Goodreads Bookshelf
Thursday Think 'n' Share 2.1
Long-time readers (and it sure seems at this point like that's the only kind that's left around here...) will remember the weekly Thursday Think 'n' Share feature that ran from late 2005 through 2007, and though it seems like a dangerous ploy at this point given how few readers I seem to have reading and commenting on a regular basis these days, I figured "what the hell?" After all, this was a really fun thing each week once upon a time, and for my part I'm at a very different place in my life now than I was then, and if I'm going to get back to daily blogging I need 1) some active readers and 2) at least one day a week half-written for me! So, let me quote myself and explain what this is all about:
This is based on a "game" that I played when I was visiting my best friend in Italy--him, his girlfriend, his Australian friend, writer, and then-publishing-partner, and his American friend and writer. It was a nice crowd; except for Gush I only knew the rest of them a little, and it was still a great game.
Or, rather Ungame. That's what it was called. It's Christian in origin and it has one or two more rules than we actually played with, but the basic premise is that questions are asked in order to provoke some thought and let the players get to know one another better. The answers can be serious and thoughtful or they can be joking and humorous. Thursday seemed like a good day since it's late enough in the week that we can all taste the weekend (and so we're all willing to procrastinate a little) but it's not Friday, so you probably haven't packed in your brain for the week yet. I'd love it if everyone would chime in with answers on this "Ungame."
A quick note on method: I own three card sets: All Ages Version, Couples Version, and Families Version, and the first time I did this, I went through one, then bought another and went through it, and then started going through the third. This time, I've mixed all the versions together. However, each set has a "Deck 1" and a "Deck 2" with the former being lighter questions and the latter being more serious. I've kept these separate so that I can easily keep a balance between the two.
Please leave your own answers in the comments section. If you'd like to use it on your own blog, feel free, though it'd be nice if you linked to me as the originator. You may--or may not--want to think about your own answers before reading mine or any comments, but of course that's up to you. Without further ado, let's get to the questions!
1. Make a statement about honesty.
Everyone pays lip service to it, but often it gets a wink and a nod. We tell people what we think they want to hear, or what we want them to hear--we flatter them and we flatter ourselves. For my part, I've always tried to be more honest than that, especially with the people who are closest to me. Dishonesty can be a social lubricant, but sometimes we need a little friction.
2. Are you quick to get angry or slow to get angry? Explain.
I'm quick to get annoyed but slow to get angry. Driving is a prime example--I'll yell/swear at someone who's driving like an idiot... but 5 seconds later I'll be over it. Real, durable anger isn't something I experience very often, and I think that's because I'm able (or at least try) to understand where other people are coming from.
3. If you could have lived at a different time in history, when would it have been?
Intellectually, there's something very appealing about the culture of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries in America or England. The Enlightenment had a grip on us, we were an extraordinarily literate society in the best senses of the word.
At the same time, it's hard to argue with the standard of living, the ready access to, well, pretty much everything, that we have availble to us here in the 21st Century and the end of the 20th Century.
Okay, your turn!