I was going to save Litlove’s spiffy new meme for tomorrow, but my mind says it needs a break today. So here goes.

List some of your favorite words:

Effervescent. Yummy. Fuzzy. Howdy. Thyme. Banana.

What’s your favorite maxim or proverb?

With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine.

What’s your favorite quotation?

I have sometimes dreamt that when the Day of Judgement dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards–their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble–the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading.” –Virginia Woolf, “How Should One Read a Book?”, The Common Reader

What’s your favorite first line of a novel?

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984

Give an example of a piece of description that’s really pleased you in your reading lately:

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “Quotation and Orginality”: “Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone; yet he is no more to be credited with the grand result than the acaleph which adds a cell to the coral reef which is the basis of the continent.”

Which five writers do you particularly admire for their use of language?

Virginia Woolf, Adrienne Rich, Margaret Atwood, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Marcel Proust

And are there writers whose style you really dislike?
Charles Stross, F. Scott Fitzgerald

What’s the key to really fine writing, in your opinion?
A flare for the lyrical and precise word choice.

That was pretty fun, though it was more difficult than I expected. Thanks Litlove! Anyone else want to play?