Booking Through Thursday

Today's Booking Through Thursday:

But, enough about books … Other things have words, too, right? Like …songs!

If you’re anything like me, there are songs that you love because of their lyrics; writers you admire because their songs have depth, meaning, or just a sheer playfulness that has nothing to do with the tunes.

So, today’s question? What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a
specific group or writer … have words that you love? Why? And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them? You don’t have to restrict yourself to modern songsters, either … anyone who wants to pick Gilbert & Sullivan, for example, is just fine with me. Lerner & Loewe? Steven Sondheim? Barenaked Ladies? Fountains of Wayne? The Beatles? Anyone at all…

Ok...I LOVE music. I have always loved music. I mean, it's not just something I want to hear on the radio or whatever...I'm PASSIONATE about the music I like. I don't even know where to begin to start about lyrics I love. Thumbing through my mp3 player - which has 4,000 songs on it, I immediately had a list of like 50 songs I could put on here. So, maybe I'll just put them all on here...I'm not going to bother with reasons for the most part. Maybe a little. These aren't just songs that I like the lyrics...these are lyrics that mean something to me - they remind me of a person, a situation, a feeling, etc. These are important songs. Even though two are by Britney Spears.

• I was born by the river.../and oh just like that river I've been running ever since



• Gypsy, sitting looking pretty/A broken rose with laughing eyes/You're a mystery, always running wild/like a child without a home



• Time, time time, see what's become of me



• I used to be disgusted/Now I try to be amused



• [Thanks dad for having this record around] To those of us who knew the pain/of valentines that never came/and those whose names were never called/when choosing sides for basketball/It was long ago and far away/The world was younger than today/when dreams were all they gave for free/to ugly duckling girls like me



• One day I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me/where troubles melt like lemon drops a-way above the chimney tops/That's where you'll find me



• Be brave little one/Make a wish for each sad little tear/Hold your head up though no one is near/Someone’s waiting for you



• Well, I ain't gonna think about you/Cause it ain't no use no more/I'm gonna make it fine without you/Just like I did before/I'm on my way/Tomorrow's gonna be another day



• Wanna die in Beat City/Run, run, run/Wanna hang with girls and shoot my gun.../Wanna die in Beat City/Go, go, go/You can't come with me 'cause you're just too slow/Inject the stars make them glow



• I was central, I had control, I lost my head/I need this.../Crazy what you could've had...



• Time it was oh what a time it was...It was a time of innocence, a time of confidences. Long ago it must be, I have a photograph, preserve your memory, they're all that's left...



• Darling I'm killed/I'm in a puddle on the floor/Waiting for you to return



• I must confess, that my loneliness is killing me now/Don't you know I still believe/That you will be here...



• But these cuts I have/They need love to help them heal
  


• I don’t know/Only god knows where the story ends for me/But I know where the story begins/It’s up to us to choose/Whether we win or lose/And I choose to win



• [Cannot even THINK of this song without tearing up] Where have all the flowers gone?/Girls have picked them every one/When will they ever learn?



• Animals strike curious poses/They feel the heat, the heat between me and you



• Today there is no day or night/Today there is no dark or light/Today there is no black or white/Only shades of gray



• Hear that lonesome whippoorwill/He sounds too blue to fly/The midnight train is whining low/I'm so lonesome I could cry



• Out on the road today I saw a deadhead sticker on a cadillac/A little voice inside my head said/Don't look back/you can never look back.



• I dream about magnolias in bloom and I'm wishing I was there



• Is it my turn to wish you were lying here...



• I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for music do you?



• My love must be a kind of blind love/I can't see anyone but you/Are the stars out tonight?



• But touch my tears with your lips/Touch my world with your fingertips/And we can have forever



• Why live life from dream to dream and dread the day when dreaming ends?



• Has anybody seen a dog dyed dark green/about two inches tall with a strawberry blond fall/sunglasses and a bonnet/and designer jeans with appliques on it?



• One day soon I´m gonna tell the moon about the crying game/and if he knows maybe he´ll explain/why there are heartaches/why there are tears/and what to do to stop feeling blue when love disappears



• And everytime I try to fly/I fall without my wings/I feel so small/I guess I need you baby



• Whenever I'm alone with you/You make me feel like I'm free again/whenever I'm alone with you/you make me feel like I'm clean again



• Days may be cloudy or sunny/We're in or we're out of the money/But I'm with you always/I'm with you rain or shine



• Oh thinking about all our younger years, there was only you and me...



