# Guess the book **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 6, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004 "2000-11-06T21:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/181 "2000-12-05T00:14:20Z")
Well, I think it’s time for a hint, either from Fretful Porpentine, or from Green Bean, since none of us seem to have any clue about either of the quotes on the table. At least, I don’t (woe is me). ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/182 "2000-12-05T00:31:18Z")
Fretful- Its not Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, is it? That was Savanah…but anyway…alright, I’m wrong… Greenbean- Damnit! I know I have read that!! Or at least heard of it? Is it Tom Sawyer? The Phantom Tolbooth? Why is it so familiar…?! ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/183 "2000-12-05T02:13:52Z")
Yes, we deserve hints. I can’t believe it is “Midnight…” 'cos the passage is too gloomy, and I don’t know the other one either. Mmm, but I might leaf through “Midnight in the Garden …” again just a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/184 "2000-12-05T02:26:24Z")
No, it’s not _Midnight_. The author: living Southern male. The book: mentioned in the news a few years back, in conjunction with the Shannon Faulkner story. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/185 "2000-12-05T17:18:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > > The author: living Southern male. The book: mentioned in the news a few years back, in conjunction with the Shannon Faulkner story. Oh, it has to be Pat Conroy. Lords of Discipline? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/186 "2000-12-05T19:47:40Z")
Yep, you got it. And I concur with Zoggie’s suggestion of Phantom Tollbooth – where is Green Bean, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/187 "2000-12-05T20:38:40Z")
I don’t know what happened to Green Bean, but I hope he (she?) didn’t go away. I have no problem with having two games running concurrently. If there’s too many quotes on the table, things could get chaotic, though. Here’s my quote. Not from the beginning of the book. I’ve skipped over a character’s name. ```auto My dear, my very dear, my poppet, my pigsnie, How mistakenly, now that all is lost, you come whimpering to ask me whether the terms of affection in which I address you meant nothing from the beginning. Far from it! Rest assured, my love for you and your love for me are as like as two peas. I have always desired you, as you (pitiful fool) desired me. The difference is that I am the stronger. I think they will give you to me now; or a bit of you. Love you? Why, yes. As dainty a morsel as ever I grew fat on. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/188 "2000-12-05T20:44:46Z")
That sounds sinister. Not mention completely unfamiliar! :)Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/189 "2000-12-06T16:35:45Z")
(Or, I have no patience for this.) The author is British. He is also dead. The novel this was taken from is not one of his best-known works, which are all children’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/190 "2000-12-06T16:42:01Z")
Roald Dahl? Matilda? I only guess that because I’m reading his shorts right now. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/191 "2000-12-06T18:04:27Z")
Zoggie and Fretful Porpentine are right about “The Phantom Tollbooth” (we have three copies in the house right now, and I’ve read it aloud four times in the last year, so it’s no great feat for me to remember). I guessed Jekeira’s author correctly, but then it bothered me so much not to remember which book it was from that I cheated and did a search. I’ll just sit here making encouraging sounds at the rest of you. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/192 "2000-12-06T20:34:16Z")
Wait…wait, wait. You’re telling me I got one **right?** Good thing I opened up this thread today, yay!! Now to think of a passage so deviously hard that no one will DARE even think to answer it… ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/193 "2000-12-06T20:48:33Z")
Connor, no, it’s not Roald Dahl. The book was dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien (so it must not be him, either). ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/194 "2000-12-06T22:06:37Z")
Ooh … is it something by C.S. Lewis? Possibly _The Screwtape Letters?_ ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/195 "2000-12-07T05:03:11Z")
So I didn’t get it right…or did I? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/196 "2000-12-07T14:12:57Z")
Fretful, GOOD guess! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Note: I have no idea whether or not that is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/197 "2000-12-07T18:15:05Z")
Right, time for daft guesses, methinks. Leon Garfield? Well, he is British and dead, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/198 "2000-12-07T18:52:39Z")
Winners! Zoggie, you were right about Green Bean’s quote, which was apparently from The Phantom Tollbooth Fretful Porpentine is exactly correct about my quote. It is the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/199 "2000-12-07T19:38:41Z")
Then here’s mine: \*His plans had been running so beautifully, so goddamned beautifully, and now **she** was going to smash them all. Hate erupted and flooded through him, gripping his face with jaw-aching pressure. That was all right though; the lights were out. And she, she kept on sobbing weakly in the dark, her cheeks pressed against his bare chest, her tears and her breath burning hot. He wanted to push her away.\* Go to it, gang. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/200 "2000-12-08T23:20:37Z")
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