Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Quickie Bookish Meme

Air kisses are going out to Tara for tagging me for the following meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The closest book happens to be Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I haven't read it yet, but it's next in the stack I keep on my bed table. It's an old copy that MDH had when he was at UMass, but it still smells brand new.

Here is the 5th sentence:
But immediately as though slipping his feet into old slippers, he dropped back into the light-hearted, pleasant world he had always lived in.

And the next 3 after...

The coffee was never really made, but spluttered over every one and boiled away, doing just what was required of it - that is, providing cause for much noise and laughter, and spoiling a costly rug and the baroness's gown.

"Well now, good-bye, or you'll never get washed, and I shall have on my conscience the worst sin a gentleman can commit. So you would advise a knife to his throat?"

I don't normally tag people but I'll make an exception this time since this is a pretty innocuous meme.

I choose:

Aunt Dahlia
Gwen (EILCC)
I'm Playing Outside
R-Cubed
a
nd last but never least
Heidi at Viking Conquest


It would have been pretty fun if the nearest book had been something embarassing like The World of Mr. Winkle or one of MDH's scary corporate self help books about "power selling" or some such nonsense. But this would never happen because these books are hidden from sight so that people won't find out that we are tools.

9 comments:

Tara said...

Hey, thanks for doing this meme! It was nice an innocent, wasn't it? I wonder how it would look if we did pick up work books or silly stories and quote those. Okay, well I know how it would look, but I'm sure it would be funny. :)

Claire said...

OK, I'm in! I'll do this tomorrow; I'm at work now (not a book-rich environment)

Boldly Serving Up Wheat Grass said...

I did that meme a week or two ago, but mine was too boring to post.

Shelley Jaffe said...

WHAT? Coffee on my GOWN? I hope it wasn't the new one I bought for Eugenie's 18th birthday. :)

SkylersDad said...

I don't have any books that are that long, but page 5 of "If you give a pig a pancake" has this wonderful line:

She'll probably get all sticky.

So there is your taken out of context moment for the day...

Gwen said...

Thanks for the tag - now I don't have to think about what to write tomorrow!

paperback reader said...

I used to hide all my porn inside of Bukowski books until I realized I was more ashamed of the latter.

Churlita said...

Whew! Thank god you didn't tell the whole internets that you own those books. I would hate for people to know you are tools. Ha ha.

The Lady Who Doesn't Lunch: said...

Tara - thanks for signing me up. If it were the closest magazine instead of book it would have been a pretty fun challenge too - I'm all about the magazines.

CDP - yeah - I'm interested to know what you are reading... sorry I totally forgot to send you a heads up about this meme in your comments.

BSUWG - What'd you have a technical manual or something?

Baroness - here, let me get you some club soda before the stain sets in.

Skydad - does that fall into the "that's what she said" category??

Gwen - happy to help you out.

Pistols - what kind of tiny porn are you reading?

Churlita - I know! It would have been tragic, but I'm smarter than that ;)