Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Nearest Book Meme

We've both been tagged by Literacy-Chic for this meme.

Grab the nearest book.

Open it to page 161.
Find the fifth full sentence.
Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
Don't search around looking for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you


"This is Miss Pym, Albert."

from Miss Pym Disposes, by Josephine Tey. I read her The Daughter of Time while at my family's house and was hooked.

Anyone who wants can put up their own answers in the comments box.

21 comments:

Vitae Scrutator said...

I was sooo lucky, the closest book to me when I read this was actually my Latin breviary, so it's going to look incredibly cool when I say that my answer is:

"Haec autem gloriosum quidem faciebant hominem, id quod deerat ei adimplentia, id est amicitiam Dei, Deo autem praestabant nihil; nec enim indigebat Deus dilectione hominis."

It is, perhaps, a feature of Latin prose style that there almost were not five full sentences on that page, each sentence being nearly a full paragraph of its own.

Rick Lugari said...

Dad is sad
Very very sad
Dad had a bad day
What a day Dad had.

Anonymous said...

"To throw a spear, hold it in your right hand, and raise it above your shoulder so that the spear is parallel to the ground."


cacofonix

Darwin said...

Ah, Rick. Many's the time that's been the closest book to hand for me. Though you must have a multi-book volume for that to be page 161...

Foxfier said...

"When he at last fell asleep, he dreamed of stealing into House Malveen, taking the key, and opening the gate to Maelin's cell." - from Black Wolf, by Dave Gross; a Forgotten Realms book. (great series, really)

Pro Ecclesia said...

"His father, himself in public service of one sort and another for over sixty years, gave Maitland some Polonius-like advice at the beginning of his career, Counsel to my son being in the court, in which he admonished him to be neither a flatterer nor a scorner, to remember the instability of fortune even in the highest position of government, and in short not to be overconfident in a world as changeable as the moon by the sea."

~ Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser

Fr Martin Fox said...

"When he grew up, Moses, guided by faith, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter."

(The first part of the responsory to the second reading for the Office of Readings, for Monday of the 2nd week of Lent -- i.e., from my breviary.)

Rick Lugari said...

Yeah...there was a time when 80% of my ink on paper reading was of the Dr Seuss genre. But that book wasn't really close by - I just wanted to pretend I was intelligent or something.

Since I have no books on my desk now due to a cluster of medical docs, etc. I had to reach over my shoulder and grab one off the bookshelf. I pulled Vol 4 of Warren Carroll's History of Christendom (one of my all-time favs, in fact).

He had much to answer for, and no courage to listen to his conscience.

It was referring to Abp. Thomas Cranmer walking and weeping in his garden the night before Anne Boleyn's head got whacked off.

CMinor said...

But there's no need to tell you the story.

Pretty dull, huh?
"Philoctetes," Ten Greek Plays, L. R. Lind, Ed. Riverside.

Haven't actually read it since college, but it's on the end of the bookshelf nearest me right now.

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

"It was strange, driving past the Tastee, CC's Coffee Shop, Whole Foods."

Gee, that's exciting. It doesn't exactly grip me.
This is a book that my mom passed along to me to read but that I haven't started yet. "How to Be Lost" by Amanda Eyre Ward.

Kiwi Nomad said...

"Their very survival depends on it." The fifth sentence just happened to be short and non-technical... The closest book to hand is a non-fiction book called "Ghosts of Gondwana: the history of life in New Zealand"

Anonymous said...

"The perpendicular lines form right angles and all right angles are congruent."

The Opinionated Homeschooler said...

"Full speed!" and Pinocchio ran as fast as he could.

The book is *much* cooler than the Disneywrecked movie. For one thing, as soon as that supercilious d**n cricket shows up, P. smacks him with his shoe and smashes him good and dead. How I love reading that part to the Offspringen.

Anonymous said...

"Since the latter drops out during the process of deriving dC/dQ, the magnitude of the fixed cost obviously cannot affect the marginal cost."

- Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, Alpha C. Chiang

Kate said...

"Some even turned away their faces."

Silence, by Shusako Endo, which after seeing it recommended on at least a dozen of my favorite blogs and book lists, I finally bought. The sentence comes during a description of a Catholic priest processing through a crowd of his former parishioners on the way to be tortured.

Arimathean said...

"Kourou French Guiana 39 H2"

The closest book was the DK Ultimate Pocket World Atlas. This page was in the middle of the index.

Anonymous said...

והמים הוסיפו-זרמו עד שדמתה כיכר איזנגרד לקלחת ענק, מבעבעת ומהבילה.

from Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers, Hebrew translation.

mrsdarwin said...

Anon,

You win. Scott Carson comes in a close second.

Anonymous said...

Equation (4.34) shows that the Fourier transform X(ω) can be computed directly from the signal waveform x(t) (in this case the rectangular pulse).

Rick Lugari said...

The key to being a good commentator on blogs is to refrain from posting inane comments or attempting to interject wit into a conversation, because you're probably the only one who will think it's funny.

From page 161 of Blog Commenting for Dummies

Rhonda bought it for me, but I don't think I need to read it as much as she thinks I should...

Anonymous said...

"And really, really good!"

--Kiyohiko Azuma, Yotsuba&! 1