AAAGGHHHHHHH!

Stinkin’ kids--HEY, KEEP IT DOWN IN THERE, OR I’M CALLIN’ THE GYSPIES TO COME GET YOU!

There now. They’re like gibbons tanked up on espresso, I tell ya.

Anyway, it seems that not a SINGLE ONE OF YOU noticed that last week’s Thursday Three was marked as the 11th installment, when IN FACT it was only the TENTH! That’s right, for some unknown reason, the advanced computer programs we use managed to mess up the clicker deal that counts things, leaving out our poor Number 10th edition like so much garbage on the curbside.

After a thorough search, we are happy to report that the Number Ten was found safe and secure at the police station, happily licking an ice cream cone and wearing the desk sergeant’s hat.

SO, to waste no more time (despite our general admonition to always go with your strengths) we herewith launch forth The Axis of Weevil Thursday Three LOST EPISODE! ::quiet applause::

The topic this week was suggested by Jim Smith, who noted that with all the literary sorts who drop in, it would be nice to know a few things.

Jim suggested:

1) What book(s) are you reading right now, and what do you think of it (them)? (Not at this particular moment, necessarily--maybe within the past couple of weeks or so.)

Okay, that only leaves two more book-related things to come up with.

Hmmm.

::doopdoop-doopie-doop--doopdoop-doopie-doop…::

Ahhhh.

Hm.

Let’s see.

Well…no. Not that.

OKAY, here we go:

2) What book(s) have you begun reading several times, and never seem to quite finish? Why?

3) What book(s) have you read more than once? Why?

Now then, this one is one that EVERYONE should be able to play, as it is not the least bit dependent upon you being in, by, of, around, for, against (or otherwise adjectivized) the South. SO, all of you with blogs, answer away, and post a link in the comments to let us know when you have answered your answers.

The rest of you who haven’t succumbed to the morphine-like addictive powers of writing your very own blogs are welcome to leave your answers in the comments.

AS FOR ME, books I am reading right now include these that I have already mentioned and reviewed in the past weeks--The Autobiography of an Idea, and The Autobiography of a Magdalen, and Battles of the Bible. I’m still working on the first and second of those. Others that are in various stages of being read include: The Sea Hawks: With the P.T. Boats at War--somewhat interesting memoir, which was somehow written one-handed, the other being used by the author to vigorously pat himself on the back. Excusable, I suppose, since it is a memoir. The writing style is peculiar, with reminiscences of seeing men killed and rendezvous with various women written in the same flat, stilted, Paul Harveyesque manner. Will eventually finish it, I suppose.

Another is Tilt--A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa. So far an enjoyable read, although I should have finished it a long time ago because it’s breezy and short. Nice overview of the Tower of Pisa’s construction and stabilization. You probably didn’t realize this, but the inside is filled with M&Ms.

As for Question 2: Good grief, there’s too many to list--War and Peace, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples, the Durant’s History of Civilization (I’m up to Volume V--The Renaissance). I suppose the only reason I haven’t finished them is sheer laziness.

Question 3 is a bad one--I know a lot of people go back and re-read stuff several times, but I can’t think of a single book (other than reference books and the Bible) that I go back and read again and again. Now, I CAN look at coffee table-type picture books over and over again, but I don’t know if that counts as reading--my favorites are Jericho--The South Beheld by Herbert Shuptrine and James Dickey, John Singer Sargent edited by Carter Ratcliff, and a thick book on Michelangelo that is at my mom’s house and I can’t remember the title or editor.

SO, there you go.

HEY, GIVE THAT BACK TO YOUR BROTHER! Sorry--be back in a bit.
posted by Terry at 8:00:00 AM