# Don’t tell us why you love the book; SHOW us--in 100 words or less. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139 "2006-08-03T03:11:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/1 "2006-08-03T03:11:25Z")
This thread is an experiment in form. A lot of us–I suspect most of us–are readers, by which I mean lovers of books and stories for their own sake. Sometimes what draws us to a story is the clever plot, or the incisive characterization; but just as often, I think it is the power and the eloquence of the author’s words. Let’s share them. What I propose is this. Name an author you love and then identify a work–book, short story, or essay–by himor her which you find particularly memorable. It can be funny or sad, pithy or eloquent; it doesn’t matter, as long as you think the passage noteworthy. If you’re so inclined, include publication information or a link to where others may buy the book in question, but if don’t want to bother, don’t feel obliged to. Having identified author and work, the poster should then quote a brief passage–try to keep it to under a hundred words or so–that exemplifies why you love this writer. It can be from the beginning, the end, or anywhere in between. Once you’ve quoted your hundred words, stop. Don’t give context, don’t explain your choice, don’t mock the previous posters’ taste in literature: just trust in the words you’re quoting. Any takers? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/2 "2006-08-03T03:13:32Z")
I should probably start, huh? I’m going with **Valerie Martin** , from the title short story in her collection The Consolation of Nature and Other Stories: - She wasn’t certain [the rat] wouldn’t seek her out again, but, she thought, he would never again seek her out in that particular form. His menace had quite gone out of that form; she had seen it with her own eyes. Her father had discarded the pieces of the rat’s body without anger; he had even commented on the creature’s remarkable size, taking,Lily had observed, some comfort in having defeated so formidable an enemy. Now that he was a danger to no one, the rat possessed the power to be marvelous. \* ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/3 "2006-08-03T03:22:13Z")
_No-one would have believed, in the final years of the Century of the Fruitbat, that Discworld affairs were being watched keenly and impatiently by intelligences greater than Man’s, or at least much nastier; that their affairs were being scrutinised and studied as a man with a three-day appetite might study the All-You-Can-Gobble-For-A-Dollar menu outside Harga’s House of Ribs…_ – ( **Terry Pratchett** , Moving Pictures) ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/4 "2006-08-03T03:53:25Z")
To keep it under 100 words, I’m deleting the two paragraphs before this one, describing the birth of two girl babies. _Then, two years after Carolyn, a stern little boy was born, thin and red-haired like his father, and they named him Douglas. They had not wanted more than two children, but because the first two had been girls they had decided to try once more. Even if the third had also been a girl, they would have let it go at that; there would have been no sense in continuing what would soon become amusing to other people._ Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/5 "2006-08-03T14:54:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Man-made objects…are particularly difficult to keep in surface focus: novices fall through the surface, humming happily to themselves, and are soon reveling with childish abandon in the story of this stone, of that heath. I shall explain. A thin veneer of immediate reality is spread over natural and artificial matter, and whoever wishes to remain in the now, with the now, on the now, should please not break its tension film. Otherwise the inexperienced miracle-worker will find himself no longer walking on water but descending upright among staring fish. **Vladimir Nabokov** , _Transparent Things_ ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/6 "2006-08-03T15:33:42Z")
Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T.E.Shaw (T.E.Lawrence) > [@A typical descriptive passage](#): > > A short hour later we stopped at the tents of a wife of Dakhil-Allah, > for a meal. Mohammed allowed himself a bath, a fresh braiding of his > luxuriant hair, and clean clothes. They took very long about the food, > and it was not till near noon that at last it came: a great bowl of > saffron-rice, with a broken lamb littered over it. Mohammed, who felt > it his duty in my honour to be dainty in service, arrested the main > dish, and took from it the fill of a small copper basin for him and me. > Then he waved the rest of the camp on to the large supply. Mohammed’s > mother knew herself old enough to be curious about me. She questioned > me about the women of the tribe of Christians and their way of life, > marvelling at my white skin, and the horrible blue eyes which looked, > she said, like the sky shining through the eye-sockets of an empty > skull. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/7 "2006-08-04T00:02:20Z")
_“A pair of predatory-looking Christian Scientists were edging toward a trio of young office techs who wore idealized holographic vaginas on their wrists, wet pink glittering under the harsh lighting. The techs licked their perfect lips nervously and eyed the Christian Scientists from beneath lowered metallic lids. The girls looked like tall, exotic grazing animals, swaying gracefully and unconsciously with the movement of the train, their high heels like polished hooves against the gray metal of the car’s floor. Before they could stampede, take flight from the missionaries, the train reached Case’s station.”_ –William Gibson, **Neuromancer** And this opening paragraph convinced me to buy **Glasshouse** , by Charles Stross. Nearly every word reveals some new information: _“A dark-skinned human with four arms walks toward me across the floor of the club, clad only in a belt strung with human skulls. Her hair forms a smoky wreath around her open and curious face. She’s interested in me.”_ ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/8 "2006-08-04T00:05:13Z")
Gahh! I gave context, sorry. **AuntiePam** made me do it. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/9 "2006-08-04T00:54:33Z")
