(no subject)
This is also an interesting idea.
Identify the book that each passage comes from. Let's see how fast you guys can do this! (Man, after looking for books to do this meme, I realized that I have a lot of crappy books on my bookshelf. Gilmore Girls?! WTF?)
1. Walden, guessed by pinskinator
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
2. Purgatorio, guessed by me because I don't think anyone is going to guess it
I threw myself devoutly at his holy feet, asking him to open out of mercy; but first I beat three times upon my breast. Upon my forehead, he traced seven P's with his sword's point and said: 'When you have entered within, take care to wash away these wounds.' Ashes, or dry earth that has just been quarried, would share one color with his robe, and from beneath that robe he drew two keys; the one was made of gold, the other was of silver; first with the white, then with the yellow key, he plied the gate so as to satisfy me.
3. A Brief History of Time, guessed by pinskinator
These particles have a property called spin. One way of thinking of spin is to imagine the particles as little tops spinning about an axis. However, this can be misleading, because quantum mechanics tells us that the particles do not have any well-defined axis. What the spin of a particle really tells us is what the particle looks like from different directions. A particle of spin 0 is like a dot: it looks the same from every direction. On the other hand, a particle of spin 1 is like an arrow. It looks different from different directions. Only if one turns it round a complete revolution (360 degrees) does the particle look the same. A particle of spin 2 is like a double-headed arrow: it looks the same if one turns it round half a revolution (180 degrees)...All this seems fairly straightforward, but the remarkable fact is that there are particles that do not look the same if one turns them through just one revolution: you have to turn them through two complete revolutions! Such particles are said to have spin 1/2.
(Sam, you'd better get this one. We discussed this passage on one of the last days of torture calc class. Hint: It's from a book you recommended to me a few years ago.)
4. Pride and Prejudice, guessed by boloyakima
In an hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better. She answered him with cold civility. He sat down for a few moments, and then getting up walked about the room. Elizabeth was surprised, but said not a word. After a silence of several minutes he came towards her in an agitated manner, and thus began,
"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."
(Amelia, you're not allowed to guess this one. I wanted a passage from this book because I heart it, but I don't own a copy, so I'm stealing your passage.)
5. The Right Stuff, guessed by me again
Within five minutes, or ten minutes, no more than that, three of the others had called her on the telephone to ask her if she had heard that something had happened out there.
"Jane, this is Alice. Listen, I just got a call from Betty, and she said she heard something's happened out there. Have you heard anything?" That was the way they phrased it, call after call. She picked up the telephone and began relaying this same message to some of the others...
Something was part of the official Wife Lingo for tiptoeing blindfolded around the subject.
Identify the book that each passage comes from. Let's see how fast you guys can do this! (Man, after looking for books to do this meme, I realized that I have a lot of crappy books on my bookshelf. Gilmore Girls?! WTF?)
1. Walden, guessed by pinskinator
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
2. Purgatorio, guessed by me because I don't think anyone is going to guess it
I threw myself devoutly at his holy feet, asking him to open out of mercy; but first I beat three times upon my breast. Upon my forehead, he traced seven P's with his sword's point and said: 'When you have entered within, take care to wash away these wounds.' Ashes, or dry earth that has just been quarried, would share one color with his robe, and from beneath that robe he drew two keys; the one was made of gold, the other was of silver; first with the white, then with the yellow key, he plied the gate so as to satisfy me.
3. A Brief History of Time, guessed by pinskinator
These particles have a property called spin. One way of thinking of spin is to imagine the particles as little tops spinning about an axis. However, this can be misleading, because quantum mechanics tells us that the particles do not have any well-defined axis. What the spin of a particle really tells us is what the particle looks like from different directions. A particle of spin 0 is like a dot: it looks the same from every direction. On the other hand, a particle of spin 1 is like an arrow. It looks different from different directions. Only if one turns it round a complete revolution (360 degrees) does the particle look the same. A particle of spin 2 is like a double-headed arrow: it looks the same if one turns it round half a revolution (180 degrees)...All this seems fairly straightforward, but the remarkable fact is that there are particles that do not look the same if one turns them through just one revolution: you have to turn them through two complete revolutions! Such particles are said to have spin 1/2.
(Sam, you'd better get this one. We discussed this passage on one of the last days of torture calc class. Hint: It's from a book you recommended to me a few years ago.)
4. Pride and Prejudice, guessed by boloyakima
In an hurried manner he immediately began an inquiry after her health, imputing his visit to a wish of hearing that she were better. She answered him with cold civility. He sat down for a few moments, and then getting up walked about the room. Elizabeth was surprised, but said not a word. After a silence of several minutes he came towards her in an agitated manner, and thus began,
"In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."
(Amelia, you're not allowed to guess this one. I wanted a passage from this book because I heart it, but I don't own a copy, so I'm stealing your passage.)
5. The Right Stuff, guessed by me again
Within five minutes, or ten minutes, no more than that, three of the others had called her on the telephone to ask her if she had heard that something had happened out there.
"Jane, this is Alice. Listen, I just got a call from Betty, and she said she heard something's happened out there. Have you heard anything?" That was the way they phrased it, call after call. She picked up the telephone and began relaying this same message to some of the others...
Something was part of the official Wife Lingo for tiptoeing blindfolded around the subject.