Aug 17, 2006

Quick Book Tag

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

I saw this on Graymama's blog and #5 made me laugh so I'm posting it here too.

None of the books closest to me have a page 123.

The closest book to me is the score of Vivaldi's Gloria which goes up to page 64. The text on page 64 reads: "Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen."

What? A score doesn't count as a book? Ok, I'm reaching down beside my chair... I feel a book, I know there's one there... just can't quite get my fingers on it... Aha! Let's see... Oooh, it's Spot Goes to the Farm by Eric Hill. With a grand total of 22 pages. The text on the last page is... "Did Dad show you the piglets, Spot? Yes, and then I found some kittens to show dad!"

Still not cutting it, huh? I think I left a "real" book on the kitchen island... hold on... Oh, I don't have to go that far. On the other side of the room is "Because I said so!" 366 Insightful and Thought-Provoking Reflections on Parenting and Family Life by John Rosemond. I'm pretty sure this has a page 123... Ok... fifth, sixth, and seventh sentences: "The second way of going before is to run interference. The consequence of this is that one's children have no reason to follow. Rather, they have every reason to sit on their duffs and wait for the parent to solve their problems."

Well, that was kind of dull, wasn't it? I'm going after that book on the island after all... It's a mystery and mostly likely a lot more fun.

"Can't wait. Hubba-hubba! Who's the moppet in the tight blouse?" From Something Rotten (a Thursday Next novel) by Jasper Fforde.

Ironically, I really am surrounded by books... just not very lengthy ones where I'm sitting!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure I've done this on my blog at some point, so I thought I'd put it in your comments instead. The closest book at hand is Walter Benjamin's *Illuminations* -- I'm using an excerpt from this for my class reading list and I thought it wouldn't kill me to reread it. Page 123. Page 123 is in the middle of an essay on Franz Kafka written on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death. Sentences 5-7; the first sentence is the end of an extended quote from Kafka's *The Great Wall of China*: (")We--and here I speak in the name of many people--did not really know ourselves until we had carefully scrutinized the decrees of the high command; then we discovered that without this leadership neither our book learning nor our common sense would have sufficed for the humble tasks which we performed in the great whole." This organization resembles fate. Metchnikoff, who has outlined this in his famous book *La Civilisation et les grands fleuves historiques* [Civilization and the Great Historical Rivers], uses language that could be Kafka's. "The canals of the Yangtze and the dams of the Yellow River," he writes, "are in all likelihood the result of the skillfully organized joint labor of...generations.(") How's that for esoteric?

Gina said...

It's 5 over 11...time for my glass of red and a seat at the scraptable! Check on you tomorrow, and I am saving the book blog for the am... Will visit GMama also!

graymama said...

Thanks for playing :-) Your version of the meme was much more entertaining!

Robin said...

I am grouchy, grumpy and tired. Too bad I couldn't make it alliterate... is that even a word? Alliterate.

Nearest book I promise: Charting the End Times by Tim La Haye

Extracted sentence: Only believers will populate the kingdom at its beginning, and the judgment of the natioms will ensure that all unbelievers are removed before the kingdom commences.

My mood at the moment? Ask me if I care.

Jade said...

:) I've done this one before too.

Lost Scriptures by Bart D. Ehrman

"For him, the gospel means renouncing this world, its wealth (see chaps. 17-24), and its pleasures-especially its sexual pleasures. Even those who are married are urged to refrain from having sexual relations, as children are a distraction on the one hand and are doomed to lives of sin on the other (see chaps. 10-16). The cost of failing to adhere to this gospel message are extreme; in this account we find a graphic description of the torments of hell, reserved for those who did not lead lives of strict morality and renunciation, as told by a woman raised from the dead, who has seen the fates of the damned first hand (chaps. 51-58)"

Fitting for the lengthy conversation I had with K last weekend *shudder*

Gina said...

ok...now I will admit that I have saved a copy to fill in, I have been back here twice and the blog is still the same...? Hope that all is well with you and the baby...Breathe deeply and know that this too shall pass...

PeppyPilotGirl said...

Good glory, everyone reads such more insightful stuff than I! Thanks, all, for playing along!!