I heard this morning on the radio that 900,000 new blog posts go up every day. Do we really need another one? From me? Probably not. But I’m going to post anyway. I started out my first year posting every day, then went to every two days, and lately I’ve been at every three days. I’ve seen no signs that the world is suffering from my slowdown.
My post today is a kind of meme I made up for myself. Certainly if anyone wants to do it, feel free. Or use parts of it if you want. Or not.
What five novels (other than your own) do you wish you had written?
1. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
2. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
3. War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells
4. A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
5. The Hour of the Dragon, by Robert E. Howard
What five short stories (other than your own) do you wish you had written?
1. The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe
2. Surface Tension, by James Blish
3. Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov
4. The Valley of the Worm, Robert E. Howard
5. The Statement of Randolph Carter, H. P. Lovecraft
What five songs (other than your own) do you wish you had written?
1. Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zeppelin
2. Bullet the Blue Sky, by U2
3. The Warning, by Black Sabbath,
4. Screaming in the Night, by Krokus
5. Leper Messiah, by Metallica
What five movies do you wish you had written/directed?
1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Alien, Aliens
3. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
4. Predator
5. The Thing (John Carpenter version)
What five science/nonfiction books do you wish you’d written?
1. On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
2. The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen
3. The Night Country, by Loren Eiseley
4. Never Cry Wolf, by Farley Mowat
5. Artic Dreams, by Barry Lopez
What five games do you wish you had invented?
1. Chess
2. Scrabble
3. Jikaida
4. Jetan
5. Kaissa
What five movie lines do you wish you’d written? (Mine are all from Clint Eastwood)
1. Go ahead, make my day
2. Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you? Punk?
3. A man’s got to know his limitations
4. Deservin’s got nothing to do with it.
5. There’s nothing like a good piece of hickory.
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So now yours is 900,001, and when I get back I'll be doing your meme so that will make 900,002! Aren't you ashamed of yourself for contributing to the deliquency of a blogger?
ReplyDeleteRick, you'll never know how ashamed I am. I'm just hanging my head right now!
ReplyDeletehahahahaha this is AWESOME! you know why in particular? we have NOTHING in common! and yet for many years, we've found common ground on the internet :)
ReplyDeleteCharles,
ReplyDeleteI love this post -- what a great idea. You have some wonderful suggestions here.
I read Frankenstein when I was 17. I always thought it was one of the best books I ever read.
Those Clint Eastwood lines are so much fun.
I think I will ponder some of my favorites and do the same!
Thanks -- see, you've generated even more posts!
I'll just do one for some:
ReplyDeleteNovel: Satanic Versus.
Song: I & I by Bob Dylan, altho Bullet the Blue Sky is also an excellent choice. Or maybe Running to Stand Still.
Move: Donnie Darko.
On non-fiction I'll just say Never Cry Wolf is one of my favourite books but it certainly blurred the lines between fact and fiction.
Game: Chess.
I agree whole heartedly with Dracula and Frankenstein...great books! Very scary...
ReplyDeleteI just recently had a dream about Clint Eastwood, LOL!
I agree whole heartedly with Dracula and Frankenstein...great books! Very scary...
ReplyDeleteI just recently had a dream about Clint Eastwood, LOL!
I'll be 900,003. We should all be so ashamed. And your meme sounds great, although I'm not a science fiction reader so I may customize the meme a little bit. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteCharles: good choices that truly reflect the You we've come to know!
ReplyDeleteAloha, Friend!
Comfort Spiral
there's some good stuff in there. nice Eastwood lines. "war of the worlds" would definitely have been a cool book to write (and enjoy the reactions).
ReplyDelete900,000? WOW. Suddenly my blog feels even smaller and more insignificant *grins*
ReplyDeleteI'm kidding - my blog is a blessing to me because it has opened a world. It's a world where I am able to communicate with people that I may have never known otherwise.
And I wish that I had wrote Stairway to Heaven too.
