A meme? Yes, a meme!

[dr_whom]

It's me! And here's a meme taken from q10. The idea is, you pick ten of your favorite novels, look them up on Amazon.com, and find the list of Statistically Improbable Phrases for those novels. Pick a few SIPs from each novel, list them here, and then have people guess what books they are. All clear? Just so:

1. barn cellar, grey spider, old sheep

2. boy with the purple socks, tomato sandwich

3. chewing pellets, beech hanger, other rabbits

4. gatehouse study, nutbrown ale, big badger

5. little hairy man, black silk top hat, fallen star

6. madhouse attendants, little stone figure, extraordinary revival

7. pea shooters, peace march, pickle barrel

8. purple waves, wax dummy

9. scarlet kimono, quarter past one, communicating door

10. tangents paper, rarefying engine, cabinet noir


Most of those look pretty easy, actually. Ah, and as for the previous meme, well.... I haven't officially abandoned it yet, but.

Comments

[jcberk.livejournal.com]

You posting? Is that allowed? Next thing you know I'll succumb.

I can identify 1, 3, and 5 off the top of my head (and apparently my guess for 4 is right) but will claim 5, _Stardust_ by Neil Gaiman, since I just read _Anansi Boys_ (finally) and enjoyed it hugely.

[jcberk.livejournal.com]

And I can't believe I failed to immediately realize what 7 was. I love that book. I was exceedingly excited to find it in a bookstore a couple years ago and now wish it wasn't hidden away in a box. Don't think anyone else I know has ever mentioned hearing of it, so thanks for the memories. :)

[dr_whom]

I'm not really posting! It's just a meme. Really I would post more, except it's been a while since I found a meme that interested me enough.

The solution for books hidden away in boxes is to unpack!

Stardust is one of the ones I wouldn't have been able to guess here, so nice job.

[jcberk.livejournal.com]

The reason not to unpack is moving twice in the next year! The books live in my parents' attic until I decide to live in a city for more than a year at a time. {crosses fingers that'll be after next year}

"Fallen star" to me means either _Stardust_ or _Howl's Moving Castle_, and the other two SIPs definitely didn't come from the latter. Are there other fallen star books? (Er, well, maybe some that reference _Paradise Lost_?)

[prisminawindow.livejournal.com]

1) Charlotte's Web

2) Harriet the Spy

[rford.livejournal.com]

you posted a meme? commence the losing of my respect!

[dr_whom]

Dude, this lj is for memes. Well, that and so I can read locked posts.

[rford.livejournal.com]

bah! memes are for losers.

[gymble.livejournal.com]

You posted something!

The only one I'm really sure of is:
8. The Westing Game

Other guesses:
1. Charlotte's Web
3. Watership Down
4. Redwall (but initial guess was Wind in the Willows)
5. The Little Prince
9. Murder on the Orient Express
10. The Phantom Tollbooth

Something is by Roald Dahl, but I don't know what.

[dr_whom]

I did!

You're right about 1, 3, 4, 8, 9.

The Phantom Tollbooth didn't have any SIPs listed; and The Little Prince only had two, and one of them was "little prince". I didn't like The Wind in the Willows.

[gymble.livejournal.com]

Now resorting to Google I find that I haven't read 5, 7, or 10. 2 didn't make much of an impression on me. And I read 6, but those phrases still don't mean anything to me. Maybe 6 didn't make much of an impression either.

You should post more often. It's good for the soul. Or at least comment to let me know that you're alive.

[dr_whom]

6 had a lot of SIPs, and I deliberately picked some of the less obvious ones. You should definitely read at least 5 and 7, though.

I would comment on your posts more often, but I don't watch Veronica Mars....

[gymble.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what the solution to that is, don't you?

1. Obtain S1 DVDs
2. Watch. Obsess.
3. Obtain S2 episodes or DVDs (release date is Aug. 22)
4. Watch. Obsess.
5. Watch S3 live this fall.

I already hooked kilravock and lowellboyslash (via kilravock). Even my parents liked it which I think shocked them as much as it did me.

[dr_whom]

I'll think about it—see how much free time I have this summer. I haven't watched any TV shows on DVD since priscellie got me to watch Firefly—which was safe, because it has a finite number of episodes. I don't know if I can accept the commitment of watching a good show that's still in production.

[bluefaith.livejournal.com]

The only one that jumped out at me was 8.

But I could guess 1 & 3.

[q10.livejournal.com]

anything with a tangents paper and a rarefying engine sounds suspiciously Baroque Cycle-y.

[dr_whom]

Be more specific?

[q10.livejournal.com]

i'm too used to thinking of it as a coherent whole. probably the first book. not The Confusion.

[dr_whom]

Good enough. Quicksilver it is.

[dumble.livejournal.com]

I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 8. I haven't read 5 9, or 10. Hmm, now to think about 6...

Well, darn

[dumble.livejournal.com]

I just found 6 because I tried to use it myself. =) I don't think I would have gotten it from those phrases, though.

[dr_whom]

You haven't read Stardust? You totally should.

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

Okay, doing this (I swear) without looking at other responses...so I'm only ab

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

Fuck you, livejournal settings. Okay, here we go (not that I'm going to get many):

1) Charlotte's Web
3) Watership Down
4) Redwall
7) Crap, I totally read this book in 5th grade - it's the P(something)cart War. All I can think is Pickcart War, but I don't think that's right...

...And that's all I got.

[tiamat360.livejournal.com]

PUSHCART WAR.

Always just too late...

[lowellboyslash.livejournal.com]

Done without looking at the other comments first...

1. Charlotte's Web!
2. AARGH WHAT IS IT
3. Watership Down, I think.
4. Redwall? or Salamandastron?
5. I *know* I should know this. It's not a weird translation of The Little Prince, is it? Or something by Neil Gaiman? CURSES.
7. That wonderful book about the protest that you gave me, that is possibly called The Pushcart Wars...?

I'm going to feel like a total idiot when I read the other comments, aren't I?

[dr_whom]

I think it would be great if there were a weird translation of The Little Prince that used the phrases "little hairy man" and "black silk top hat" with statistically significant frequency.

[(Anonymous)]

(3) is Watership Down, of course. The rest have stumped me.

David Speyer

[dr_whom]

The one that nobody answered—#6—is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.