Tag: memes-books

It’s National Book Week. Grab the book closest to you, turn to page 56, write the fifth sentence. Don’t mention the book, and post these rules as your status.

“He reveled in riding fence and branding cattle, the austere beauty of the country, and, not least, his solitude in it–he passed his nights in a sod house with a single book, Booth Tarkington’s Monsieur Beaucaire, on which he later claimed to be the world’s foremost expert.”

Hint: It’s not a western.

[Snarfed from Robyn Edelson Kozierok]

Snarfed from barelyproper: When you see this in a friend’s journal, quote Dickens!

Among other public buildings in the town of Mudfog, it boasts of one which is common to most towns great or small, to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse there was born on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events, the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.
Oliver Twist

A morning meme to wake one up, courtesy of transitfan, underpope, and barelyproper:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth full sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around for the coolest book you can find. Use what’s actually nearest to you.

So, here goes. A hint: I’m pretty sure that cellio or estherchaya should be able to figure out where this is from. Note that this book doesn’t have 123 pages, so I’m going to page 123 modulo the number of actual pages (59), plus one, i.e., page 6. Extra points if you figure out the exact edition.

He used to say: If I am not for myself, who is for me?

[I know, this is far too easy]

A Saturday morning meme from ellipticcurve, whilst I wait for it to be late enough to go to the Games Gather.

1. Choose five to ten of your all time favorite books. [I may also include some with favorite first lines]
2. Take the first sentence of the first chapter and make a list in your journal (I may include prologues).
3. Don’t reveal the author or the title of the book.

So, without further adieu, a little list:

1. “Standing there in the cold office, at this ungodly hour, no longer night, not yet day, she felt apprehensive and nervous.” [Not Guessed: The Man by Irving Wallace]
2. “Bill never realized that sex was the cause of it all.” [Not Guessed: Bill, the Galactic Hero” by Harry Harrison]
3. “There was once a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself–not just sometimes, but always.” [ellipticcurve: The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster]
4. “Come on, Jerry,” Chuck called out cheerfully from inside the rude shed that the two chums had fixed up as a simple laboratory. “The old particle accelerator is fired up and rarin’ to go!” [Not Guessed: Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers by Harry Harrison. One of the best parodies of E.E. “Doc” Smith around.]
5. “Beneath the floor of a very old forest, nestled in among some nice, rich topsoil, lived a family of worms. Earthworms, to be exact.” [ellipticcurve: There’s A Hair In My Dirt, by Gary Larson]
6. “Chimal ran in panic. The moon was still hidden by the cliffs on the eastern side of the valley, but its light was already tipping their edges with silver.” [Not guessed: Captive Universe by Harry Harrison. My first real “SF” book.]
7. “I found the bungalow and rang the bell. My client answered the door. He was almost my height, close to six feet, but only if you counted his eighteen inch ears.” [ellipticcurve: Who Censored Roger Rabbit, by Gary K. Wolfe]
8. “Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.” [kerinda: Cats Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut]
9. “Once upon a time there was a sensible straight line who was hopelessly in love with a dot.” (for this one, you have to give the moral as well). [ellipticcurve: The Dot and the Line, by Norman Juster. The moral, which she missed, is: “To The Vector Belongs The Spoils”]
10. “See Jane. Jane is married to Bob. Jane loves Bob very much. Bob is a real mensch.” [ellipticcurve: Yiddish with Dick and Jane by Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman]

Alas, I can’t find all the books I want, as some of them are already packed

Posting a meme, because I don’t really have that much else to say…

[Snarfed from kerinda]

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal…
5. …along with these instructions.

Do you hear the Little Voices all a-beggin me to go?
[Collected Poems of Robert Service, “The Lure of Little Voices”]