• Karma police, I've given all I can, its not enough/I've given all I can, but were still on the payroll



• And where will she go and what shall she do when midnight comes around/She'll turn once more to Sunday's clown/And cry behind the door



• [When my grandma used to sing me this song when I was a kid, I thought it was hilarious] I`ll go home and get my panties/You go home and get your scanties/And away we`ll go...To Niagara in a sleeper/There`s no honeymoon that`s cheaper/And the train goes slow...Someday, the stork may pay a visit/And leave a little souvenir/Just a little cute `what is it,'/But we`ll discuss that later, dear.



• [I have two theme songs; this is from one of them] You're losing all your highs and lows/Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?



• [This is the other] I'm a-walking in the rain/Tears are falling and I feel the pain/Wishing you were here by me/To end this misery/And I wonder...Why she ran away and I wonder where she will stay, my little runaway



• [If I had a third theme song, this would be it] I wanna be free/Like the blue birds flying by me/like the waves out on the blue sea/If your love has to tie me/Don't try me/say goodbye...



• Just hold onto your life down to the wire/Out from the dragon's jaws and into the fire

I'm sure tomorrow I'll think of 50 more to add. Props to anyone who can guess song and artist for these. I tried to pick more obscure parts of the songs, but some are pretty obvious.

A long book and challenging book meme

This is a conglomeration of a few different book memes that I found, mostly here, and a few of my own questions. :-) (Updated September 2011)

The books we buy:

1. Hardback, Trade Paperback, or Mass Market Paperback? Trade paperback is my favorite, with mass market a distant second, especially if the book is long. I like to carry multiple (as in, typically five or more) books around at a time, and hardbacks are much more cumbersome.

2. Buy or borrow? I typically buy, but borrow occasionally. I use the library mostly for books under 250 pages or for inter-library loans of long out-of-print books I can't find elsewhere.

3. Buying choice: Book reviews, recommendations, or browse? I get a lot of books based on recommendations from The Millions (my favorite book-related site) or NPR. Otherwise, I will only take recommendations from people who have read and liked books similar to others that I like (which is, pretty much, no one).

4. New or Used? Usually new, but I like used also. Sometimes it's nice to have a book that someone else broke in for you (like my copy of Jane Eyre)

5. The five most recent books you’ve bought for yourself? McEwan's Enduring Love and Saturday, Don Delillo's White Noise, Edouard-Levé's Suicide, and a story collection by Borges.

6. Books you’ve been hunting for years without success? I would say The Green Hat but I wouldn't say that I've been very active in hunting it. A tip: when hunting for books you can't seem to find, make sure you have the title that it was published under in your particular country. I spend a year or two investigating If This Is a Man. It wasn't until I got it through interlibrary loan that I realized it was readily available in the US as Survival at Auschwitz. Big *DURF* on my part!

7. Books you need to go with other books on your shelves? I have Regeneration by Pat Barker…there are two other books in the series.

The books we own…

1. Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark typically. I have a bookmark collection, and frequently make my own, sometimes to fit one particular book. I have already gone on a massively panicked search when I thought I had lost my favorite bookmark (which is a St. John's College one, in case you were wondering).

2. Alphabetize by author, by title, or random? Most are arranged randomly by whether I read them or not. Other books are typically arranged by shelf, by category. Beat literature and related texts are grouped together on their own shelf. I will not allow my Kerouac to mingle with the hoi polloi :-)

3. Keep, throw away, or sell? I mostly keep...probably about 95%. I usually donate the rest, though I've been known to throw away occasionally (like The Ginger Man – that copy went right in the garbage).

4. Books that filled you with a sudden, inexplicable curiosity, not easily justified, such that you had to have it? I have those weekly.

. Books that you own (or want to own) so they’ll be handy just in case? I have about 6 or 7 volumes of Will Durant's Story of Civilization (there are 11 total). I've never read a sentence out of them, but one day I'm sure they'll come in handy, right?

The books we read….

