches all the way to the ground. Living in a much bigger and nicer house. Akito is sixteen, living here and doing well. Getting middle-aged and fat. Up to thirty games and over 150,000 words (yes, a bit of a slowdown while my mind was, um, rather preoccupied) written for pay; Lord knows how many more words spilled into game rules, this blog, and who knows what else.

2021: Rejuvenated by Science to the state of a nineteen-year-old Adonis, I take my food pill before strapping on my Lucite sandals and rocket belt to fly to my well-paid job writing about whatever my current obsessive interests are. The sun is shining. I play bass for the Batnix. Cats love me. Trees fear me. I grow vegetables by the force of my mind alone. I will live forever.

Yoinked from someone who ain't around right now...

Back in 1984, Anthony Burgess, a British novelist best remembered for writing A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, published a slim survey of novels published in or translated into English from 1939 to 1984. The "99 Novels List" in Burgess' personal opinion, was the "best in English since 1939". I liked the book and made a point to read a few of them. It's very different from the "BBC's 99 books" list moving around Facebook.

As memes go, this should not be too "novel" (pun intentional). Bold which ones have you actually read, pass it to your friends, or not.

1939

Party Going, Henry Green
After Many a Summer, Aldous Huxley
Finnegans Wake, James Joyce
At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien

1940

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
Strangers and Brothers (to 1970), C. P. Snow

1941

The Aerodrome, Rex Warner [an odd and overlooked novel about the appeal of fascism, seek it out if you can]

1944

The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary
The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maugham

1945

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

1946

Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake

1947

The Victim, Saul Bellow
Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry

1948

The Heart of the Matter, Graham Greene
Ape and Essence, Aldous Huxley
The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
No Highway, Nevil Shute

1949

The Heat of the Day, Elizabeth Bowen
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
The Body, William Sansom

1950

Scenes from Provincial Life, William Cooper
The Disenchanted, Budd Schulberg

1951

A Dance to the Music of Time (to 1975), Anthony Powell
The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger [I didn't see what all the fuss was about]
The Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight (to 1969), Henry Williamson
The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk

1952

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Groves of Academe, Mary McCarthy
Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
Sword of Honour trilogy (to 1961), Evelyn Waugh [very, very funny, and then it's not so funny any more, even though it's the same thing]

1953

The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

1954

Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis [one of my favourite books!]

1957

Room at the Top, John Braine
The Alexandria Quartet (to 1960), Lawrence Durrell
The London Novels (to 1960), Colin MacInnes
The Assistant, Bernard Malamud

1958

The Bell, Iris Murdoch
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe
The Once and Future King, T. H. White [read it when I was a kid]

1959

The Mansion, William Faulkner
Goldfinger, Ian Fleming

1960

Facial Justice, L. P. Hartley
The Balkans Trilogy (to 1965), Olivia Manning

1961

The Mighty and Their Fall, Ivy Compton-Burnett
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
The Fox in the Attic, Richard Hughes
Riders in the Chariot, Patrick White
The Old Men at the Zoo, Angus Wilson

1962

Another Country, James Baldwin
An Error of Judgment, Pamela Hansford Johnson
Island, Aldous Huxley
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov

1963

The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

1964

The Spire, William Golding
Heartland, Wilson Harris
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
The Defence, Vladimir Nabokov
Late Call, Angus Wilson

1965

The Lockwood Concern, John O'Hara
The Mandelbaum Gate, Muriel Spark

1966

A Man of the People, Chinua Achebe
The Anti-Death League, Kingsley Amis
Giles Goat-Boy, John Barth
The Late Bourgeois World, Nadine Gordimer
The Last Gentleman, Walker Percy

1967

The Vendor of Sweets, R. K. Narayan

1968

The Image Men, J. B. Priestley
Cocksure, Mordecai Richler
Pavane, Keith Roberts [very good alternate history]

1969

The French Lieutenant's Woman, John Fowles
Portnoy's Complaint, Philip Roth [eh]

1970

Bomber, Len Deighton

1973

Sweet Dreams, Michael Frayn
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon [I've read this three times, but not lately. Some of the vignettes (and Pynchon seems to be best at vignettes) stick with me still.]

