Today's Post Is Brought to You by the Letter....

Simon over at Stuck in a Book has thrown out a small challenge to fellow bloggers.  A chain-meme revolving around the letters of the alphabet.  Here's what Simon has to say:

Here's something that should be fun - and do get involved in the comment section! - I'm going to kick off a meme where we say our favourite book, author, song, film, and object beginning with a particular letter. And that letter will be randomly assigned to you by me, via random.org. If you'd like to join in, comment in the comment section and I'll tell you your letter! (And then, of course, the chain can keep going on your blog.)  

He kicked things off with his post on the letter M.  And has now given me my letter

And here are my choices.


Favorite Book:
Bodies in a Bookshop by R. T. Campbell. At the time I first discovered this book, I'd never heard of R. T. Campbell and the Dover edition that the public library carried was new to me too. I'd never seen these slim reprints anywhere else. But how could I resist a mystery with a title like that? A mystery and a bookshop? I was sold even before I read the synopsis.

Favorite Author:

Oooh. This is difficult.  With "B" we've got Ray Bradbury, Julian Barnes, Josephine Bell, Nicholas Blake, Christianna Brand, Leo Bruce, and Octavia Butler...good writers all. But...if I must choose one, then I'm going to go with Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was one of my earliest loves in science fiction. I love Bradbury's use of language and his way of using SF situations to describe the emotions of now. Whether that "now" be when the stories were actually written or the now of 2014. He absolutely captures the human condition whether he's showing the future humans on Earth or humans on Mars or humans in space.

image credit

 Favorite Song:

"Best of My Love" by the Eagles (love me some Eagles music)

Favorite Film:

 Another difficult one...hmmm.  Do I want to go comedy (Bringing Up Baby) or more serious (The Bridge on the River Kwai) or maybe a little Hitchcock (The Birds).  I'm feeling like a comedy today...so, let's say Bringing Up Baby. I love the mad, comic combination of Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

Favorite Object:

This one is so easy....I have to wonder whether this is a trick question.  My favorite object that starts with a B?  I wonder....

Books!  Books! Glorious books!  I know--way too easy.  And we've already done favorite book.  But I don't care.  Books are still my favorite.

But if I have to choose just one book to represent them all....then I'll go with this one,  Thomas Moore's Complete Poetical Works:

It was published in 1895, so it's really old, and it's got this interesting, puffy, off-white cover that just called my name every time I stepped into the used bookstore. When I finally got my hands on it, I didn't really go through it page-by-page but I I did try to read it. Well, let's just say it's flowery, 19th-C poetry at its best (or worst, depending on your point of view) and I never made it past about 20 pages or so. Not the all-time best book as far as content. But one of my closest friends gave it to me and....it led to my very own Believe It or Not Moment two years ago (click for my post on the subject).

Now...if you'd like to play along, just comment below and I'll give you a letter through a random letter generator....Or feel free to go visit Simon and have him give you a letter (visit him anyway!).