from **The Haunting of Hill House** , by Shirley Jackson: “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/10 "2006-08-04T02:30:22Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > Gahh! I gave context, sorry. **AuntiePam** made me do it. I did not! Where did I do context? \ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/11 "2006-08-04T02:51:05Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I did not! Where did I do context? \ I think he’s talking about this: > [@An earlier post of Pam's](#): > > To keep it under 100 words, I’m deleting the two paragraphs before this one, describing the birth of two girl babies. As the OP, I’ll rule that you did not QUITE violate the rule against giving context, even you bumped up against it; what you did was not substantially different than what I did in changing the word “animals” in the orignal to a bracketed [rats] so the paragraph read more smoothy. [George carlin] These are my rules. I make them up. [/quote] A little more information and I’d be on wonderlust’s side, but you’re cool and still get pie. I mentioned that everybody who contributes to the thread gets a slice of my no-bake cheesecake, right? ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/12 "2006-08-04T02:52:58Z")
From “The Distance of the Moon” in Italo Calvino’s **Cosmicomics**. Maybe my favorite book ever. > [@](#): > > Now, you will ask me what in the world we went up on the Moon for; I’ll explain it to you. We went to collect the milk, with a big spoon and a bucket. Moon-milk was very thick, like a kind of cream cheese. It formed in the crevices between one scale and the next, through the fermentation of various bodies and substances of terrestrial origin which had flown up from the prairies and forests and lakes, as the Moon sailed over them. It was composed chiefly of vegetal juices, tadpoles, bitumen, lentils, honey, starch crystals, sturgeon eggs, molds, pollens, gelatinous matter, worms, resins, pepper, mineral salts, combustion residue. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/13 "2006-08-04T03:46:08Z")
I confess my shame at inferring the thread rules rather than reading them. Horrified that I had unwittingly defiled this fine “experiment in form”, I then deflected the blame. I am not worthy. \ And I’m a “she”. Pie, please. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/14 "2006-08-04T05:18:09Z")
I have to say I’m very frustrated because one of my favorite passages ever is closer to two hundred words. _sigh_ Let’s see if it still works… no. You’ll just have to trust me that the best passage that Douglas Adams ever wrote is 263 words long, and thus way too long for this thread. I’ll give some Tolkien instead; this one is a bit closer to the 100 word mark. From _The Two Towers_: ‘Of course, it is likely enough, my friends,’ he said slowly, ‘likely enouh that we are going to _our_ doom: the last march fo the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later. That thought has long been growing in our hearts; and that is why we are marching now. It was not a hasty resolve. Now at least the last march of the Ents may be worth a song. Aye,’ he sighed, ‘we may help the other peoples before we pass away. Still, I should have liked to see the songs come true about the Entwives. I should dearly have liked to see Fimbrethil agaiin. But there, my friends, songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way: and sometimes they are withered untimely.’ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/15 "2006-08-04T11:44:42Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > I confess my shame at inferring the thread rules rather than reading them. Horrified that I had unwittingly defiled this fine “experiment in form”, I then deflected the blame. I am not worthy. \ > > And I’m a “she”. > > Pie, please. I think I’m in love. ::sends minions seven different varieties of pie for wonderlust to choose from, then resolves to no longer hijack own thread:: ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/16 "2006-08-04T16:16:05Z")
_And while the maid went to summon her mistress to tea, Conradin fished a toasting-fork out of the sideboard drawer and proceeded to toast himself a piece of bread. And during the toasting of it and the buttering of it with much butter and the slow enjoyment of eating it, Conradin listened to the noises and silences which fell in quick spasms beyond the dining-room door. The loud foolish screaming of the maid, the answering chorus of wondering ejaculations from the kitchen region, the scuttering footsteps and hurried embassies for outside help, and then, after a lull, the scared sobbings and the shuffling tread of those who bore a heavy burden into the house._ **Sredni Vashtar** - Saki (HH Munro) ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/17 "2006-08-04T17:02:58Z")
“Remnants dear to me While god and fate allowed it, take this breath And give me respite from these agonies. I lived my life out to the very end And passed the stages Fortune had appointed. Now my tall shade goes to the under world. I built a famous city, saw my great walls, Avenged my husband, made my hostile brother Pay for his crime. Happy, alas, too happy, If only the Dardanian keels had never Beached on our coast.” And here she kissed the bed. “I die unavenged,” she said, “but let me die. This way, this way, a blessed relief to go Into the undergloom. Let the cold Trojan, Far at sea, drink in this conflagration And take with him the omen of my death!” Vergil, Aeneid IV, tr. Fitzgerald. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/18 "2006-08-04T17:05:17Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > I have to say I’m very frustrated because one of my favorite passages ever is closer to two hundred words. _sigh_ Let’s see if it still works… no. You’ll just have to trust me that the best passage that Douglas Adams ever wrote is 263 words long, and thus way too long for this thread. I just cheated, and noone has called me on it yet, so you might get away with it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Seren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19adc/32.png) [@Seren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seren)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/19 "2006-08-04T17:29:24Z")
_American Gods_ by Neil Gaiman: > [@](#): > > “Something feels weird,” he told Laura. That wasn’t the first thing he said to her. The first thing was “I love you,” because it’s a good thing to say if you can mean it, and Shadow did. > > “Hello,” said Laura. “I love you too. What feels weird?” > > “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe the weather. It feels like if we could only get a storm, everything would be okay.” > > “It’s nice here,” she said. “The last of the leaves haven’t quite fallen. If we don’t get a storm, you’ll be able to see them when you get home.” > > “Five days.” ---
**Author:** ![yelimS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/54ee81/32.png) [@yelimS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yelimS)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139/20 "2006-08-04T17:48:11Z")
Dhammapada: > [@](#): > > Driving away negligence with vigilance, > Ascending the tower of insight and free of sorrow, > A sage observes the sorrowing masses > As someone standing on a mountain observes > Fools on the ground below. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/don-t-tell-us-why-you-love-the-book-show-us-in-100-words-or-less/367139.md?page=2)