1975

Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
The History Man, Malcolm Bradbury

1976

The Doctor's Wife, Brian Moore
Falstaff, Robert Nye

1977

How to Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong
Farewell Companions, James Plunkett
Staying On, Paul Scott

1978

The Coup, John Updike

1979

The Unlimited Dream Company, J. G. Ballard [not the Ballard I would pick but OK, it's not my list.]
Dubin's Lives, Bernard Malamud
A Bend in the River, V. S. Naipaul
Sophie's Choice, William Stryon

1980

Life in the West, Brian Aldiss
Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban
How Far Can You Go?, David Lodge
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole [again, I didn't see what all the fuss was about.]

1981

Lanark, Alasdair Gray Darconville's Cat, Alexander Theroux
The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux [read it a long time ago]
Creation, Gore Vidal

1982

The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies

1983

Ancient Evenings, Norman Mailer

For more on 99 Novels, read Anthony Burgess' column from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/30/home/burgess-bestnovels.html

***

My score: 26, heavily concentrated in the 1940s and 1950s. Hm!

Haven't done one of these fora while; this one comes from the lovable and dynamic emmabovary.

1) How old are you?
45

2) What is your favorite color?
black or green.

3) What state do you live in?
Canada!

4) If you had to choose between giving up your cell phone and giving up chocolate what would you choose to live without?
Don't have a cell phone. So that's easy.

5) Do you have a pet?
No. Except for unwanted yard critters like "Venison" the deer and "Hannibal" the local raccoon.

6) Paper or plastic?
I try to bring my "guilt bags" into the storne whenever I can, but sometimes I forget, and the usual option is plastic.

7) What is your favorite fruit/vegetable?
Fruit: cherries. Vegetable: potato.

8) What is your favorite characteristic in the opposite sex?
Intelligence, friendliness, sense of humour (in no particular order).

9) What is your favorite physical trait in the opposite sex?
They have to look happy.

10) List three of your best qualities.
I'm intelligent, loyal and work extremely hard when I'm moved to.

11) List three of your worst traits.
Very self-critical, low self-confidence makes me indecisive, invest far too much emotional capital in things I can't control.

12) What is your favorite TV show?
I usually watch movies. Not an anime fan but I did like the more popular animated series (Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill) but they're all in reruns now (even the new episodes seem like reruns).

13) If you were stranded on an island for a week what would you want to take with you?
Lots of water!

14) Do you have a favorite board game?
Hah! I have a collection of over 1,100 of them. If I had to pick one, I suppose it would be Go.

15) Do you smoke or drink?
Never smoked. Occasional beer, like once every two or three months if that.

16) What kind of perfume do you wear?
Whatever Unterarmstoff I happen to have going.

17) What is your favorite book?
Again, I have at least a thousand books. I suppose choosing a collection of short stories is cheating? Then perhaps Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, one of the funnier books I've read.

18) What are you most afraid of?
Losing my health or abilities due to an accident, something happening to Aki, oh lots of things...

19) What is your best physical feature?
I've been told I have nice eyes.

20) If you could go anywhere right now and stay for a month where would you go?
Not sure - it's just turning summer here so it's getting nice. But I think I'd like to see an English summer.

21) What are your hobbies?
Oh boy, too many - playing and designing board games, reading, metal casting, listening to music, printmaking. Not much time to indulge moast of these, though.

22) What accessories do you wear at all times?
Wristwatch.

23) Do you pronounce the 't' in often?
Usually not, I suppose - I've never stopped to listen.

24) What is the last song that played on your iPod/MP3 player?
Devo, "Baby Doll".

25) Share something that made you happy today.
Not happy (too early in the day for that), perhaps happy/amused - my desk phone rang twice and when I picked it up I heard this squoodgy-womble-woff-woff noise. I think it was Lianne's cell phone (she's in northern Ontario now), moving around in her purse and something triggered the speed dial. It made me happy to think I'm on her speed dial. On the other hand, she could have turned into a giant fungus like in Attack of the Mushroom People and was telling me to join the Great Mold Above....