1. First book to leave a lasting impression? Though I had read a lot prior to this, the book that probably had the most impression was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. That and Voices After Midnight are my childhood favorites.

2. Name the book that has most made you want to visit a place? The English Patient made we want to visit North Africa. Maybe someday...you know, when they aren't revolting

3. Which book would you recommend to a teenager reluctant to try “literature”? If he is a teenager that has anything in common with me, I would always recommend Confederacy of Dunces. Kafka's The Trial would also be a good one. Others might be Catch-22, Crime and Punishment, On the Road, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, etc. The youngsters also seem to like Catcher in the Rye, though I never did.

4. Name your best recent literary discovery? Erlend Loe's Naive Super

5. The last book you read? Billiards at Half Past Nine by Heinrich Boll

6. The last five books that have been really meaningful to you? Wow, this is really a challenge. If I get one really meaningful book in a year, that’s a good year. Last year it was The Age of Innocence. This year I’ve read a few – Lorrie Moore’s Anagrams and Noel Coward’s play Still Life being two.

7. Your five favorite books? The Great Gatsby, On the Road, The English Patient, Confederacy of Dunces, and...The Awakening, I suppose. Honorable mentions go out to The End of the Affair, Crime and Punishment, Virgin Suicides, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Nausea, The Stranger, and Lolita.

8. Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? There is a short story I read once called "The Hounds of Tindalos". I don't remember who wrote it, but it was insanely awesome and I was able to track it down in an obscure sci-fi anthology.

9. Books read long ago that it’s now time to re-read? Kafka's The Trial

10. The best non-fiction title you’ve read this year? I don't remember the last nonfiction I read.

The books we want to read…

1. Top five books on your “to be read” pile? Allison Pearson's I Think I Love You, Huxley's Point Counter Point, Leve's Suicide, Obrecht's The Tigers Wife, Hans Keilson's Comedy in a Minor Key and Le Carre's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I also want to finally get around to Franzen. I feel like I'm completely missing the conversation.

2. Bottom five books on your “to be read” pile? Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, The Jungle, Ivanhoe, Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc.

3. Books you’ve been planning to read for ages? It’s almost become a game to me as to how long I can go WITHOUT reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. I’m up to 15 years.

4. Books that if you had more than one life you’d certainly read but unfortunately your days are numbered? Proust. I sometimes have lofty and unrealistic reading goals, but I don't go there.

5. The next book you will read? I Think I Love You.

The characters we know…

1. Which fictional parents do you most wish you had? Atticus Finch came immediately to mind. And I love Ma Joad. I know she's poor and uneducated, but she's awesome.

2. Which fictional character has the most balls? I was going to write Dr. Frankenstein, because he has the balls to create life, but I think Hester Prynne (Scarlet Letter)takes the award, IMO. An honorable mention to Lena Grove from Faulkner's Light in August. She walks from Alabama to Mississippi to find her baby daddy. Oh yes, and Edmond Dantes.

3. To which fictional character’s house would you most like to be invited for dinner? Gatsby. Or someone from Dance to the Music of Time. Those people know how to have a dinner party.

4. If you could invite 3 fictional couples to your home for dinner, who would they be? I can't think of any couples, but I wouldn't mind having a drink with Brett Ashley, Jordan Baker, and Holly Golightly and maybe Sabina from Unbearable Lightness. And maybe Mrs. Erdleigh from Dance to the Music of Time could come and read fortunes.

5. Which fictional character frightens you the most? Madame de la Rougierre from Sheridan LeFanu's Uncle Silas still gives me the creeps. Mrs. Danvers (Rebecca) is also frightening. I don't like old women stalking around, apparently. The Dust Witch and Mr. Dark from Something Wicked This Way Comes also frighten me.

6. Which fictional character could probably entice you into his/her bed? I'm going to go with Almasy from The English Patient.

7. Which fictional character would most likely have broken your heart? Ah, Mr. Rochester...*sigh* Which is funny, really, because Bronte doesn’t hide the fact that he looks like a horse and has his wife locked in the attic.

8. Three characters you wish you could meet? Well, Meurseult, Binx Bolling, Antoine Roquentin and myself could all get together and talk about our existential crises

9. Three fictional characters you're heartily glad that you'll never have to meet? Definitely Ignatius from Confederacy of Dunces. He's hilarious but absolutely the last person I'd like to run into anywhere. Rabbit Angstrom and Tom Buchanan (Gatsby) are the other two that come to mind immediately. Michael Henchard is a great big asshole as well.

