(I previously posted this on Friday, reworked it, lost half of it, got distracted, and now here it is again.)
First, pippa, The Sudden Yurt Commune is now its own category. Mainly, because these days, I take the whole fantasy, the whole imagining of our little world very seriously. And also because I expect to be adding to it, creating it more fully as time goes along because I think it’s fun. No. More than that. It gives me joy and I think the whole notion actually de-stresses me these days.
So. On to my question for today.
Imagine that we’ve arrived at our sudden yurt commune. It’s evening. We’ve gathered ’round the fire, gorged on S’mores, sung some campfire songs, become delirious in a Rocky-Mountain-High kind of way from said campfire songs, but we must try to regain ourselves because now — it is time for the Sudden Yurt Commune Book Swap!
You each have brought three special books, with covers you’ve wrapped in plain brown paper to conceal the titles, and placed them on the patchwork quilt in the middle of our circle of happiness and songs and S’mores. On the inside cover of each book, you have written a message to any potential reader, extolling the virtues of the book, sharing what it meant to you, etc. Your goal is to be brief but enthusiastic; you want the reader to be excited to read this book you love. Without giving away the title. You can drop hints, clues, throw in a giveaway word if you like, but don’t name the whole title!
For instance, if I’m Sheila, maybe I write in one of my books (forgive me, Sheila):
“This book may seem like a monster, but no book has ever expressed my own worldview, my own beliefs, so perfectly. It’s a deep and challenging book about …. everything.”
And maybe the book is Hopeful Monsters.
(See the awesome little clue Sheila gave? Good job, Sheila. Except, well, can I be honest? I don’t really feel all that excited about reading the book. Hm. Downer, Sheila. Okay. How’s this: “This book may seem like a monster, but on random pages, I’ve penciled in clues to a buried treasure of GOLD.” Okay, Sheila!! I am now totally excited to read Hopeful Monsters!! Uhm, yesss, so hopefully you all get the idea here and will write much better messages than my faux-Sheilas. And feel free to promise whatever golden treasures you wish.)
Back to our campfire …..
We pass around, oh, an antique humidor that contains numbered strips of paper. When your turn comes, you close your eyes and select three strips from the box. For a brief moment, perhaps, you breathe in the old sweet smell of pipe tobacco wafting from your strips of paper and, overcome with joy, whisper a spontaneous “kum by yah, Lord.” Such is the serenity of The Sudden Yurt Commune.
The swap then begins according to number. When your numbers come up, you pick a book from the pile. You don’t know what book it is. You cannot see the title; it’s covered. Once the rotation is over and everyone has three books, the books are opened to the inside cover only. Do not venture any further into your books! Everyone eagerly reads the messages and tries to guess — based on their memory of what will be revealed in this comment thread — who wrote the messages and, therefore, what books are now in their hot little hands. Each correct guess allows you to unwrap the cover of your book for everyone to bear witness to your rightness — ta daa!
With that as your set-up:
Which three books would you bring to the SYC Book Swap and what would be the message you write on the inside cover of each of your books?
This scenario involves some time-traveling in your head to an imaginary future. You ARE revealing your books and messages now, yes, because some day in our imaginary future, ’round the campfire, people will pick your books and have to remember the identifiers left here, in the comments of this post.
Hope it makes more sense this time.
Really, mystery and mental time-traveling aside, it’s just this: What 3 books would you bring to the SYC Book Swap and what messages would you write in them for any potential reader?
(Although, I like the mystery, but maybe it complicates things for some.)
Ready?
Go.
(Oh, and blog or no blog, long-time reader or short-time reader, anyone can answer this question. The Sudden Yurt Commune welcomes all. You know, until it doesn’t.)
I’ll work on it and have my answer later tonight. And why wasn’t I working on it during the weekend, knowing that this book swap was returning? Well, it’s simple. The reason – WHAT IN THE WORLD CAN THAT BE???!?
:::fleeing:::
wait- we put down the inside cover clue and the title of the book here?
Don’t want to spoil the procedure.
I, too, shall work on this and bring my answers to the campfire tonight.
Sal — Yes. Name your three books and share the message that goes in each book.
Those are the bare bones of it.
Got it!
First book – Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice.”
“Gentle reader: you are the happy recipient of a tale of quiet country living, true love, family, intelligence, and vanquished vices. Nobody is kill’d with a sword herein, for that would be most improper.”
Second book – CS Lewis, “Till We Have Faces.”
“A gift for a reader who shares the author’s first love of adventure, myth, and fantastic stories, with thanks; and if you are not that sort of reader, with apologies.”
