Marie Monday

1. Go to your bookshelves (or wherever you keep books), close your eyes and randomly grab a book. Open to page 30 and quote the first full sentence on the page.
A Reef - crawled easy from the Sea
2. You can keep only 3 books for the rest of your life. Which would they be?
Middlemarch by George Eliot, War and Peace by Tolstoj, and the Bullerby Children omnibus by Astrid Lindgren
3. What is your ethnic background?
Mostly Dutch, 1/8 German (my great-grandmother was German), Danish (something like a great-great-great-grandmother) and European-American and possibly a native American ancestor from back in the civil war era or something
4. Describe one of the most embarrassing moments in your life.
So many little moments as an extremely daydreamy kid where I would constantly do things like walk into wrong classrooms or adsentmindedly only changing my shirt after gym class and wearing a weird mix of normal and sports clothes. Those things which are funny in hindsight but extremely embarassing when you're 7.
But a later moment which stands out for being very formative for me: one time in my teens when I was trying to be feminine I wore heels to school. Obviously I couldn't walk on them and I didn't feel like myself at all, and at one moment I was walking along a long empty corridor and this guy from my class came walking from the other side. He just observed my awkwardness and snickered. That really helped me realise I wasn't going to fit in anyway, but if I just stayed true to myself I would at least keep people's respect
5. What is your ultimate comfort food?
burritos
6. What is the last film you watched in the theater?
I don't remember, it was really long ago. Maybe La La Land?

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Lisnaholic

1. Go to your bookshelves (or wherever you keep books), close your eyes and randomly grab a book. Open to page 30 and quote the first full sentence on the page.
"I can only hope that those boys went there to learn French, and that their parents were not particular as to their classical acquirements."

2. You can keep only 3 books for the rest of your life. Which would they be?
All maybes: The Poisonwood Bible by B Kingsolver, Eyeless In Gaza by A Huxley, The Pillars of Hercules by P Theroux
Can we answer with three different ones tomorrow?

3. What is your ethnic background?
In dwindling order of percentage: English/Irish/French afaik

6. What is the last film you watched in the theater?
From many years ago, perhaps Pokemon The Movie or The Talented Mr. Ripley

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Lisnaholic

Good choice, to judge from this book's length and reputation - both of which have always daunted me, tbh. I quite enjoyed a shorter excursion into Tolstoy's world: Anna Karenina.
For number of words, I might swap out one of my choices for Bruce Catton's The Army of The Potomac which runs to 3 vols.

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

OccultHawk

War and Peace is obviously really long but it’s not that difficult. It’s not like one of those books where you have to sweat out every damn sentence.

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Marie Monday

^true that
If you like Anna Karenina I highly recommend reading War and Peace too. It's like the zoomed out equivalent of Anna Karenina: less focused on one topic and less sharp in detail and realism, but wider in scope and experience.

I'm amused by your hesitance when it comes to picking your 3 books; my choices are set in stone.

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OccultHawk

I’m surprised people are choosing **** they have read though. I went with **** I haven’t read that could occupy years.

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Cuthbert

1. Go to your bookshelves (or wherever you keep books), close your eyes and randomly grab a book. Open to page 30 and quote the first full sentence on the page.

I'm in bed and can't be bothered to get up and get a book

2. You can keep only 3 books for the rest of your life. Which would they be?

There are a few, no idea if you limit it to three.

3. What is your ethnic background?

Parents are Irish & Northern Irish, one of my grandparents is English. Don't consider myself to be anything other than English & British tbh.

4. Describe one of the most embarrassing moments in your life.

I can't think of that many but vomiting on a girl's legs after downing a pint in a bar was a particular lowlight and would have been much more embarrassing if I wasn't already walking out when it happened

5. What is your ultimate comfort food?

Cottage pie with ale in it

6. What is the last film you watched in the theater?

I don't know but it would have been about 2001. Honestly no idea.

Cheers ribbons

OccultHawk

You goddamn limey mick. Now I ****ing get it.

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Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion

Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND:

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ribbons

Marie, here's a little something for you (but alas, no Garths - drat!).



Thank you for introducing me to the world of Middlemarch. I'm only a quarter of the way through, but will finish if it's the last thing I do.

ribbons

Of course you can! I'd be happy if you listed three different ones every day, Lisna. I need to expand my reading list.