10. Three characters you would like to be? This is perhaps toughest of all. I never much thought of it... I don't know that I'd like to be any particular character. Most people in the books that I read don't have such great lives, so perhaps I should leave well-enough alone, if you know what I mean. I always did identify with Alice (in Wonderland), though.

The authors we love (or hate)…

1. Who is your all-time favorite author? Jack Kerouac, if only for purely sentimental reasons.

2. Who is your least favorite author? Henry James, by a looooooong shot

3. Three authors you want to read more by? Margaret Atwood and Don Delillo come to mind.

4. Author you definitely want to read, but haven’t yet? Jennifer Egan is one. Franzen also, and David Foster Wallace.

5. Which contemporary author will still be read in 100 years? I’m so behind on contemporary literature that I really couldn’t say. I hope Foer continues to write.

Another Book Meme

I found this really fun book meme. I love these things:

One book that changed your life: There have been so many books that have affected me over my reading life, but one especially come to mind as having actually influenced actions in my life: The Awakening by Kate Chopin. When I read it in high school, I thought it was fabulous. But it wasn’t until I was in an emotionally/psychologically abusive marriage that I realized The Awakening’s full power. Suddenly, I saw myself completely as Edna, and I saw Edna’s end as my own. That was the turning point for me: the realization that I didn’t have to be Edna…that there was an alternative path for me as a woman of the 21st century that was not available to Edna at the turn of the 20th. Taking full advantage of that was the best decision of my life…and The Awakening was a major factor in that decision.

One book that you’ve read more than once: I reread a lot (though not recently), but the book that most clearly illustrates the joys of rereading is The English Patient. Everytime I read it, I find something new, or a different passage means something other than what they meant before. Over the course of my life, I have identified wholeheartedly with Almasy, Katherine, and Hana. In fact, identifying with Hana made me come to terms with a “relationship” I was sort of having with a German. It wasn’t meant to be and The English Patient helped me realize and accept that fact. Rereading that book has also shown me how much I have grown and changed since I first read it 11 years ago, so it’s as much a biography and measure of myself as it is an exquisite piece of art.

One book you’d want on a desert island: My first reaction to this is to say Robinson Crusoe, as it might give me some ideas for survival techniques. My second reaction is to want The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus, simply so that I could be reminded of complete futility, repetitiveness and meaninglessness of all life, not just life on a desert island. My third reaction is to want a very long, classic tome, such as Don Quixote, War and Peace, Moby Dick, Dante’s Divine Comedy, or even "Paradise Lost", as it would take a lifetime to fully comprehend these great works, and being on a desert island, I would have all the time in the world.

One book that made you laugh: The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The Funniest Book Ever. I often see those, “If you could invite any three literary characters to lunch…” questions, and I can never really think of anyone specific. But Ignatius always immediately comes to mind as THE literary character that I would NOT want to invite to lunch.

One book that made you cry: Miracle in the Rain by Ben Hecht. The movie of the same name makes me sob uncontrollably as well. The saddest, yet most uplifting story ever about the undying quality of love. *Sigh*

One book you wish had been written: I wish the John Kennedy Toole would have lived long enough to write more novels, because I’m sure that I (and many others) would have thoroughly enjoyed them.

One book you wish had never been written: The Ambassadors. Or maybe we should just make a clean sweep of James’s entire catalog and save the next generation of readers from having to read that crap.

One book you’re currently reading: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. My book club's topic for April is Jane Austen, so rather than read a bio of her, I thought I would be completely unconventional and read Woolf instead. It discusses Austen after all, and the miracle that her works were written in the first place, so that sort of counts, right?

One book you’ve been meaning to read: My TBR list is about ten miles long, so I will go with Possession by Byatt. It's been on the pile for too long. Hopefully I'll get to it this year. I can't imagine how free my book list will be in 2011, when I am finished with the Modern Library's list. Oh wait, it won't be free because I'll probably be getting through Time's list. By the time I'm finished with all the top 100 lists of the 20th century they will be writing them about the 21st century. IT WILL NEVER END!