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12 April 2004 — Book Meme (20)

I thought today we could play a literary game.

Rules:

  1. Grab the nearest book.
  2. Open the book to page 23.
  3. Find the fifth sentence.
  4. Post the text of the sentence.

At work, the closest book is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life.

The fifth full sentence on page 23 is:

Thus both intrinsic motivation (wanting to do it) and extrinsic motivation (having to do it) are preferable to the state where one acts by default, without having any kind of goal to focus attention.

Lisa recommended this book in our discussion on the malleability of time:

A few years ago, I read a book called Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I'm not sure that I can do it justice in a short explanation, but the gist is that when you're unaware of time passing (and of yourself in general), that's flow. It's basically being "at one" with your task. And if you do things where you find flow and appreciate the experience, you're getting more out of your life

Finding Flow urges the reader to live with greater awareness, to live with intention, to forego aimless pastimes for more goal-directed behavior. (And by goal-directed, the author does not mean "work"; a nap can be goal-directed, too.) It's an interesting read so far, though I'm only a third of the way through.

...time passes...

Next to my desk at home is a stack of books, on top of which are several Wendell Berry volumes, the topmost being Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community. I keep considering Berry for book group, but always opt for something else. I'm afraid he'd be too much for many people. Though his ideas are fertile, his writing is arid.

The fifth full sentence on page 23 is:

The evil of the industrial economy (capitalist or communist) is the abstractness inherent in its procedures — its inability to distinguish one place or person or creature from another.

That bit's from an essay entitled "Out of Your Car, Off Your Horse". It's classic Berry. I should do a full entry on him...

Grab the nearest book. Share what's there!

(This meme was taken from Caterina, who took it from David Chess, who took it from Portland's own Long Story, Short Pier, who took it from Elkins, who twisted the version posted by Happy Potterer, who took it from a larger set of questions answered byTabouli. I've always wanted to trace a meme back to its source…)

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — Audioscrobbler   Kris and I have been using Audioscrobbler for six months now.

Comments
On 12 April 2004 (03:44 PM), Dave said:

"The occurrence of any disqualifying events must be included in the annual report of a guardian."
--- Guardianships, Conservatorships, and Transfers to Minors, Oregon State Bar, 2004 ed.


On 12 April 2004 (04:04 PM), Tiffany said:

I keep no books on my work desk, only reports on army installations.

However after spending all day in Jury Duty (and not getting selected) I am glad that I spent most of my day un-aware that time was passing. I just read a book by Carl Hiaasen.


On 12 April 2004 (04:14 PM), Betsy said:

OOooooh...this is interesting, for reasons you'll discover down below:

Michael Wolff - Burn Rate:

"I believe the connections between people and their interests are going to have to be made the traditional way - by reviewers, critics, commentators."

He's talking about a web guide of sorts, and he and I were in the same business eons ago. Wolff was the NetGuide book guy, who later went on to start YPN - Your Personal Network (one of the many net guides that ran out of steam and VC money in about 2 seconds if you blinked quickly.)

I was on the founding staff of NetGuide magazine (purchased by CMP, a computer mag publisher) doing - you guessed it - web site reviews. Went from there to iGuide (a News Corp company that later boiled down to the web presence known today as TV Guide Online) and Excite, where I headed up teams of people who reviewed and catalogued web sites. Ah, those were the days...

Does anyone even use those services any more? Even Yahoo's directory? I suspect not...but I'd also submit that About.com and blogs and other specialized sites are as much responsible for their attrition as are souped-up search engines...

Anyway, back to the meme. (And here I thought I'd gotten rid of this book ages ago...)


On 12 April 2004 (04:50 PM), Joel said:

What do we do if page 26 is a chapter heading without a complete sentence?
I'll post page 27's fifth sentence:
"Most diagnostic problems relate to sampling (false negatives) and inflammation (false positives)."
---Practical Principles of Cytopathology, Richard M. DeMay, MD


On 12 April 2004 (05:14 PM), JENEFER said:

U.S. MASTER TAX GUIDE

TAX RETURN DUE DATES FOR APRIL 15, 2004

TRUSTS AND ESTATES. FIDUCIARY INCOME TAX RETURN (FORM 1041) FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2003.


