Formerly known as the Daily Dose, the Weekly Dose is home to weekly excerpts from a wide variety of important books. These excerpts are near and dear to the hearts of the BMTG membership. Submissions from BMTG members are welcome, as long as the guidelines are followed. Submissions that do not conform to the official guidelines will be rejected without the opportunity to appeal. Excerpts are best when read aloud with a dramatic flair.
2006
May | April
| March | February
| January
2005
December | November
| October | September
| August | July
| June | May
| April | March
| February
Week of November 28, 2005
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen
Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought. By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends; by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.
Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla
ESCENA XI SCENE XI (Don Juan, Lucia, Ciutti) (Don Juan, Lucia, Ciutti) LUCÍA: ¿Qué queréis, buen caballero? What do you want, sir knight? DON JUAN: Quiero. I want... LUCÍA: ¿Qué queréis, vamos a ver? Well! Lets see, what you want? DON JUAN: Ver. To see... LUCÍA: ¿Ver? ¿Qué veréis a esta hora? To see? Who would you see so late? DON JUAN: A tu señora. Your lady.
Week of November 21, 2005
The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill
PADDY--[Continuing the trend of his thoughts as if he had never been interrupted--bitterly.] And there she was standing behind us, and the Second pointing at us like a man you'd hear in a circus would be saying: In this cage is a queerer kind of baboon than ever you'd find in darkest Africy. We roast them in their own sweat--and be damned if you won't hear some of thim saying they like it! [He glances scornfully at Yank.]
YANK--[With a bewildered uncertain growl.] Aw!
PADDY--And there was Yank roarin' curses and turning round wid his shovel to brain her--and she looked at him, and him at her--
YANK--[Slowly.] She was all white. I tought she was a ghost. Sure.
PADDY--[With heavy, biting sarcasm.] 'Twas love at first sight, divil a doubt of it! If you'd seen the endearin' look on her pale mug when she shrivelled away with her hands over her eyes to shut out the sight of him! Sure, 'twas as if she'd seen a great hairy ape escaped from the Zoo!
YANK--[Stung--with a growl of rage.] Aw!
The Legends of San Francisco by George W. Caldwell
Beaver sat upon the mountain,
Gazing out across the waters;
Saw a single feather floating;
Feather grew into an Eagle;
Eagle flew and sat by Beaver.
Long they talked about creation,
Counseled, planned, and reconsidered,
Then they moulded clay with tules;
Beaver placed his hair upon it,
Eagle breathed into its nostrils
Thus Coyote was created.
Coyote barked and sat beside them.
Many creatures were created;
Some with hair, and some with feathers;
Some with scales, or shells, or bristles.
Week of November 14, 2005
Tecumseh: A Drama by Charles Mair
TECUMSEH. False girl! Is this your promise?
Would that I had a pale-face for a niece--
Not one so faithless to her pledge! You owe
All duty and affection to your race,
Whose interest--the sum of our desires--
Traversed by alien love, drops to the ground.IENA. Tecumseh ne'er was cruel until now.
Call not love alien which includes our race--
Love for our people, pity for their wrongs!
He loves our race because his heart is here--
And mine is in his breast. Oh, ask him there,
And he will tell you--
The Deliverance by Ellen Glasgow
"Are you sick, Christopher? or has anything happened? You are so unlike yourself."
He shook his head impatiently and her hand fell from his sleeve. It occurred to him all at once, with an aggrieved irritation, that of late his family had failed him in sympathy--that they had ceased to value the daily sacrifices he made. Almost with horror he found himself asking the next instant whether the simple bond of blood was worth all that he had given--worth his youth, his manhood, his ambition? Until this moment his course had seemed to him the one inevitable outcome of circumstances--the one appointed path for him to tread; but even as he put the question he saw in a sudden illumination that there might have been another way--that with the burden of the three women removed he
might have struck out into the world and at least have kept his own head above water. With his next breath the horror of his thought held him speechless, and he turned away lest Cynthia should read his degradation in his eyes.
Week of November 7, 2005
Anthem by Ayn Rand
We have built strange things with this
discovery of ours. We used for it the
copper wires which we found here under the
ground. We have walked the length of our
tunnel, with a candle lighting the way.
We could go no farther than half a mile, for
earth and rock had fallen at both ends.
But we gathered all the things we found
and we brought them to our work place.
We found strange boxes with bars of metal
inside, with many cords and strands and
coils of metal. We found wires that led
to strange little globes of glass on the walls;
they contained threads of metal thinner
than a spider's web.
Eugene Pickering by Henry James
"I want to forget my situation. I want to spend three months without thinking of the past or the future, grasping whatever the present offers me. Yesterday I thought I was in a fair way to sail with the tide. But this morning comes this memento!" And he held up his
letter again.
"What is it?"
"A letter from Smyrna."
"I see you have not yet broken the seal."
"No; nor do I mean to, for the present. It contains bad news."