Meme: Excerpt from a book on my desk

Kivi Leroux Miller over at Non-profit Marketing Guide tagged me with a meme today and totally caught me reading about GIANT SQUID.

Everyone else has these profound books in their memes, Social Butterfly has one on "What I know now: letters to my younger self" and Kivi is reading the Metaphors Dictionary, which sounds so cool I'm going to have to order one from Amazon as soon as I finish this post.

Me? I'm reading about Architeuthis (pronounced Ark-i-tooth-is) in a book called "The Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World's Most Elusive Sea Creature" by Richard Ellis. I know what you're thinking -- and yes, it's true. I have serious Jules Verne issues and once dragged my poor husband past thousands of cool things in Monaco just to get to the Oceanographic Museum & Aquarium so I could see the taxidermied-looking mold of a giant squid carcass.

This is what I am supposed to do:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

On page 123, this is what you get: (Ellis quoting famed Giant Squid researcher Frederick Aldrich)

"The classical report on speed of architeuthid swimming is that of Gronningsaeter (1946)...he clocked an architeuthid's speed at 20-25 kn. If this observation is valid, and I believe it is, then the morphological apparatus with which the squid has been provided is clearly capable of speed sufficient to evade whales." (Sperm whales are capable of speeds of ten to twelve knots."

What's not to love about the phrase "morphological apparatus?" Use it to impress your friends. And if that's not enough, people who specialize in squid are called "teuthologists."

And teuthologist geek bonus: You can read about and see the dissection of a Colossal Squid  (Mesonychoteuthis).

Like Kivi, I'm going to tag some of the people I enjoy on Twitter:

Stacey Monk

Jason Robertshaw at Cephalopodcast (because how could I resist?)

Scott Clark

Scott Edward Anderson

Amy Sample Ward

What are you reading? Have anything you can recommend because, as you see, I have (ahem) wide-ranging interests.

Comments

[Jennifer]

Really I'm focused on Prince Caspian right now. I've given up on Lydia paying attention while I read aloud to her (momentary lapse of sanity), so it's going much quicker now. I recently read Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business by Meg Mateo Ilasco. EXCELLENT! And I have piles of books that I want to read: The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared Diamond, Orlando by Virgina Woolfe and The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession by Chandler Burr.

I've also got the Chronicles of Narnia in Russian that I've been stumbling through. Slow going.

[Jennifer]

Oooo! I heard Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is great too.

[Jennifer]

And one more: A quick read, as it's a children's book, is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems. Kept me pseudo-sane when I still working where you work.

[Cara]

I love that pigeon book. Have you tried "Click clack moo" -- cows get a typewriter? Love it.

I don't think anything is going to keep me sane here anymore, but I've been reading Jenny Crusie and that helps.

Thanks for all of your great suggestions. I have Elizabeth Gilbert on my shelf, but haven't read yet. Erica B. recommended it, too, so I'll move it up the shelf.

[Laura]

From page 123 of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which I have been reading for so long that I really just need to suck it up and start over:

"His face, ordinarily a trusting blank surmounted by tousled yellow curls, is creased with worry. He is not measuring the members of the audience--the house is sold out, as it has been for every night of the current engagement. He is looking for someone or something that no one will discuss, that he has only inferred, for the unnamed person or thing whose advent or presence has been troubling the company all day."

[Stacey Monk]

I am so on it. This week I promise :) Right now, the book nearest to me is "Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim" by David Sedaris. My guess is page 123 may be either super funny or painful. Actually, because I can't resist, here they are:

"Then, too, I couldn't help believe that I'd deserved to have my blood tested. I had asked whom his mother loved more, him or his sister. I'd thought I was clever, bad prided myself on my ability to drive someone away, and this had been my punishment."

We'll see which book is nearest when I tweet - or post - later this week.

You rock. Thanks again for being an amazing twitter compass. You always seem to point me in the right direction.

[Cara]

Holy sleep-deprivation, Stacey, I'm just amazed you have time to read. (David Sedaris, always an excellent choice).

For any of you following along at home, go check out Stacey's site epicchange.org and give Stacey and Mama Lucy some well-deserved Mother's Day love.