Find the nearest book.- Name the book and the author.- Turn to page 123.- Go to the fifth sentence on the page.- Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.- Tag three more folks.
So having officially been tagged - by "Plonka".. this is my post:
"....You are the divine thing I want, the thing of grace and beauty", Carson looked sharply at Wilde, then demanded, 'Is it the kind of letter a man writes to another?". "It was a tender expression of my great admiration for Lord Alfred Douglas," replied Wilde, visibly shaken. It was clear that the case was not going according to plan. The book - "All for Love; Great Love affairs..Great stories", by Megan Gressor & Kerry Cook. A great little compendium of love affairs (40 odd all told); listing Historic Lovers; Right Royal Romances; Literary Lovers; Political Unions; Affairs of the Arts and Hollywood lives, brief but comprehensive, but also showing - warts and all. I am absolutely delighted in finding it still such a great little treasure trove of interesting stories. I love a book with short Short stories whilst travelling. I adored the bookstore I found it in too (Elizabeth's secondhand books in Fremantle WA), and could have easily spent hours and hours leisurely browsing, if I didn't check myself, and get back to that beach and the reason why I was there. (There were actually two of these stores l came across locally whilst there, and of course I had to visit both). New and secondhand books and a perfect bookstore ambience! The book itself (new) was actually discounted from $24.95 down to $4.95, is quite thick but only the size of a paperback, although ever so slightly wider. Great for in-bed reading or any constricted reading space such as on an airplane.
Ok, now as for the tagging.. I officially dub "Snowy" (if he hasnt already), umm...Kees (TheClogfromOz) and umm, err... Do I really have to name three? Any volunteers?
Footnote on more Love Stories...(Sat 13 Jan 07): Just read AngelaJames post My Favourite Royal Wedding and as she says, "..another victory for love". Great article and great blog Angela! ....and here's another: Life On The Bright Side A story of a blogger who's travelled halfway round the world (Seattle) for love!
He might have buttonholed a slave bearing a jar of olive oil, and asked the unfortunate man a question in philosophy, for Socrates held that a slave had the same common sense as a man of rank.
"Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder. An Adventure in Philosophy (International Bestseller).
.. Posted in BooksIn Le Deuxiθme Sexe (The Second Sex) (1949), de Beauvoir traced the development of male oppression through historical, literary, and mythical sources, attributing its contemporary effects on women to a systematic objectification of the male as a positive norm. This consequently identifies the female as Other, which commonly leads to a loss of social and personal identity, the variety of alienation unique to the experience of women. Her works of fiction focus on women who take responsibility for themselves by making life-altering decisions, and the many volumes of her own autobiography exhibit the application of similar principles in reflection on her own experiences.
Ive never before considered myself a feminist. Often when the word 'feminist' is mentioned, the populace can too often conjure 'affected' mental images of Shere Hite having a bad day; bra-burning protestations from the '60s; or male bashing negative comments from this generation's divorcees. Me....I love men. I do not believe in the passing on, and continuation of 'gender' based and biased put-downs. I adore their company. I revel in those components/elements of what it is that makes them 'male' and in their presence I take pleasure in the resultant heightened feelings of how I feel - being a woman. I do however believe in female empowerment, but I've never really given 'feminism' much 'note' nor thought. Philosophically yes, but more so logically - there is no other journey nor destination. The freedom to 'really' chose, make "life-altering" decisions on a higher plane; the ability to recognise, reject and release oneself from society's shackles that bind - that IS liberation, .... and, feminism. I guess I am.
More on....Simone De Beauvoir
The first to say "I Am Woman". Her final words on Sartre's death(and her own, in Adieux) were: "My death will not bring us together again. This is how things are. It is in itself splendid that we were able to live our lives in harmony for so long."
In 1981 she wrote La Cιrιmonie Des Adieux (A Farewell to Sartre), a painful account of Sartre's last years. She is buried next to him at the Cimetiθre du Montparnasse in Paris. Since her death, her reputation has grown, not only because she is seen as the mother of post-1968 feminism, especially in academia, but also because of a growing awareness of her as a major French thinker, existentialist and otherwise. She is seen as having influenced Sartre's masterpiece, Being and Nothingness, while also having written much on philosophy that is independent of Sartrean existentialism. (Wikipedia)
I love this quote of Simone De Beauvoir. It shows appreciation for the gifts we receive in life, without the confusing entanglements of society's obligations and perceptions. Acceptance, and, real freedom of choice flows through this statement offering an example of a truly liberated individual.
Some important 'anti-DeBeauvoir/Sartrean' notes - more>>
How Some Man Youve Never Heard of Just Changed Your Life...