On 12 April 2004 (05:16 PM), J.D. Roth said:

sigh


On 12 April 2004 (05:39 PM), mart said:

for any non-array variables you can also place the variable inside a double-quaoted string to be echoed.


On 12 April 2004 (05:52 PM), Amy Jo said:

You were in love with this life as deeply as is possible and it imprinted itself in your brain and heart just as deeply, bone- and marrow-deep, permanently altering brain chemistry.

Off to the Side: A Memoir, Jim Harrison (2002)

I ran to hug her and she held me close.

Maiden Voyage, Tania Aebi (1989)

The question stayed, at the centre of the nun's strong faith.

The Land of Spices, Kate O'Brien (1941)

It is of its time yet timeless, embracing the site and drawing visitors in through gardens that are an essential part of the whole.

Setting the American Table: Essays for the New Culture of Food and Wine, Copia: the American Center for Wine, Food, & the Arts (2001)

This capacity presupposes a distance between the self and the nonself--a recognition of the strange and marvelous other.

Passing Strange and Wonderful: Aesthetics, Nature, and Culture, Yi-Fu Tuan, 1993


On 12 April 2004 (05:54 PM), Lynn said:

"The move to community-building in education--through the middle school reform movement, social and emotional learning, and holistic education--reflects a growing awareness of the profound need of children and adolescents to feel a part of something larger than themselves and their families."
The Soul of Education, Rachael Kessler


On 12 April 2004 (06:48 PM), tammy said:

"Moving across the ramp to the North, as the water gets lower, it is possible to wade across the mouth of Johnson Creek, just below the ramp, and then work along the north shore of the bay."
(Fishing Holes; A Short Cast from Portland)by Jack Webster

I am sitting my husband computer so the nearest book was here on his desk. Let me just say, "Fishing Holes" would not be the nearest book if I was at my own computer.


On 12 April 2004 (08:57 PM), dowingba said:

There is a bowl of orange juice.

-Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. (And yes, the sentence appears in italics in the book.)


On 13 April 2004 (07:49 AM), Drew said:

"In 1998, there were some 280 industrial robots for every 100,000 humans working there."

- from "Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots"


On 13 April 2004 (08:24 AM), Courtney said:

"ANDERSON L E 9762 SE Cora....97266 503 760-2019"

-Qwest Dex (white pages)


On 13 April 2004 (08:26 AM), Dana said:

"Still, it was nice to be with people who liked me"

-- from Five Novels by Daniel Pinkwater (specifically, Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars).


On 13 April 2004 (09:03 AM), Jeff said:

"People who are attempting to lose weight typically do not report fellings of deprivation; they bury them instead."

-from Picture Perfect Weight Loss by Dr. Howard M. Shapiro.


On 13 April 2004 (09:17 AM), Peter Stathakos said:

"Depending on your bug, you can skip some steps entirely because the problem and the location of the problem are entirely obvious."
- Debugging Appplications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows, John Robbins

Coming in at 765 pages, page 23 is just getting you started.


On 14 April 2004 (12:54 PM), Paul said:

TOO "ARID" ????????!!!!!!!!!

BAH!!!!!!!!!

Quadruple BAH!!!!!!!!

Infinity BAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On 14 April 2004 (01:00 PM), J.D. said:

And here I thought my fertile-arid wordplay was pretty damn clever. :)


On 14 April 2004 (07:28 PM), Paul said:

Wendell's writing is not "Arid". (Them's fightin' words.) In fact, his is some of the richest, most fertile writing there is because of its deep meaning. Arid means dry, right? I know you were making a play on words but it obviously work for me.

I know you like his writing or else you wouldn't have mentioned him in the first place.


On 14 April 2004 (08:36 PM), Anthony said:

I have read one book by Wendell Berry and it was not arid.


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