30 Day Book Challenge: Day 24

Last year I found this book challenge (since then I have seen many variations of it, but I like this one best!), and have been intrigued about how I would answer the questions posed. Feel free to comment with your own answer or post the challenge to your own blog.

Best Quote from a Novel

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 – A book or series you hate
Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11– A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – A book or series of books you’ve read more than five times
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 – Favorite character in a book
Day 15 – Your “comfort” book
Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book 
Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 – Favorite kiss
Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 – Most annoying character ever
Day 24 – Best quote from a novel
Day 25 – Any five books from your “to be read” stack
Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 – If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 – First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 – Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 – What book are you reading right now?

Infinite Summer #1: What the *BLEEP* have I gotten myself into?

First, if you are reading with us and haven't read the first post, please sign-up and do so here.

If you want to read all our pre-reading post, click on Infinite Summer 2012 to be taken to a complete list of all things IS12, so far.

Think of these Sunday posts as jumping off places...discuss what I've posted, post something yourself, answer questions, ask questions, add links...do whatever it takes to make this experience enjoyable and understandable for you!

These post will be CHOCK FULL OF SPOILERS for the reading for that week (Just in case you didn't already know that!). I think knowing this will stop those of us that aren't at a certain place from reading on and will enable those of us who are writing to do so without worrying if someone knows that fact or not. If you are reading ahead and want to post about the pages ahead please wait and if you want to talk about other books, not Infinite Jest and are giving spoilers please indicate that in some fashion...even a *spoiler* before the comment would be nice.

And, finally, if there is anything I can do to make this run more smoothly please don't hesitate to message me on here, on twitter or on Goodreads and I'll see what I can do.

Let's begin the discussion.

I don't know about you all, but I spent the first few pages wondering what was going on...and, then I googled and googled some more.

Setting (from the IJ wiki)

In the novel's future world, North America is one unified state comprising the United States, Canada, and Mexico, known as the Organization of North American Nations (O.N.A.N.). Corporations purchase naming rights to each calendar year, eliminating traditional numerical designations; for example, "The Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment" and "The Year of Dairy Products from the American Heartland". Much of what used to be the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada has become a hazardous waste dump known as the "Great Concavity" to Americans and as the "Great Convexity" to Canadians.
The novel's primary locations are the Enfield Tennis Academy, Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House (footnoted "Redundancy sic" in the text), and a conversation between a Quebec separatist and a U.S. double agent outside of Tucson, AZ. Enfield Tennis Academy ("ETA") and Ennet House are separated by a hillside in suburban Boston, Massachusetts. Many characters are either students and faculty at the school or residents and staff at the halfway house.

For more information about the setting check out this lovely post by Book Drum beyond the page. And, I'm sure, Brain Pickings' 3 Ways to Visualize David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, will come in handy later, as it breaks down characters, settings and the whole book by diagram.

I enjoy that DFW has given us such rich settings, they just make things (such as Orin's chapter with the roaches) more realistic and in some ways sympathetic. By far my favorite chapter this section is with Erdedy and the long wait for his favorite addiction. What do you guys think? For me, knowing the fact that it's set sometime in the future helped, and I'm glad to have a visual foundation as I continue reading. However, I do wonder what will be at the end of this rabbit hole.

I also really liked this, too bad nobody got to hear it!:

[Source]

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 18

Last year I found this book challenge (since then I have seen many variations of it, but I like this one best!), and have been intrigued about how I would answer the questions posed. Obviously, I started this challenge over 30 days ago...I just wasn't inspired. It isn't as easy to write about books as I thought.


Feel free to comment with your own answer or post the challenge to your own blog.


Favorite beginning scene in a book

     Howard Roark laughed.
     He stood naked at the edge of a cliff. The lake lay far below him. A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over motionless water. The water seemed immovable, the stone flowing. The stone had the stillness of one brief moment in battle when thrust meets thrust and the currents are held in a pause more dynamic than motion. The stone glowed, wet with sunrays.
     The lake below was only a thin steel ring that cut the rocks in half. The rocks went on into the depth, unchanged. They began and ended in the sky. So that the world seemed suspended in space, an island floating on nothing, anchored to the feet of the man on the cliff.
     His body leaned back against the sky. It was a body of long straight lines and angles, each curve broken into planes. He stood, rigid, his hands hanging at his sides, palms out. He felt his shoulder blades drawn tight together, the curve of his neck, and the weight of the blood in his hands. He felt the wind behind him in the hollow of his spine. The wind waved his hair against the sky. His hair was neither blond nor red, but the exact color of ripe orange rind.
     He laughed at the thing which had happened to him that morning and at the things which now lay ahead.

Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)

Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
Day 03 – The best book you've read in the last 12 months
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Day 05 – A book or series you hate
Day 06 – Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 07 – Least favorite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise
Day 08 – A book everyone should read at least once
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11– A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – A book or series of books you've read more than five times
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!)
Day 14 – Favorite character in a book
Day 15 – Your "comfort" book
Day 16 – Favorite poem or collection of poetry
Day 17 – Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)
Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book
Day 19 – Favorite book cover (bonus points for posting an image!)
Day 20 – Favorite kiss
Day 21 – Favorite romantic/sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 22 – Favorite non-sexual relationship (including asexual romantic relationships)
Day 23 – Most annoying character ever
Day 24 – Best quote from a novel
Day 25 – Any five books from your “to be read” stack
Day 26 – OMG WTF? OR most irritating/awful/annoying book ending
Day 27 – If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)!
Day 28 – First favorite book or series obsession
Day 29 – Saddest character death OR best/most satisfying character death (or both!)
Day 30 – What book are you reading right now?

Two of The Best American Essays in 2008

[BN]

As I bought this book on the cheap at a Border's...I'm sure I'll be writing about more of them at a later date, but for now...these two...

