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Nearest Book Meme

“”Buy it.” This was my sister Amy’s advice in regard to everything, from a taxidermied horse head to a camouflage thong. “Just get it, ” she says. “You’ll feel better.””
David Sedaris in When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence – either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don’t look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.
Luckily I was on the couch near a huge pile of books that’s about to be moved to make room for the Christmas tree. They accumulate over the year due to my wife’s three novel a week crack (-ing a book) habit and then they move to storage.
Stephen

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Posted on: December 2, 2008, 4:10 pm Category: Uncategorized

By: stephen

rev="post-2003" 18 comments

18 Responses

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  1. Jonathan said
    on December 2, 2008 9:26 pm

    “It was snowing on St. Lawrence Boulevard and the two or three customers left in the place were staring out at the weather.”
    Leonard Cohen in “Beautiful Losers”

  2. Marjorie said
    on December 3, 2008 8:50 am

    “There is no reason to resolve yourself to chronic disease conditions.”
    The New Retirement by Sherry Cooper

  3. Denise said
    on December 3, 2008 8:53 am

    “Tim had avoided all the drama and constant disappointment that usually accompanies such building projects by cleverly giving the job to one of his best mates, Matt, who had formerly been his partner in an amusing double act that had worked the London comedy circuit for a few years.”
    Tony Hawks, “A Piano in the Pyrenees”

  4. Nancy M said
    on December 3, 2008 12:51 pm

    “Vroom!”
    Swing by Rufus Butler Seder
    My book did not have 56 pages, so I went to the 6th. It has only 3 sentences so I re-counted the the sentences until I got to 5. What does this say about me? That I’m a children’s librarian!

  5. Rebecca B said
    on December 3, 2008 8:13 pm

    “No other explanation was given.” from The Organization of Information, 2nd Edition, by Arlene G. Taylor.
    Yep. Grad school.

  6. S Kraus said
    on December 4, 2008 4:22 pm

    “The alphabetical organization scheme of the phone book’s white pages is exact”.
    from Information Architechture for the World Wide Web. 2nd Edition. Louis Rosenfeld & Peter Morville
    Slightly ironic given I’ve been pondering the organizaion of the corporate website this afternoon…

  7. Patricia said
    on December 4, 2008 10:15 pm

    “Trim paint is available in most popular finishes and can be custom blended for your specific color requirements” – Home Improvement 1-2-3, 2nd ed. Des Moines : Meredith Books, 2003

  8. Corinne said
    on December 5, 2008 10:18 am

    “Sometimes we become so attached to one form of self or shell that we live a hunched and suffocating existence, with no room to move.”
    The exquisite risk / Mark Nepo.

  9. Will said
    on December 5, 2008 1:25 pm

    “As you may have discovered while experimenting with heel and toe slips (pages 52-55), when either tip of the board started to dip downhill, the board traveled sideways.”
    from Snowboarding Skills: The back-to-basics essentials for all levels. 1st edition, 1st printing. Cindy Kleh.
    It was on top of the returns pile at my library.

  10. Moe said
    on December 6, 2008 6:19 am

    “And here the fun began.”.
    Cycle World, December 2008, Vol. #47 Issue #12.
    Hope magazines count.

  11. Lisa said
    on December 6, 2008 9:43 pm

    Not long after this we borrowed ‘cotton’, which derives via French and Spanish from the Arabic ‘qutn’ or ‘qutun’; it had been introduced to Iraq, from India, around AD 600, and had spread to Europe by the tenth century.
    The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English, by Henry Hitchings

  12. Marian D said
    on December 7, 2008 11:42 am

    “I just smiled.”
    from “The Ex-debutante” by Linda Francic Lee.
    (An advance readers’ edition that was sitting on the edge of my desk awaiting a new home.)

  13. BMac said
    on December 8, 2008 7:30 pm

    “The air is charged with electricity.”
    The Man in the Ice
    by Konrad Spindler

  14. Cathy Linacre said
    on December 9, 2008 12:02 pm

    “There ought to be more.”
    The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill
    (A real meaning of life sentence!)

  15. Katie said
    on December 9, 2008 1:49 pm

    He applies it to the second (or middle) phase of tribal passage rites – those rites that help people to “cross over” one of life’s natural dividing points.
    Managing Transitions
    William Bridges

  16. bz said
    on December 9, 2008 3:32 pm

    “Hurley didn’t want to hear it.”
    The Miracle of St. Anthony
    by Adrian Wojnarowski

  17. Louise said
    on December 11, 2008 12:08 pm

    “Most chickens and turkeys are crowded into sheds called grower houses.”
    Controversies in Food and Nutrition / Myrna Chandler Goldstein and Mark A. Goldstein, M.D.

  18. Sara said
    on December 23, 2008 12:36 pm

    “No offense, you guys,” Nellie put in, “but I’ve been around your family long enough to know this has Cahill written all over it.”
    –39 Clues: One False Note by Gordon Korman