Tuesday 20 January 2009

A book meme

Grab the nearest book. Open it at random and post the first paragraph your gaze falls on, along with the book's title and author and the page number.
Oh cripes, it's a longish one, but good nonetheless:

"The key to bad girls is that they own their sexuality, and nobody dictates how they act out their sexuality. Possibly one of the best examples of a bad girl in literature is Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders. Published in 1722, the book was considered scandalous for its frankness and because of the unrepentant nature of the marauding Moll, who marries, deceives and cons an assortment of men in her search for wealth. Throughout the story, Moll must live by her wits, beauty and sexuality to survive. The children she has with her lovers and husbands are mostly pawned off for others to care for. Eventually her crimes land her in prison, where she manages to con the authorities out of hanging her, and she heads back to America, where she inherits a plantation. That is not the end of the story, but the point here is that Moll sold her soul and body for survival with little remorse, making her one of the original bad girls of literature."

You gotta love Moll. Anyway, this is from Bullies, Bastards & Bitches by Jessica Page Morrell, p228.

What about you lot?

8 comments:

Frances Garrood said...

Ok, Faye. Here goes. You did say the nearest book? Well, this is Chambers dictionary, page 497:
"glengarry... a narrow brimless cap creased in the middle from front to back and usually with two ribbons hanging at the back, worn eg by some Scottish regiments

PS Why are we doing this?

Frances Garrood said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Faye L. Booth said...

It's a meme, Frances. A game of sorts.

no said...

'For the poor old tailor was very ill with a fever, tossing and turning in his four-post bed; and still in his dreams he mumbled -'No more twist! No more twist!'

Beatrix Potter - The Tailor of Gloucester. Pg34.

You're lucky it wasn't a Ladybird Phonics Book. They're usually pretty close to hand in my house, but they're incredibly dull. Can't see why the Munchie digs them.

Faye L. Booth said...

Do they still do those Puddle Lane books for kids? I used to devour those.

no said...

Haven't come across them. I'll keep an eye out for them. I'm collecting for the Munchie - she already has a bookcase to rival mine. I hope for her sake she likes reading.

Tim Stretton said...

"We do not believe that the imposition of penalties on those making malicious complaints would be beneficial in the long term. The additional burden it would impose on the Standards Boards and its Ethical Standards Officers could not be justified and we are conscious that taking such an approach may act as a discincentive for those with legitimate complaints to raise."

--Councillors' Guide to Local Government Finance, 2008 Fully Revised Edition, ed. Capaldi.

(Well, I am at work. Don't you wish you had my job?)

David Isaak said...

"At the mortuary, when David examines Billy Corman's personal effects, he is restricted to a narrow band of the frame, glimpsed through doorways."

That's from The Films of Peter Weir by Jonathan Rayner, pg 96. I think he's talking about The Last Wave, but I haven't read the book.

Ethical Standards Officer? Do they get badges and handcuffs and stuff?