# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/121 "2000-11-30T16:46:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\* > “Lord Byron conjectures that it may be as painful to be born as to die…With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms.” \*\* Another long shot, but is it _The Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell_ by **Aldous Huxley**? ---
**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:** [November 30, 2000, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/122 "2000-11-30T16:54:01Z")
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this thread – but Jekeira’s got it. (Damn, and I thought that was a hard one…) ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/123 "2000-11-30T17:21:06Z")
Woo hoo! Okay, I know you’re thinking, “Great, the last time this chick was up we got an obscure Russian quote about dead horses.” Well, this time I’m going to do an easy one. Unfortunately I don’t have it with me at work. I’ll go home at lunch time and get it. By the way, Celyn, why didn’t you guess? ---
**Author:** ![Nukeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Nukeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nukeman)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/124 "2000-11-30T19:44:35Z")
seeing as i cant actually stop anyone, i dont see why we cant have more than one game going at once. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/125 "2000-11-30T20:00:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jekeira \* > \*\*By the way, Celyn, why didn’t you guess? \*\* Because I was damn sure which book it was, and it would have been flying in the face of tradition to get the answer too quickly, just because I probably saw the question first. No fun.🙂 Anyway, I was too lazy to go thinking of a passage, as my last one was perhaps not impressive. Random remarks - how strange that Connor was going to guess _At Swim-two-Birds_, and also that Quincey’s _Confessions…_ was very nearly what I used instead of Flann O’Brien. Joys of synchronicity. Question for Fretful Porpentine, despite promising myself not to check if the passage was de Quincey, I did, and found an online version where “Lord Byron” in your quoted passage is replaced by “Jeremy Taylor”. Though there’s no question really - I imagine de Quincey could easily get a bit confused at times. I once went to a pub in Glasgow in a building where de Quincey used to live, and I and my friend were refused admission for not being being sufficiently tidily dressed. Stuffy lot!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/126 "2000-11-30T20:42:18Z")
Okey-doke, here’s mine. I’ve (probably unnecesarily) changed the subject character’s name to X. ```auto ...and the wedding-cake, which had been a great distress to him, was all eat up. His own stomach could bear nothing rich, and he could never believe other people to be different from himself. What was unwholesome to him, he regarded as unfit for any body; and he had, therefore, earnestly tried to dissuade them from having any wedding-cake at all, and when that proved vain, as earnestly tried to prevent any body's eating it. He had been at the pains of consulting Mr. Perry, the apothecary, on the subject. Mr. Perry was an intelligent, gentlemanlike man, whose frequent visits were one of the comforts of X's life; and, upon being applied to, he could not but acknowledge, (though it seemed rather against the bias of inclination,) that wedding-cake might certainly disagree with many - perhaps with most people, unless taken moderately. With such an opinion, in confirmation of his own, X hoped to influence every visitor of the new-married pair; but still the cake was eaten; and there was no rest for his benevolent nerves till it was all gone. ``` ---
**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:** [November 30, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/127 "2000-11-30T20:51:38Z")
I KNOW that one! Emma by Jane Austen! I’ll have my new one either tonight or tomorrow morning - I ain’t got no books with me. ---
**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:** [November 30, 2000, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/128 "2000-11-30T20:54:08Z")
\<--------BTW, check out the post count…pretty cool, huh? ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/129 "2000-11-30T21:34:52Z")
Got it, Connor! Good job. And congrats on the post count. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/130 "2000-11-30T22:13:40Z")
**Connor** I take it the post count was 1000 when it was mentioned? Congratulations, KiloConnor.🙂 ---
**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:** [November 30, 2000, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/131 "2000-11-30T22:41:53Z")
Actually, it was 1111, but thanks! Here’s the excerpt. My easy hint will be that it was a pulitzer prize winner. Its easily my favorite chunk of words. “It is still the first week in January, and I’ve got great plans. I’ve been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But - and this is the point - who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat kit paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won’t stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.” Good luck! A shiny penny to the one who gets it! ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/132 "2000-11-30T23:08:13Z")
There is something a bit J.P. Donleavy about it. Hmm. Doesn’t sound like something I’ve read, though. Celyn goes to cogitate. ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/133 "2000-11-30T23:51:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Celyn \* > \*\*Celyn goes to cogitate. \*\* Hey, no fair cogitating after 5 PM. It sounds an awful lot like work 🙂 Out of curiousity, did you draw the name Celyn from a Terry Pratchett book, or is it just a fairly strange coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/134 "2000-12-01T00:18:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DynoSaur \* > > Out of curiousity, did you draw the name Celyn from a Terry Pratchett book, or is it just a fairly strange coincidence? > > \*\* It’s not because of the Pratchett book, but I did remember the Imp-y-Celyn character as I was choosing a name, and thought “well, that’s no problem, as I like the books”. Otherwise I would have had to change my mind. Also, if I had decided to choose from Pratchett people, I would have had a wild old time with some of the wonderful names, like Constable Visit-the-Ungodly… etc. I have tried being Gytha Ogg, and Magrat, and Granny Weatherwax (eg. for yahoo/hotmail sort of things) but all were taken! “Soul Music” was great fun for guessing which singer/band was meant by which character. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/135 "2000-12-01T01:34:04Z")
Is this connected with “Star Wars” or the Jedi? I think I am going mad quite quickly. ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/136 "2000-12-01T04:01:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Celyn \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by DynoSaur \* > > > > Out of curiousity, did you draw the name Celyn from a Terry Pratchett book, or is it just a fairly strange coincidence? > > > > \*\* > > It’s not because of the Pratchett book, but I did remember the Imp-y-Celyn character as I was choosing a name, and thought “well, that’s no problem, as I like the books”. Otherwise I would have had to change my mind. Also, if I had decided to choose from Pratchett people, I would have had a wild old time with some of the wonderful names, like Constable Visit-the-Ungodly… etc. I have tried being Gytha Ogg, and Magrat, and Granny Weatherwax (eg. for yahoo/hotmail sort of things) but all were taken! “Soul Music” was great fun for guessing which singer/band was meant by which character. \*\* My personal favorite band in that book was, I think, We’re Certainly Dwarves. Of course, I’ve managed to pull this thread rather far off course, at this point, but oh well. And I suppose the lack of Pratchett-name connection means I can’t call you Holly? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![fierra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@fierra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fierra)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/137 "2000-12-01T11:18:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Celyn \* > \*\*Is this connected with “Star Wars” or the Jedi? I think I am going mad quite quickly. \*\* I guess that your search turned up the same sites that mine did then! I did find two books at Amazon, with the title Seeing, but I shan’t guess more than that as I don’t know either author’s style… ---
**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 1, 2000, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/138 "2000-12-01T14:00:28Z")
Nope. Not science fiction. But it DID win a Pulitzer Prize. Here’s two more hints: female author and Catholic. This is a good one. And no Googling! ---
**Author:** ![jcgmoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@jcgmoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jcgmoi)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/139 "2000-12-01T15:29:27Z")
Annie Dillard. _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_ ---
**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 1, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/140 "2000-12-01T15:32:46Z")
Ding ding! jcgmoi gets the shiny penny! Its a mostly ridiculous book covering about every single subject imaginable, but that paragraph is probably my very favorite ever written. In previous paragraphs, she mentioned that when she was a little girl, she would hide little pennies about the area, and write with chalk on the sidewalk, “Treasure over here!” with arrows. She never understood why people weren’t as excited as she was. How’d you get it, jcgmoi? Did you have to read for class as well? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=8)