Below are the 14 most recent journal entries recorded in Literature Meme Collective's LiveJournal:

Sunday, January 15th, 2006
8:35 pm [penguinpunk]	I've got a new one. The instructions: 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. 5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Take one that's actually next to you. Two people I know had ECT in early 2000. The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
3:31 pm [penguinpunk]	First lines meme 1. Two o'clock in the morning, A thursday morning, the first bit of water broke through the ground of George Clatterbuck's back pasture in Habit, Kentucky, and not a living soul saw it. 2. My wound is geography. 3. On the afternoon of October 12, 1990, my twin brother Thomas entered the Three Rivers, Connecticut PUblic Library, retreated to one of the rear study carrels, and prayed to God the sacrifice he was about to commit would be deemed acceptable. ( I know this much is true Wally Lamb. guessed by tsgeisel) 4. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. 5. What about a teakettle? 6. "The amendment that protects..." Sharp voice falling on muffled ears. 7. The Salinas Valley is in Nothern California. 8. Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened. 9. The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years--if it ever did end--began, so far as I can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. (It by Stephen King guessed by goblin_11) 10. This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet that was dying fast. Current Music: Let me down hard- John Eddie (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005
10:15 am [tsgeisel]	You wouldn't know X if Y... I'm looking for phrases similar to these: "[She] would probably not recognize the British coastline if it were to dance through her bedroom at the head of a marching band, singing "I'm the British Coastline" in a loud and cheerful voice, while accompanying itself on the kazoo." - Neil Gaiman, from "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" "Baldric, you wouldn't know a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and tap-danced naked on a harpsichord singing Subtle Plans Are Here Again." - Blackadder Anyone have more? I know they're out there... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 28th, 2005
10:11 am [shyaway]	First lines meme What a great meme! 1. How seductive are the memories of one's youth! 2. They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. 3. There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. (Jane Eyre, guessed by penguinpunk) 4. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. (I Capture the Castle, guessed by penguinpunk) 5. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice, guessed by wildroseings) 6. All children, except one, grow up. (Peter Pan, guessed by slutbamwalla) 7. It was the last day of July. 8. Whenever people hear that when I was fourteen I was a member of the crew of the Spaceship Adventurer, they always say the same thing. 9. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. (The Hobbit, guessed by slutbamwalla) 10."Do you think the king is dead?" (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005
9:21 pm [elaran]	LIT MEME! 1. My father had a face that could stop time. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (guessed by macabre_san) 2. Les Greenleaf and my dad, Ben Austin, had served in the same outfit during the Vietnam War, and twenty-five years later they could spend whole afternoons swapping war stories. Regina's Song by David Eddings (guessed by macabre_san) 3. The wind came from nowhere. 4. When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (guessed by goblin_11) 5. Will you look at us by the river! 6. My suffering left me sad and gloomy. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (guessed by parsnipo) 7. Three children lay on the rocks at the water's edge. 8. In 1815, M. Charles Francois Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of D__. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (guessed by nautiluspq) 9. It is a curious thing that at my age-- I shall never see sixty again-- I should find myself taking uop a pen to write a history. King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard (guessed by elsbeth_renee) 10. Rachel clutched her doll tighter to her chest and stared at the dark thing watching her from the bushes. Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind (guessed by aqeldroma) Current Mood: bored (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 29th, 2005
1:16 pm [goblin_11]	The First Line Meme Awesomeness. Anyways, ten first lines, and ten books, obviously. Eight authors because this is, more or less, limited to the books I actually own. Otherwise, I would go insane and develop split personalities. 1. The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself. (Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Guessed by tsgeisel) 2. The bulletin board outside lecture hall 1712A of Patrick Henry High School showed a flashing red light. 3. His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. (Lord Of Light by Roger Zelazny. Guessed by aqeldroma) 4. Just because they really are out to get you doesn't mean you aren't paranoid. 5. His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before. (Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Guessed by elaran) 6. The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of lilac, or the delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. (The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde. Guessed by dannybailey) 7. It happened that, on the sixth day of spring, in the first year of the reign of His Imperial Majesty Tortaalik I of the House of the Phoenix, a young gentleman entered a small hostelry, in the village of Newmarket, some sixty leagues from Dragaera City. (Phoenyx Guards by Steven Brust. Guessed by tsgeisel) 8. The rumor spread through the city like wildfire... (The Truth by Terry Pratchett. Guessed by tsgeisel) 9. The Russian Soldier made his way nervously up the rugged side of the hill, holding his gun ready. 10. It was starting to end, after what seemed most of eternity to me. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Lovely Creature- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
12:16 am [tsgeisel]	My first line meme - hints My original post now with hints: 1) This series at times looks at literature from the inside out. 3) Theodore in this situation is Roosevelt. 4) The first novel by a writer who's won much acclaim in the SF world. 5) The second line would be a giveaway. Simplicity is the key in this novel. 7) The only novel from a series tied together by the short stories. 8) More SF. Aliens and monkeys and then some. 10) I can't give any hints here. It's a very famous starting sentence fragment. Sorry if these aren't of too much help. It's a fine line between giving it away and keeping on being obscure. #10 should be easy, #1 shouldn't be that difficult, #5 is probably the most difficult. Even I had problems remembering what I used for it... Current Mood: bored (Comment on this)
Monday, May 23rd, 2005
