Tagged by Epijunky (along with several others) with the Bookworm Award:
The rules are as follows:
Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences. The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!
Okay, the book tucked in the front pocket of my briefcase is Glory Road, by the inestimable R.A. Heinlein. From Page 56:
I simply intended to sight a bit high up on the trunk and hope that so heavy a bow would give me a flattish trajectory. Mostly I wanted to nock, bend and loose all in one motion as Rufo had done – to look like Robin Hood even though I was not.
A rollicking good yarn, that one. Over beer, cigars and steaks last Wednesday, I had confessed a shameful sin to TOTWTYTR and our buddy Donn Barnes – namely, that as fairly well-read as I am, I had never read Heinlein.
Yes, I know. I told you I wasn’t real proud of it.
Donn, being the generous soul that he is, promptly gave me a spare copy of Glory Road, and I devoured it in about three hours. Methinks that rather soon, more works of R.A.H. shall grace my bookshelves.
And while we’re on the subject of memery, Xtine also tagged me with the Seven Weird Book Facts meme, which requires that I share seven weird book facts about myself, then tag seven others.
Well, I’ll forego the tagging of others, but assuming that my Heinlein deficiency is the first weird AD book fact, here are six others:
2. I read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica by the time I was five years old. Every volume, cover to cover. Other kids in kindergarten were learning to write their names, and I was reading Louis L’Amour novels at naptime. How’s that for geek credentials?
3. I have never considered myself a particularly talented writer. Despite one published book, another on the way, this blog, and numerous columns and articles in minor trade journals, I always considered myself a technical writer, and not terribly creative. I’m a storyteller, not a writer with a capital W. Maybe that’s the secret – I write like I talk. Sometimes paying attention to the conventions of writing can cramp your style.
4. I read about 100-120 pages an hour, and retain most of what I read. I read War and Peace in sixteen straight hours in high school, and then aced an essay test on it the next day.
That’s sixteen hours of my life I’ll never get back. Between Anna Karenina and Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, I figure I wasted a forty hour work week that could have otherwise been put to good use enjoying Heinlein. Curse you, Mr. Halbrook and your elitist “science fiction is literary junk food for the proletariat” attitude. Curse your very soul.
5. I dig military fiction. Tom Clancy and W.E.B Griffin are favorites. Clancy has a gift for intricate plotting and exhaustive research, while Griffin may be a bit expansive, but he’s a genius at dialogue. The interplay between his characters just…flows. It reads like real conversation.
6. Most paramedic textbooks are written at a 10th grade reading level. Most EMT textbooks are written somewhere around the 8th grade level. Scary, ain’t it?
Which of course explains why I’ve never written a paramedic textbook. I’d gouge my eyes out before dumbing down the content to fit Bubba Brainless and his dubba-digit vocabalerry.
Don’t blame the students, though. They’re simply the products of the current US educational system. CrankyProf gets the same turds in her college literature courses.
7. I once turned down a $40k a year job on an offshore oil rig because there was no way the helicopter could haul enough books to keep me occupied for a 28 day stretch. Keep in mind this was 15 years ago when e-books weren’t an option, and a $40k paramedic salary was really something.
Okay, that’s two memes knocked out with one stone. Tag yourself if you’d like, and tell me where to read…