Notable Quotables by Louis Menand
p148
I read this essay in response to an article I saw about 10 most famous political misquotes. Sarah Palin never said, "I can see Russia from My House" and Al Gore never said, "I invented the internet". More important than the misquote is how it gets into our collective conscience and digs in so deep that the misquote lives a more prosperous life than the person who supposedly said it. As the author of this essay notes, "The Patrick Henry who lives in our heads and hearts is the man who said 'Give me liberty, or give me death!'. ...a Patrick Henry without a death wish, is just not someone we know or care about. His having been said to have said what he never said is a condition of his being 'Patrick Henry'." I had a good time reading all about how there are even great people in the world who go to great lengths sleuthing to find the truth behind the misquote. After all, "the experience of sublimity is subjective and associational. For some reason, a string is plucked and it never stops vibrating." No wonder my students think and tell their parents comments I made that never came out of my mouth. It's much more interesting than the truth of the matter.

Solipsism by Ander Monson
p155
This is the essay right after Notable Quotables.
How can you not want to read an essay that takes you through the rabbit hole and starts like this?

Yeah, you gotta turn the book sideways to read it.

In searching for this essay online I came across a wonderful response (it's a delightful read that still has me thinking and wishing my students thought outside the box like that when they write...or, is that's what is expected after reading this essay?) kind of dogging the fact that Mr. Monson didn't use hypertext for all of the asides, all I could think was that I didn't really miss the hypertext from this lovely and clever essay until it was pointed out to me. I love the idea of using text to enhance our reading experience...I do it often when I write and yet, I don't/can't allow my students to do the same...there's something ironic there, I think. While reading I was also reminded of a time in one of my education classes when I was asked to write about my writing process. We all turned in papers in perfect MLA talking about our writing processes, devoid of all the flavor of the process. She told us to try again. I ended up writing my 'process' in italics and dashes and movie quotes and pictures and, I remember vividly, orange kool-aid stains...that was...is (as I'm writing this in front of the TV), cup in hand, (huh, same cup 13 years later, no lie! it's orange and was bought in a set by my friend at a garage sale before we were afraid that garage sale plastic contained reminants of meth, it comes in a set of four) how I write. Is Dr. Margaret Weaver a solpsist?   I think so.

I also found this and, realized that
I, myself, may have a googling problem...
and, that I may also think too much!

Oh, and Lila with the cup...doing something I'm not sure I like...

The Great of These is Love...

Frank Allen Ever heard of chaos theory, Ed? It's a science, tries to determine underlying patterns in chaotic systems like weather, ocean currents, blood flow sort of things. But it turns out that are few things more chaotic than the beat of a human heart. Its beating up, slowing down. Pretty face, flirty stares. It's always changing on what's happening to ourselves out there. It's an erratic son of a bitch. But underneath all of that bump-da-bump mess, there is in fact a pattern, the truth, and it's love. Most important thing about love is that we choose to give it, and we choose to receive it. Making it the least random act in the entire universe. It transcends blood, it transcends betrayal and all the dirt and makes us human. ~Chaos Theory

Crash Well, I believe in the soul, the c**k, the p*ssy, the small of a woman’s back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.”
~Bull Durham

Bob Rueland ...this may sound a bit juvenile but... can I hold your hand? ~Return to Me

Wesley As You Wish. ~The Princess Bride

Lloyd Dobler I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen. ~Say Anything

Superman I'm always around. Good night, Lois. ~Superman Returns

Tom I love how she makes me feel, like anything's possible, or like life is worth it.
~(500) Days of Summer

Iannis Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.

~Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Sean You're not perfect, sport, and let me save you the suspense: this girl you've met, she's not perfect either. But the question is whether or not you're perfect for each other.
~Good Will Hunting

Charles Um, look. Sorry, sorry. I just, um, well, this is a very stupid question and… particularly in view of our recent shopping excursion, but I just wondered, by any chance, um, uh, I mean obviously not because I guess I’ve only slept with 9 people, but-but I-I just wondered… uh. I really feel, uh, in short, to recap it slightly in a clearer version, uh, the words of David Cassidy in fact, uh, while he was still with the Partridge family, uh, “I think I love you,” and uh, I… I just wondered by any chance you wouldn’t like to… Uh… Uh… No, no, no of course not… I’m an idiot, he’s not… Excellent, excellent, fantastic, uh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb… Better get on… ~Four Weddings and a Funeral

Jack Twist I wish I knew how to quit you. ~Brokeback Mountain

Toulous Lautrec The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

~Moulin Rouge

William Parrish Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. If you don't start with that, what are you going to end up with? Fall head over heels. I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.

~Meet Joe Black

Harry I love that you get cold when it is 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

~When Harry Met Sally

Alex Whitman You're everything I never knew I always wanted. ~ Fools Rush In

Noah So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What’s it look like? If it’s with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that’s what you really wanted. But don’t you take the easy way out.”~The Notebook

Johnny Nobody puts Baby in a corner. ~Dirty Dancing

Jack Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me… it brought me to you … You must do me this honor, Rose. Promise me you’ll survive. That you won’t give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise. ~Titantic

Almasy Swoon, I'll catch you. ~ The English Patient

All of my ideas of love I've gleened from songs, movies and books. Because of that I have a sickness for which there is no cure, I am a idealistic, romantic realist...sure, all of those things don't seem to work together in one human being, but they exist and grow and are fostered by me and have made me the crazy person I am today. Happy Valentine's Day!!! It's Valentine's Day tomorrow and I can already feel the love! Go watch a romantic movie and have dinner with your schmoopie! J

Love's Mighty Touch

Happy Valentine's Day
Christopher Lee Hasty!!!