randomness…feed your mind and your blog
Week of March 30: Finish the Sentence

Fill in the blanks for this weeks meme….
1. I always wanted to learn another language. I took snippets of French/German/Spanish in Junior High and two years of Spanish in HS. Nothing stuck. Maybe Gaelic or Korean.
2. I really hate it when people chew loudly or talk while chewing.
3. My best friend is my boyfriend. I don’t know if that’s sad. He’s the first person I want to tell good news to and the first person I go to when I have a problem.
4. In high school I was invisible. I didn’t really fit in with a clique. I was bookish, but didn’t hang with the nerds. I was quirky, but didn’t truly fit with the “freaks” though I ate lunch there.
5. My greatest fear is everyone leaving. I know how annoying I am. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else does.
6. My dream job is working in a library or a bookstore. Seriously.
7. Some people really should think before they speak and weigh whether the words should be spoken.
8. My favorite author is Neil Gaiman. Fairly obvious, I should think.

Appetizer
What does the color dark green make you think of?

Dark, hidden forests.

Soup
How many cousins do you have?

Heavens, I can think of over a dozen off the top of my head. Stereotypical Irish Roman Catholic large families on my dad’s side. My mom doesn’t really associate with her side, sadly.

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how honest are you?

8.5. Sometimes I just can’t seem to ride the Tact Pony.

Main Course
Name something that is truly free.

Love.

Dessert
Using the letters in the word SPRING, write a sentence.

Snorting pop rocks is never good.

01. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It’s my “waiting room” book. This is the book I grab if I know I’m going to be waiting a while and am not currently in the middle of a book. What happened to all the Gods that immigrants brought to America once their believers stopped believing? Read and find out.

02. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Took out of the library on a whim, read it in one sitting and went out and bought it.

03. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. What happens to our bodies after we die? The answers may surprise you, disgust you and (surprisingly) make you laugh. Don’t read this book in public. People tend to look at you rather oddly when you’re laughing and reading a book with a toe tag on the cover.

04. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It took me two tries to get into it, but I now own two copies, so it all balances out, right? One of those books that you want to read out loud because certain passages yell out for it. Hmm… I think I have an idea for my next Thursday Thirteen.

05. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. My favorite book by Vowell. It doesn’t sound interesting- A collection of essays about Presidential assassinations, but it very much is. A fun way to learn history for those who aren’t history nerds like me and an even more fun read for those who are.

06. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Diana Wynne Jones is rightfully taking up a growing space on my bookshelf.

07. The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye. What do you do when you’re a Princess who has mouse brown hair, freckles and a turned up nose? When her parents hatch a dragon scheme to trick a prince into marrying her, Princess Amy runs away and becomes a scullery maid in a castle. I would recommend this book to little girls of all ages.

08. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. Another book that you want to read out loud.

09. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Jane Eyre has been kidnapped and it’s up to Thursday Next, a Special Ops literary detective to figure it all out. If you’re a bookworm this is like a special treat. Funny and enjoyable even if you’re not.

10. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. You fall right into the language- droogs, chellovecks, moloko etc. Lyrical and disturbing, it draws you in.

11. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. My boyfriend gave this to me before we started dating. A novel about the end of the world that will get you thinking.

12. Passage by Connie Willis. Joanna is a medical researcher studying near death experiences. She teams up with a fellow researcher and becomes one of his test subject. Slightly depressing, but not as bad as…

13. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Time travel and the Black Death. This book is fascinating, but it will depress the hell out of you.

14. The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman. A series of graphic novels that will teach you that comics are not just for kids. Follow Morpheus, the King of Dreams, through a series of stories that will take you to places you never imagined. Morpheus, or Dream, is one of the Endless. Along with Despair (formerly Delight), Delirium, Desire, Death, Destruction and Destiny. You’ll find that Death can greet you like a lost friend and Desire can be dangerous. Also of note: The issue “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. The award committee was evidently so horrified that a comic won that they changed the rules the next day so it COULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. Gaiman is my favorite author.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Mrs. Brownstone @ XBOX Wife
2. Gwen Mitchell
3. Storyteller
4. Sobeit
5. (leave your link in comments)