erikred: (Default)
[personal profile] erikred
Pick ten of your favorite books, look them up on Amazon.com, and find the list of Statistically Improbable Phrases for those novels. Pick a few SIPs from each book, list them here, and then have people guess what books they are. (Obviously, using Google or Amazon to figure it out is cheating.).

For your consideration:

1. clam beer, eternal rainbow, cloud wall
2. hundred piastres, retired baker, dear viscount
3. folding bedroom, old orrery, imaginary study
4. tormented writer, productive writer, gathering shadow [If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino, identified by [livejournal.com profile] missludmilla]
5. pirate city, haunted quarter, possibility mining [The Scar by China Mieville, identified by [livejournal.com profile] alfvaen]
6. unicorn skull, chubby granddaughter, shuffled data [Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, identified by [livejournal.com profile] abazureonna]
7. tangents paper, rarefying engine, cabinet noir
8. purring voice, little revolver
9. terrible island, zero winter, fabulous thing
10. pale suit, buffalo man, coin tricks [American Gods by Neil Gaiman, identified by [livejournal.com profile] ronebofh]

Go get 'em.

Date: 2006-05-31 12:00 am (UTC)
ext_8707: Taken in front of Carnegie Hall (frangendo)
From: [identity profile] ronebofh.livejournal.com
10 is Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

I know 3, 5 and 8 from others' instantiations of this meme, but i haven't read any of them, so i won't guess.

Date: 2006-05-31 03:31 pm (UTC)

Date: 2006-05-31 01:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] abazureonna.livejournal.com
six is murakami's hardboiled wonderland and the end of the world, but the rest i don't know.

how are "purring voice" and "little revolver" statistically improbable phrases? i'd go out on a limb and guess dashiell hammit or something, but which hammit?

Date: 2006-05-31 01:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] abazureonna.livejournal.com
ah, i just read how it works on amazon... still, man, that's a hard one.

Date: 2006-05-31 03:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erikred.livejournal.com
You're right, it is kind of hard. Still, those were the only SIPs listed.

Date: 2006-05-31 03:31 pm (UTC)

Date: 2006-05-31 02:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] narwhale.livejournal.com
I knew 10!

And 5 is a Meiville book I'm pretty damned sure, but I can't remember which one possibility mining was in. I don't this it was PSS.

Date: 2006-05-31 02:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] palecur.livejournal.com
#2: Steven Brust, 'The Viscount of Adrilankha'.

Date: 2006-05-31 03:32 pm (UTC)

Date: 2006-05-31 02:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] palecur.livejournal.com
#7: China Mieville, Perdido Street Station

Date: 2006-05-31 03:32 pm (UTC)

Date: 2006-05-31 04:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missludmilla.livejournal.com
I'm guessing #4 is "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler"...

Date: 2006-05-31 03:32 pm (UTC)

Date: 2006-06-02 03:59 am (UTC)
alfvaen: floatyhead (Default)
From: [personal profile] alfvaen
You know, I thought #5 was "The Scar" when I first read this, so I hope it's not cheating that I confirmed it when I was searching it for my own contribution to the SIP meme.

Date: 2006-06-02 05:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erikred.livejournal.com


I think that counts.

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erikred: (Default)
Erik, the BFG

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