To the rest of the world it'll probably mean nothing, but to the blogger, it is a piece of him or herself exposed.
ReplyDeleteI like your meme. One movie line I wish I had written:
I'll be back.
What five songs?
ReplyDeleteAnything by The Ramones.
er, Genrely speaking...
ReplyDeleteThis one is fun - Think I'll do this one too. Interesting list of short stories, Charles.
ReplyDeleteah, thanks for the laugh! I just may do this meme m'self-- save me from having to, you know, blog about the insomnia...
ReplyDeleteThose Eastwood lines totally got me@!
Would like to have written Teen Spirit by Nirvana.
ReplyDelete'The Valley of the Worm' is a classic! The comic book adaptation almost did it justice too. I'll list one short story I seldom hear mentioned 'The Purloined Letter' by Edgar Allan Poe.
ReplyDeletelol... i'm still posting daily in my blog, much of it things i find online
ReplyDeletethis will be seriously cut back once i get the hang of my wacom tablet and animation programs ;)
Charles, It's amazing how much I enjoy your blog considering we have opposite tastes in books, music, movies, etc. And I am sure you feel the same way about me. (i hope!) It's always fun to learn personal info on my blogfriends!
ReplyDeletemoonrat, well, we love books and writers, just not the same ones!
ReplyDeleteKathleen A. Ryan, Frankenstein was a really good book, and such an iconic one crossing so many genres of the modern world. And yeah, Clint is always good for a few one liners.
benjibopper, I didn’t even think of Satanic Verses but now that you mention it I might have picked that one too. Yeah, I agree Never Cry Wolf is very much narrative nonfiction, and only Mowat knows how much is absolutely true. Great book though.
staceyjwarner, thanks for visiting. All the books I picked are basically classics in their genres, or classics in general. Good stuff.
Laurie Powers, feel free to twist it around however you want. If I’d been listing the ten books I wanted to have written some Louis L’Amour would have been on there.
Cloudia, thanks. I enjoy thinking about such weird stuff.
Greg Schwartz, and so influential. I love the idea of a book I’ve written spawning sequels and movies years and years later.
jennifer, yeah, we are all in that number so to speak. Stairway to Heaven has been my favorite song since the first time I heard it.
Ocean Girl, lol. That line could be the theme line for bloggers perhaps?
JR's Thumbprints, I like the Ramones but I don’t think I’m that big a fan.
ivan, lol. Definitely mostly genre stuff here, but that’s what I’ve read most.
ARCHAVIST, I’m a really huge fan of short stories. I’ve just read so many wonderful ones.
Steve Malley, Eastwood is always good for a few one liners. There are plenty more I could have selected besides those five. And some cool ones from other movies as well.
Rowe, I like that song pretty well. It’s actually the only Nirvana song I’ve heard that I do like, but I’ve only heard what plays on the radio.
BernardL, it was hard to pick something from Poe. He’s got a lot of great stuff. And yeah, The valley of the worm is my favorite Howard and I like a lot of his stuff too.
laughingwolf, that should be cool. I don’t even know what a wacom tablet is though.
jodi, the blogosphere wouldn’t be much fun if everyone had the same tastes. I enjoy being amazed at the tastes (or lack thereof) of my friends. :)
You know that my 5 songs come from Floyd, but ohhhhhhh, which 5 to choose???
ReplyDeleteBTW, to me you're #1 (not 900,001.)
ReplyDeleteCharles, I'm actually surprised that so many new blogs go up (although I had read the same stat) since many bloggers have bailed out for Facebook. Me? I work seven days a week because of the recession given my strange occupation. I post very infrequently and miss my blog buddies.
ReplyDeleteAs for your memes, I'll address two of them:
Novels: any 5 by Vonnegut, Clarke, or Asimov.
Music: any 5 by the Beatles.
Lana, yes, I would have guessed they'd come from Floyd. and, no you.
ReplyDeleteBilly, I've been slowing down a lot in my blogging too, because of work and family responsibilities. It happens.