He was standing outside of his house, near his hill. Just a few years back, before the Internet boom, Clarks house in Atherton had been surrounded by empty fields. Now he was surrounded by new houses, many of them bigger than his own. One morning he looked up from his kitchen table and saw the neighbors looking back. He requested, and was denied, a permit to build a fence tall enough to screen them from his view.
The city of Atherton, California, had strict rules about fences, and the fence Clark wanted to build was declared too high. So Clark built a hill,and put the fence on top of the hill. It did not occur to him that there was anything unusual about this. As he stood beneath his self-made hill, he tried to explain this extraordinary leap in his career from thirty-eight-year-old unsuccessful college professor with a warning label on his forehead to a founder of a multibillion-dollar corporation.
He insists that the transformation occurred overnight and that he cannot really explain it. But all of a sudden the best graduate students at Stanford wanted to work with him on his special project a computer chip hed been tinkering with for nearly three years.
One of the most important technological entrepreneurs in the millennium.The man who embodies the spirit of the coming of age, Jim Clark, the billionaire who is about to create his third, separate, billion-dollar company: first Silicon Graphics; then Netscape; which launched the information age; and now Healtheon, which aims to turn the $1trillion US health care industry on its head.
The New New Thing
By Michael Lewis
A very interesting and enlightening book. A biography about one of those clever lateral thinkers - not a computer-geeky-terminology laden tome, but an easy read. I must admit there are many books scattered around my house that I haven't managed to finish from cover to cover just yet, but this book I have, and I mustve been taken with it enough at the time because I ordered two additional copies for my friends (work colleagues), as a Christmas gift. This particularly refreshing story was a couple of years ago, though, now, and I guess its that time - once again, to start hunting for this years xmas selection.
Another good read: "Hard Men Humble" by Jonathan Stevenson - Vietnam Veterans Who Wouldn't Come Home.
"For them the home front of cultural memory remains one of domestric betrayal lamented. Soldiers were castigated upon returning home in the sixties and seventies, and that was only the beginning. For soldiers in 1972 there was not a greater love of country, fortified piety, or the glow of victory. But these men, if they were lucky, carried away an intimate knowledge of camaraderie andhow it worked of what men can do to survive together when they have nobody to count on but one another. In Vietnam the soldiers bond was at a premium.They made up their own rules, designed their own parameters of good and bad so that they could navigate through the jungle of conflicting experiences. Individual leadership, strength, courage, and humanity were more important than in any other war, because there was no guiding vision, no goal, no leadership at the top. They would learn to save their own lives and to protect others. Soldiers needed the kind of courage you dredge up in the morning, knowing it will be a bad day".
I know the picture (animated gif) is not applicable at all... nor the title of this posting, but they go with the music BEAUTIFULLY ha ha. I love to read a diverse range of books, differing themes, contemplate deep and heartfelt thoughts. And then whenever I feel Im snowed under, dealing with conflicts; stress in my life; having a really 'bad day', I try to take 'pause', consider the above and realise how lucky I am to be able to say - TGIF!
Obviously there are just far tooooo many interesting books out there to mention - some I've read, and millions that I haven't! I've simply noted down the first pile lying around atop of my nearest piece of furniture:
Fiction: The Kite Runner; by Khaled Hosseini. Non-Fiction: The Tipping Point; by Malcolm Gladwell. Anthropologist on Mars; by Oliver Sacks (all of his books actually!) The Transparent Society; by David Brin Genius: Richard Feynman and modern physics; by James Gleick Powershift; by Alvin Toffler Autobiographies: Katherine Graham - Personal History
Truman Capote (more») had 540 of his friends to the Plaza Hotel for a lavish party just forty years ago. Was it the start of an age, or the end?... As a guest of honour, to tie the whole thing together, he chose Katharine Graham, president of The Washington Post Company, still dealing with the 1963 suicide of her flamboyant husband, Philip.
Sending a big smile and a Merry Christmas to the staff at The New International Bookshop (NIBs) on Victoria Pde, for opening their doors to me and allowing me to purchase that 'must have' selection on my way home, late one night, even after the store had closed. (Just got a self-analytical 'bee in my bonnet' and decided that as I had not actually read 1984 by George Orwell - I was culturally illiterate!). Luckily for me they happened to be in the store finishing up a staff meeting. I was reading the trading hours at the same time as rattling around with the doorknob to check, but the doors were already locked. Not able to spy anyone there I gauged the store had closed 20 mins ago, and yet, not only did someone come to the door, but open it AND greet with me with a big beaming smile! And its not even Christmas!
