Meme 1

This is accurate to when I wrote it, about a week-and-a-half ago. More memes coming up...

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David has passed on to me a meme, a figment of virtual life that is passed from internet user to internet user and that contains in itself the conditions that ensure it will continue to be passed on. This one is about books.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?

The Fairy Queen, by Edmund Spenser. A masterpiece by anyone's reckoning, and one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It is an Arthurian Romance, a medieval allegory, an early work of fantasy, a seminal work of renaissance England. Spenser never finished it, but it feels complete. Every book - every verse - every word - no, ever letter Spenser wrote is perfect and whole in itself.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

All of them, because you get to imagine what they look like, what they act like, and what they're like in ... do I have to go on?

The last book you bought was?

Probably the Calvino book, mentioned below. Failing that, Planet of No Return, by Poul Anderson - a tightly plotted traditional sci-fi adventure story where the villain turns out to be a know-it-all sociologist.

The last book you read was?

If On A Winter's Night a Traveller, by Italo Calvino. A book that is written about a reader who opens up a book by a writer but is unable to finish the book. In the ensuing novel, he goes in search of the same book but only ends up reading the beginnings of successive novels.

A stunningly self-referential, self-obsessed, witty, entertaining, and frustrating book.

Five books you would take to a desert island?

The CEO of the Sofa, by P.J. O'Rourke - his best book. And even in his worst, he can be funny.

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

The Bible, for Ecclesiasticus. "Be wise but not too wise. Why shouldst thou destroy thyself?"

The Collected Plays of Aristophanes. He a funny guy. It's only when I get to the island that I discover I've taken the original Greek version, and not the translation.

Finnegans Wake, the hardback edition. I'm going to need something to knock the coconuts open with.

Who are you passing this stick onto and why?

S.J., who may begin blogging soon or in the not-too-distant future!

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So yeah. I don't know about these meme things, really. Someone asks the questions, then everyone else spends their time answering them. I don't know any of the answers, and I'm not sure about the questions. That gives me an idea...