Third book – Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson.”
“They say a man’s reputation gains from writing a great overlooked book. True enough, but it’s small comfort to the author – it’s a distinction that doesn’t pay.”
Wow. This requires more thought than I expected. Tha ‘Fly’s are all most excellent. I know my three books–have to come up with their inscriptions…
Oh, and… they don’t have to be smart people books, right? (classics)
“It’s a sucky book. And you will love it.”
Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (What? Someone has to bring it for our emoting parties!)
“You can’t escape this intense tale of survival and revenge. Bring along your dead friends–you’ll need them.”
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
“After you read this book, you’ll have another three thousand or so days to reread it in our Sudden Yurt Commune.”
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn
Douglas Adams – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
“You’ll never look at a towel the same way again.”
Clive Barker – The Thief of Always:
“The real monster house.”
Ron Chernow – Alexander Hamilton:
“Too bad we don’t have anyone like him right now.”
Harriet the Spy – by Louise Fitzhugh
“Because it’s always good to remember that it is perfectly all right to sneak through other people’s houses.”
The Shipping News – by Annie Proulx
“We are all misfits. We are all beautiful. There’s room enough for all of us here.”
Trumpet of the Swan – by EB White
“Stay strong in your individuality. You are as God made you and it’s all good.”
These are wonderful, everyone!
“It’s a sucky book. And you will love it.”
Oh, sarahk. There’s no one like you.
Hahahahahaha.
NF — I love your message for P&P. Well, I love them all.
Cullen — /Too bad we don’t have anyone like him right now./ Well said.
sheila — /Because it’s always good to remember that it is perfectly all right to sneak through other people’s houses./
Hahahaha. Yes. I need to be reminded of that regularly. That’s a good clue as to which book it is, too.
I love puns. And where is everyone else from the SYC?
The Ordways by William Humphreys
“Odysseus sails the Texas prairie, searching for a lost son. The bones of our ancestors in a sugar cask.”
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
“History is bunk.” Henry Ford
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
“Two queens on the village chess board- only one will triumph. Will you have strawberries for your tea, Georgino mio?”
So hard to choose just three!
None of my top 10 books are fiction, so I’m opting out of the book swap (unless you REALLY think you’d be interested in Crowns in Conflict: The Triumph of the Tragedy of the European Monarchy, 1910-1918 or The Last Romantic: Biography of Queen Marie of Roumania) so I’ll be over in the corner, sipping wine.
Ah, who am I kidding? GUZZLING wine.
Lisa — Uhm, I am TOTALLY interested in that. I’m have a deep abiding love for anything with Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Marie Antoinette — basically anything royal in nature.
No. You must participate, you drunken wench. Get over here to the fire right now!!
Lisa – get those nonfic books in here! I almost put in Lynn Truss’s latest, “Talk to the Hand,” a short book about deplorable modern rudeness. Sadly the only appropriate inscription was not fit to repeat in company. 😉 And Cullen’s put Ron Chernow’s Hamilton biography in. So there. You simply must! Do let’s read non-fiction! I can’t stop talking like a CS Lewis character!
Yes! Fiction, non-fiction, WHATEVS.
/I can’t stop talking like a CS Lewis character!/
Hahahahaha. We are in Narnia. Do let’s stay and have tea.
These are all great!!! We have a fantastic “SYC Library” (so yes, Lisa, please balance the collection by adding nonfiction!). I have been thinking about this for DAYS–couldn’t decide! Here are my three:
1. “Don’t panic” if you can’t decide what to order from the out-of-this-world menu; just go along for the ride and have fun!
–“The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” by Douglas Adams
2. Hopefully the trauma of “The Jane Austen Book Club” won’t dissuade you from reading this dramatic story of lovers Anne and Frederick, torn apart by well-meaning interlopers.
–“Persuasion” by Jane Austen
3. Once you get into this well-written adventure you’ll “wonder” why you didn’t read it sooner.
–“Wonder Boys” by Michael Chabon
Kate P — Oooh. I LOVE “Persuasion.”
But yes, “The Jane Austen Book Club” can suck it.
Sorry, y’all… I’ve been out of pocket and otherwise occupied, as it were… go read my blog if you’re really wanting to know. LMAO
Okay, here’s my contributions:
—Two Rivers by T. Greenwood
Entertaining strangers can have surprising consequences.
—Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The only way to be truly happy is to embrace your unhappiness — find beauty in everything, even unpleasant things, because it is there if you look.
—Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
There’s always something surreal to laugh at or make fun of. Just do it.