# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/161 "2000-12-02T05:01:13Z")
It’s not the Princess Bride. Notnotnot. This book is not quite so…hmmm…is ‘dark’ the word i’m looking for?..as TPB. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/162 "2000-12-02T16:31:19Z")
Is it Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones? Sing with me, all: “It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone, It’s not unusual to have fun with anyone …” ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/163 "2000-12-02T18:50:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jekeira \* > \*\*Is it Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones? > \*\* No, it isn’t Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. Or anyone else’s Tom Jones, for that matter 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/164 "2000-12-02T20:56:47Z")
This one’s driving me batty. How long before you give up and give us the answer? Or before we give up and beg you for the answer? ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/165 "2000-12-02T21:49:31Z")
Well, I can wait if you can 😉 I’ll start giving hints soon, though, if nobody gets it. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/166 "2000-12-03T03:13:41Z")
What do we know? We know that it’s about a young man getting his heart’s desire. That leaves out Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Stranger, and Old Man and the Sea. It could be almost anything else, though. A random stab in the dark: The first Harry Potter book? ---
**Author:** ![Emustrangler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e480ec/32.png) [@Emustrangler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emustrangler)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/167 "2000-12-03T05:45:42Z")
Ooooh… I know, I know… Stardust by Neil Gaiman. A fairly obscure author (I thought) though this is the second time he’s been an answer during this game. I’m a fan, so I’m glad other folks are reading him. I’ll pop in again tomorrow with a new passage. ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/168 "2000-12-03T09:48:43Z")
Dingdingding…we have a WINNAH. although one would think asphyxiating birds wouldn’t leave all that much time for reading… The fact that Gaiman had been mentioned earlier is why I thought it might be easy, by the way… ---
**Author:** ![Emustrangler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e480ec/32.png) [@Emustrangler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emustrangler)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/169 "2000-12-03T15:32:45Z")
Here’s mine. From the beginning of one of my favorite books, it’s fairly well known, so one of y’all should figure it out. “The colonel dwelt in a vortex of specialists who were still specializing in trying to determine what was troubling him. They hurled lights into his eyes to see if he could see, rammed needles into nerves to hear if he could feel. There was a urologist for his urine, a lymphologist for his lymph, an endorinologist for his endocrines, a psychologist for his psyche, a dermatologist for his derma; there was a pathologist for his pathos, a cystologist for his cysts, and a bald pendanic cetologist from the zoology department at Harvard who had been shanghaied ruthlessly into the Medical Corps by a faulty anode in an I.B.M. machine and spent his sessions with the dying colonel trying to discuss Moby Dick with him.” ---
**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 3, 2000, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/170 "2000-12-03T16:38:31Z")
_Catch-22_ by Joseph Heller? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/171 "2000-12-03T16:48:02Z")
Foiled again! I think you’re right, fretful one. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/172 "2000-12-03T17:18:30Z")
Is that a winner? Can I jump in? Not too hard, but very Straight Dope appropriate: “It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time,” he remarked one day as he walked dejectedly home from school. “I can’t see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.” And since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all. ---
**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 3, 2000, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/173 "2000-12-03T19:05:08Z")
Hmmph! Wait around for confirmation and somebody _else_ jumps in! I’m going to post the one I had picked out, regardless. “The city of Charleston, in the green feathery modesty of its palms, in the certitude of its style, in the economy and stringency of its lines, and the serenity of its mansions South of Broad Street, is a feast for the human eye. But to me, Charleston is a dark city, a melancholy city, whose severe covenants and secrets are as powerful and beguiling as its elegance, whose demons dance their alley dances and compose their malign hymns to the side of the moon I cannot see. I studied those demons closely once, and they helped kill off the boy in me.” ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/174 "2000-12-03T22:15:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > **Hmmph! Wait around for confirmation and somebody _else_ jumps in!** Oops. Sorry. I withdraw my entry. ---
**Author:** ![Jekeira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jekeira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jekeira)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/175 "2000-12-03T22:53:36Z")
Don’t worry, Green Bean, you’ll get your chance. Fretful, I _adore_ your quote. That is so cool. I have no idea what it is, but when I learn the title, I’m gonna have to read it. ---
**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 3, 2000, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/176 "2000-12-03T23:00:57Z")
No probs, Green Bean – no reason we can’t have two games 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:** [December 3, 2000, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/177 "2000-12-03T23:09:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*…no reason we can’t have two games going at once. \*\* Apart from it causing undue stress and suffering to clueless pople? And I told myself I needn’t try too hard till I knew which one to think about. Huh.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Emustrangler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e480ec/32.png) [@Emustrangler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emustrangler)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/178 "2000-12-03T23:52:13Z")
Score one for Fretfull Porpentine. Catch-22 was the book. I must agree with Jekira as well, that’s a really interesting quote. ---
**Author:** ![Nukeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Nukeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nukeman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/179 "2000-12-04T19:47:53Z")
Cmon Celyn, people just have to read the thread to tell how it works. I got catch 22 but i came to late. damn. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2000, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004/180 "2000-12-04T20:17:28Z")
Nukeman, lest there should be any misunderstanding, my earlier comment meant “Poor me, I am unknowledgable idiot, and now there are **two** things to think about simultaneously. Woe is me.” I am the only clueless idiot referred to. And, yes same damn problem with _Catch 22_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book/40004.md?page=10)