12:18 pm [zo_what]	1) Select 5-10 (or so) favorite books. 2) Post the first line from them. If there's a prologue, or some introductory text, use your judgment. 3) Don't mention the title or author. Duh. That's for everyone else to figure out. 4) It's not a bad idea, after someone correctly identifies the book, to update the original entry to reflect that fact. 5) If you choose to extol the virtues of your favorite book in comments or after someone guesses them, nobody will likely stop you 1. This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it. - The Princess Bride by William Goldman 2. It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport." - The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams 3. "What's it going to be, then, eh?" - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 4. Current theories on the creation of the universe state that, if it was created at all and didn't just start, as it were, unofficially, it came into being between ten and twenty thousand million years ago. - Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 5. It was love at first sight. - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 6. You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't. Trust me, I was there. I know. 7. We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 8. Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut 9. The house stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the village. It stood on its own and looked out over a broad spread of West County farmland. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 10. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, at a time when Western civilization was declining too rapidly for comfort and yet too slowly to be very exciting, much of the world sat on the edge of an increasingly expensive theater seat, waiting--with various combinations of dread, hope, and ennui--for something momentous ot occur. These are probably all hard, but such is life. Current Mood: weird Current Music: Sublime - Why Can't We Be Friends? (14 Comments |Comment on this)
10:14 am [tsgeisel]	Disfunctional family feud I have 3 surveys up, for a Family Feud style game. One is directly lit related. Feel free to spread the word. www.seuss.org/fam.feud/intro.html Thanks. When I'm over 100 responses in each category, I'll post the results. Feel free to spread the word. Current Mood: nerdy (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005
8:12 pm [parsnipo]	First Line meme This looks like fun :) 1) Select 5-10 (or so) favorite books. 2) Post the first line from them. If there's a prologue, or some introductory text, use your judgment. 3) Don't mention the title or author. Duh. That's for everyone else to figure out. 4) It's not a bad idea, after someone correctly identifies the book, to update the original entry to reflect that fact. 5) If you choose to extol the virtues of your favorite book in comments or after someone guesses them, nobody will likely stop you. 1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want to a wife. Pride and Prejudice rockinlibrarian 2. Bryce waited for Rivers to finish reading before he spoke again. 3. 1801- I have just returned from a visit to my landlord, the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with Wuthering Heights shyaway 4. There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. Jane Eyre elsbeth_renee 5. 7.15am Hurrah! The wilderness years are over. 6. He was afraid to go to sleep. 7. Each of us has a private Austen. 8. ‘Edith!’ said Margaret gently ‘Edith!’ But, as Margaret half suspected, Edith had fallen asleep. North and South shyaway 9. When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. To Kill a Mocking Bird dannybailey 10. Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch-hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his facilities were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest parents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt. Persuation rockinlibrarian (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 2nd, 2005
5:56 pm [dannybailey]	First Line Meme My Turn! 1) Select 5-10 (or so) favorite books. 2) Post the first line from them. If there's a prologue, or some introductory text, use your judgment. 3) Don't mention the title or author. Duh. That's for everyone else to figure out. 4) It's not a bad idea, after someone correctly identifies the book, to update the original entry to reflect that fact. 5) If you choose to extol the virtues of your favorite book in comments or after someone guesses them, nobody will likely stop you. 1. When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and ride home. 2. I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn’t try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. 3. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. 4. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. 5. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake 6. Theo, by occupation, was a devil. 7. The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. 8. That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. 9. Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable. 10. I'm Rad I'm deaf I don't talk I'm fourteen I'm telling the story. Good luck! (As a hint, many of them are Young Adult books, because I seem to be going into a nostalgia kick. Reliving the good old days. Right.) Current Mood: cheerful (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, May 1st, 2005
9:27 pm [tsgeisel]	Rejected Gor titles I'm sure it's been done before, but feel free to add to this list of rejected titles for Gor novels: Switches of Gor Programmers of Gor Fashionista of Gor Queer Eye for the Gorean Guy Star Gors Gor and Peace (please, do continue...) Current Mood: amused (2 Comments |Comment on this)
9:22 pm [tsgeisel]	First Line Meme (For those who've seen my last one - all new books.) 1) Select 5-10 (or so) favorite books. 2) Post the first line from them. If there's a prologue, or some introductory text, use your judgment. 3) Don't mention the title or author. Duh. That's for everyone else to figure out. 4) It's not a bad idea, after someone correctly identifies the book, to update the original entry to reflect that fact. 5) If you choose to extol the virtues of your favorite book in comments or after someone guesses them, nobody will likely stop you. #1: ...The Special Operations Network was instigated to handle policing duties considered either too unusual or too specialized to be tackled by the regular force. (The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde) #2: There once was a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself -- not just sometimes, but always. (The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster) #3: Theodore is in the ground. #4: The Go Big Red Fan was John Wesley Fenrick's, and when ventilating his System it throbbed and crept along the floor with a rhythmic chunka-chunka-chunk. #5: It was Sunday. #6: I was leaning against the bar in a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me. (The Thin Man - Dashell Hammet) #7: Story, place and time -- these are the essentials. #8: How strange that such an insignificant little world should come to matter so much. #9: There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis) #10: to wound the autumnal city. Current Mood: creative (10 Comments |Comment on this)
8:47 pm [tsgeisel]	Welcome to lit_meme This community is for the propagation and aggregation of various literature-related memes, quizzes, games and puzzles. It's not intended to replace any discussion community already in existence, but to give multiple people a chance to see memes out there they might enjoy, and might otherwise miss. To use a specific example, recently there was a first line quiz going around. Select 5-10 favorite books, post the first line, invite others to guess. I quite enjoyed both making the list, and trying to guess others - no matter that I generally failed miserably. But I only saw a couple that people not on my friends list did, and figured there have to be more out there. Hence, this community. A place for you to post memes of literary interest. Not necessarily a place to *discuss* literature, but I'm not silly enough to think that that won't happen in the comments. And that's ok. I'll get the ball rolling Real Soon Now... Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)