horrible procrastination

Yesterday as I was sitting in the library, not working on one of the five papers that is due in the next week, I wasted time with one of my favorite middle school past times: online quizzes!

I took "Which Literary Character Are You Most Attracted To?" and got Pip. (Yeah, I know...) After I finished taking it, it occurred to me that it is book related, and thus blog-able for this site, but I felt like I needed to stop wasting even more time.
But now I want to share the quiz I took yesterday, because it's infinitely better than the one I took just now.
So here is the one I got Pip for (sorry, guys, I guess you could take the quiz and describe yourself in a relationship if you want to see who you'd be...): Which Literary Character Are You Most Attracted to?

That quiz seems absolutely quality compared to the one I took a few minutes ago. I've just completed "The Literary Character Test" and received the following results:

Your result for The Literary Character Test...

Juliette

You are...

Souless, heartless and decadent, Juliette is a character from her self-titled book by the infamous (and sometimes boring) Marquis De Sade. This woman profits immensely though her debaucheries, killing husbands, lovers and others while indulging in the flesh of the willing and not-so-willing. She is crafty and evil- the total opposite of her sister, Justine.

From "Juliette" by the Marquis De Sade

Take The Literary Character Test at OkCupid

I'm pretty disappointed, and also confused by the result. It doesn't help that I've never read Juliette (or even heard of it, for that matter). I'm also always astounded by the spelling/grammatical errors in these online quizzes, especially when they're about literary characters.

At any rate... if anyone needs an almost certainly dorkier than how you already procrastinate way to procrastinate, I recommend these corny online quizzes.

pride & prejudice on twitter

The title of this post really says it all. I haven't read through this entire blog that presents Pride and Prejudice as a series of tweets, but what I've read so far is pretty funny.
http://madhattermommy.blogspot.com/2009/05/pride-and-twitterverse.html

I especially like this exchange between Bingley and Darcy in the first ball scene:

Bingley:
@Darcy I can hardly wait to dance with @JaneB. She is the most capital girl I have ever met. #loveat1stsight

Darcy:
@Bingley Any savage can dance. #proofofmysuperiority

Bingley:
@Darcy JaneB's sister, Lizzy is pretty. You could dance with her. It would be capital fun.

Darcy:
@Bingley She's tolerable, but she is not handsome enough to tempt me. Also: could you stop saying "capital" so much? #abovemypeers

there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away

I've been exploring some book blogs in hopes of finding one with posts I find interesting, and the Guardian Book Blogs offer some cool entries.

This post by Stephen Emms caught my eye because it's about a Japanese author I enjoy, Haruki Murakami:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/nov/27/falling-out-of-love-with-murakami.

Emms is basically suggesting that though he once loved Murakami's fantastical stories, he's now grown disinterested in the prolific writer. I'm a Murakami fan, but have read only three out of his massive 40+ collection of books. His writing (all in translation, of course, though it would be incredible to read them in Japanese) is strange and exquisite. Most of his novels feature parallel plots: the real world intersecting with a gloriously bizarre dream universe. I'm not a science fiction fan at all, and that's not how I would classify Murakami's writing - but it's not realistic like most of my preferred novels.

I understand Emms' complaints, and sort of agree with his statement below:

It's not the ever-modest Murakami's fault – his flight from Japan after the success of Norwegian Wood makes you wonder if he himself considers himself a little over-rated. It's just that his surreal tales about lost souls, with their inevitable choices between two different women, rather blur together.

The only thing is, I don't mind that his novels blur together in my head. Sure, it's embarrassing when I can't recollect if a particular plot point is from Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the Universe or (my favorite Murakami novel) Kafka on the Shore, but that doesn't mean I like Murakami's writing any less because of it. I tend to respect that writers perfect certain niches. If they're doing them well, I don't mind slight repetition of themes throughout their works. It's my choice to read a Murakami novel when I'm in the mood for one. He is incredible at painting unbelievable scenes of crazy alternate worlds that speak to the truth of humanity in moving terms. And when that's what I want to read, that's where I go.

It's not that Murakami's range is even that limited. The first novel I ever read of his was a realistic novel - Norwegian Wood - and, at age 15, I loved it for its explicit love scenes and adult treatment of romance and sex. Murakami's writing can be tough to wade through, but I think it's rewarding when you're in the mood for a mind-blowing challenge.