Book Meme--Aka Writing distractions

[tjs_whatnot]

I saw this meme a while ago on earth_dragon's journal and thought I'd be able to avoid it, having packed most of my books in storage. But today while sitting in the bookstore trying to write...I thought I'd give it ago since my characters are being fickle and my story line is non-existent...We'll call it inspiration, shall we?

♦ Take four books off your bookshelf
♦ Write the first sentence
♦ Write the last sentence on page fifty
♦ Write the second sentence on page one hundred
♦ Write the next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty
♦ Write the final sentence of the book
♦ Let your friends guess what book it is

1. This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.
He put chunks of lead through his toilet and a washbasin and a bathtub enclosure.
He used to have photographs of Dwayne on the walls of his cell at Shepherdstown.
"We call it The Hundred-Nigger Machine," said the workman.
Here was what Kilgore Trout cried out to me in my father's voice: "Make me young, make me young, make me young!"


2. It was predictable, in hindsight.
Then he willed his hands to grasp and smash the ROM tablet against the wall, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and turned towards the door.
"They are too close not to go."
The single craziest thing about being a priest, he'd found, was that celibacy was simultaneously the most private and most public aspect of his life.
Unaware of his own movement, schooled by old habit, Vincenzo Giuliani rose and went to the windows, and stood looking, for how long he had no idea, across a grassy open courtyard to a complex panorama of medieval masonry and jumbled rock, formal garden and gnarled trees: a scene of great and beautiful antiquity.


3. This was supposed to be a writer's retreat.
The hair swooping down to hide one ear.
To polish us up, nice and bright.
The Matchmaker has been asking around, trying to find someone willing to lop off his penis.
Starting on that sun-glorious day, the whole world is going to love us.


4. To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains come gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth.
"If you're touched, I wisht ever'budy was touched."
Pa walked around the truck, looking at it, and then he squatted in the dust and found a stick to draw with.
Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.
She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously.

Comments

[ms-worplesdon.livejournal.com]

I got nothing. :(

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Really? Two of them are pretty much classics--I think. But yeah, sometimes the sentences you have to use don't do much to help. :((

How are you? I can't believe I slept through the five minutes you were on chat! :(( What a loser I am!

Love ya!

[ms-worplesdon.livejournal.com]

LOL, did you really? I had to run off really quickly, but I enjoyed playing Rita Skeeter for twenty minutes! That was a blast!

ILU! ♥

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

:((

One minute I'm chattin' away and the next minute it's like 45 minutes later and I scroll up and see that you were there and gone in that time.

We got do that more often! *nod nod*

I MISS YOU! ♥

[ms-worplesdon.livejournal.com]

We totally should, YES!!!!! I miss you, too!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

[earth-dragon.livejournal.com]

Number 4, I believe, is The Grapes of Wrath. It's been a long time since I've read it, but it's an amazing story.

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Yep!

God I love Steinbeck!

[kerosinkanister.livejournal.com]

1. Must be Vonnegut.
2. The Sparrow!

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

YES! Was it the Kilgore Trout bit?

YES!YES!! I was rather sad that with so many amazing lines in this book, the ones I had to use were the blah-ist ones there were. :(

[kerosinkanister.livejournal.com]

It was Kilgore. Which KV was it?

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Breakfast of Champions--I'm always torn between it and "Slaughter House Five" as my favorite Vonnegut novel.

I also just love that he has a recurring character named Kilgore Trout!

[brumeux77.livejournal.com]

Too bad I read the comments first (bad habit of mine). I knew Kilgore Trout was the giveaway, but still had problems. I was pretty sure about The Grapes of Wrath. The only thing I know about the other two is that when I came to the sentence about the Matchmaker I threw the computer across the room and ran screaming in the other direction.

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Haha! Yeah, I didn't think to screen comments untilit was too late. :(

With hints like dust and Oklahoma, I'd be surprised if many people don't get it is Grapes of Wrath--god I love Steinbeck!

Ahhh, The Matchmaker one...a bit scary yes, but sooo freakin' amazing too! I ♥ Palahniuk! You would HATE him though...

[la-dissonance.livejournal.com]

I thought 2 had to be something by Dan Brown. *facepalm*

But I did get that 4 was Grapes of Wrath. Whoohoo!

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Don't beat yourself up, it's an easy mistake to make, what with all the talk of priests and the Italian overtures. But, "The Sparrow" is way, way, way better!

fdlkas;fsj;

I LOVE THAT BOOK SOOOO MUCH! AHHHH! Steinbeck!