For Morgan, who "stuck" me...

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451; which book do you want to be?

I assume this means, if I were a character in 451, which book would I want to memorize.

If I had a choice, I think I'd apply these criteria: short-ish (easy to memorize); sounds good recited; not derivative, imbued with enough originality that it would inspire a naive reader to think.

Bradbury himself may be on to something; Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience would be an excellent choice. Profound, short, and beautiful. I considered Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights for a short moment. Heart of Darkness? Discourse on the Method? On the Origin of Inequality, On the Social Contract? Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Electra? The Special and General Theory of Relativity? The Transcendentalist? The Crying of Lot 49? The Republic, Symposium, Phaedrus? Crime and Punishment? Faust? The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms? Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello? Leaves of Grass? The Red Badge of Courage? John Donne's Sonnets?

I think I'll pick The Old Man and the Sea, just so I have to stop thinking about this.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

No.

The last book you bought was...

I can't remember. I think it was either Blankets or Photo Nomad.

The last book you read...

Ecology of Fear

What are you currently reading?

Blankets, How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Photoshop CS for Photographers, Cloud Atlas.

Five books you would take to a desert island

• Shakespeare's tragedies
• This is the American Earth
• John Donne's sonnets
• The Crying of Lot 49
• W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

No one. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.