Really? 900k posts every day?
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to decide whether that's a reasonable amount, too few, or too many. I guess it doesn't matter eh?
"War of the Worlds", by H. G. Wells. It's one of my favorite books of all time.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read "The Outline of History" by H.G. Wells? It's also an amazing book.
900,000 posts a day? Holy doodle!
I want to write a satiric history of gay bars, but I fear a Jihad.
ReplyDeleteer, Satanic Purses?
Travis, it just amazes me the amount of new information, or new material that fills the net each day. Pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteJo, I have read The Outline of history. Have read most of Wells' stuff. He was a favorite writer of mine as a kid.
Ivan, Somehow I doubt the gays will be quite upset enough to declare Jihad.
I'll be happy knowing that I was a part of the heard on this one. Just doing my part to use up shrinking bandwidth.
ReplyDeleteGood list I actually knew most of your referred to's.
Oh, very interesting, Charles. I'll save this for my own blog. 900,003.
ReplyDeleteMark, yes, we are all bandwith zombies. Eating the airwaves.
ReplyDeletePattinase, thankee. Glad you enjoyed.
i'm sure lana could tell you, or you might look here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wacom.com/index2.php?gclid=CPTztOr02J0CFcpB5godDkyQsA
Excellent list. Love the Clint Eastwood lines. Actually did a speech on his quips in speech class back in the late 70s.
ReplyDeleteAlmost a million blog posts per day. That's one scary stat. No wonder it's so hard to keep up with things.
i may have to do this meme, I've been rather overwhelmed lately and not enough energy to write more than I have to write for work.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging in 2004--my peak year was 2007, it looks like last year and this year will be about the same with roughly 10 posts a month.
i may have to do this meme, I've been rather overwhelmed lately and not enough energy to write more than I have to write for work.
ReplyDeleteI started blogging in 2004--my peak year was 2007, it looks like last year and this year will be about the same with roughly 10 posts a month.
laughingwolf, I'll check it out.
ReplyDeleteErik, yeah, I'd hate to have all those blogs in my google reader!
sage, I've not been doing it that long but my main issue has been being able to keep up with all the blogs I'd like to visit.
Have you ever read the sci fi THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY by Sherri S. Tepper. Now, that's a sci fi I wish I'd written!
ReplyDeleteDo we really need another one? From me? Probably not.
ReplyDeleteIf the word "we" refers to the planet, the the answer is "probably not." But if "we" are your blogging friends, then, yeah, we do need another post from you. :-)
Love your answers, Charles!
I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or
only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Bullet the Blue Sky is one of my favorite U2 songs (although I stopped paying attention to them after Achtung, Baby).
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite movie lines is from Pulp Fiction (probably because Sam Jackson delivered it so well): "Oh, oh, you're ready to blow? Well, I’m a mushroom-cloud-layin’ motherfu**er, motherfu**er! Every time my fingers touch brain, I’m Superfly T.N.T., I’m the Guns of the Navarone!"
Barrie, I haven't read that one but I've read a couple of Tepper's books and found them good.
ReplyDeleteVesper, you're too kind. Now you've made me blush! ;) Yes, I love that little Clint essay. It just fires the blood.
Avery DeBow, I actually only own the U2 album with Bullet on it. I'm not a big fan of most of the rest of their stuff. Bullet seems out of place in many ways. A hard rocker for sure. Sepultura did a heavy ass cover of Bullet. You can find it on You tube.
A truly amazing collection of fives, here. My reaction to all that was somehow similar to moonrat's though :)
ReplyDeleteexcept for the Bullet the Blue Sky... :)
this post was well worth make it the 900001st :))
Stairway to Heaven: we've got that one in common! And I loved Frankenstein and Dracula, though I don't wish I'd written them -- I feel like reading them all over again.
ReplyDeleteSzelsofa, it was kind of fun to put this together.
ReplyDeleteMary Witzl, I just think it would be great to have essentially started a genre.