The Alphabet Challenge - is it Too Prosaic?

Look at him.  You might think he looks pathetic, but I envy him.  He has a clear goal, and it's almost within his grasp.  The planning process should be fairly simple, despite his lack of opposable thumbs.  

When I'm trying to do something, it is usually fairly simple, too.  I even have the thumbs to make it happen.  What is missing, in my case, is short-term memory.

About a week ago I was engaged in a conversation about the partitioning of India and Pakistan.  "Oh!" I cried, "there is an excellent novel that deals with the period just before Partition.  You might want to read it - the author sheds a lot of light on the AIMP and the religious tensions brewing under the British East India Company."  Thanks, yes, I would, what's it called?  "Buh-buh-buh . . . Beats me."  Both title and author had completely flown my mind.  Particularly embarrassing considering that I had read the book three times, two of them with the honors sections of my Comparative Religions course.  Since many of our books are still in storage in our garage (topic for another day), I googled the only clue I had: the names of as many Indian American female authors as I could think of.  I finally hit on the right one, and from there, found the book.  What a relief!

I'm the same about movies, which drives my actor and film-enthusiast son mad.  "Hey, Christopher, who's the actor who was in the movie about the two people who, you know, broke out of jail, and there's a lot of singing?"  You mean O Brother Where Art Thou?  It has three guys who break out.  Which one do you mean?  "The famous one, you know, who looks like Uncle Steve."  {Almost imperceptible sigh}  Mom, that's George Clooney.  For someone who could (if he wanted to) organize his bluray collection alphabetically by the name of the sound engineer, I must sorely try his patience.  "What's the name of that creature who stomps all over Tokyo, again?  I never can keep those monsters straight . . ."

I bring all this up because it is my intention to try out the old standard A to Z book blog, with a little twist.  I will not only go a-z through books, but also a-z through movies, with brief, pithy commentaries on them, sometimes comparing two or more at one go.  To make it a little easier on myself (following my cousin Ker's excellent advice to be kind to myself), I am going to interpret the A-Z part loosely.  The letter may stand for the author's name OR the first word in the book title; for the first word in the movie title OR the name of the actor/actress or director (whoever is most notable IMO).  

I'm also not going to start out doing this in order, so I'll have to figure out a way to keep track of which letters I've used.

Aaaaaaannnndd I want feedback, so there will be questions and trivia and such.  Maybe prizes if enough people get involved.

This being March 20 already, I've seen and read quite a bit, so I have some catching up to do.

I already know what I'll be starting on, but that'll be tomorrow's post.  

Tags: memory, thumbs, feedback, A-Z, books, movies, Indian Partition, Pakistan, trivia, Godzilla