rattfan | Untagged, Doing It Anyway Meme....

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4-7 sentences on your LJ 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 (unless it's too troublesome to reach and is really heavy. Then go back to step 1).
6. Tag five people.

Not tagging either. Help yourself. Instead of nearest book, how about shutting your eyes, rising from your chair, staggering blindly to your bookshelves and pulling out whatever your hands touch first?

Using this method I encountered:

"What is this?" he asked, because he hadn't gotten cooperation out of anybody in this place and he didn't trust any of them. It might be a consent for them to go cutting on him, or giving him God knew what drug, and damned if he was going to sign it unread, in this place heavy as 1-deck.

They said, the they who came and went sometimes, cops, doctors, orderlies, he wasn't clear enough to figure that at the moment - "It's just so you can get out of here. You want to get out of here, don't you?"

HEAVY TIME by C.J. Cherryh

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Staggered blindly to bookshelf method results unintentionally hysterical:

His voice grew harsh. " During the three hours it will take us to put the modified plan into effect, we will be helpless against him except for high powered mobile vibrators and heat projectors. We dare not use anything heavier inside the ship, and those will have to be used with care since they can kill human beings. Naturally each man will be expected to defend himself with his own vibrator."
He stepped back. "Let's get going!"

This is a famous book! It's a *serious* book from decades ago. So, can anyone on your friends list or yourself identify it?

...but what a way to go...

My nearest book is a cat.

The next nearest one doesn't have 123 pages.

The next nearest one has music in it. It doesn't have page numbers, but about 123 pages in is the tune for Jenny Plucks Pears. The 5th line says "(clef sign) 3/4 Am Am Am Am Am Am G Am". There are also some notes, dots, bars, and a squiggle or two. Does that count?

The next-next-next-next nearest one is on a bookshelf in the next room. It's "Scale of Dragon, Tooth of Wolf" written by your good self of course. You could go look up page 123 all by yourself, you don't need me to do it.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, although I don't guess many of your other readers find clef signs on the 5th line of p. 123 of whatever book they have handiest. So I hope that's entertaining.

Toby led us to the very edge of this and there stood whining, looking out on the dark current beyond.
"We're out of luck," said Holmes. "They have taken to a boat here."
Several small punts and skiffs were lying about in the water and on the edge of the wharf. We took Toby round to each in turn, but though he sniffed earnestly he made no sign.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four.

No vibrators, but I think Holmes and Watson are whistling Dixie if they want a dog to start signing to them.

Then at his back, the wood leaped with black bitches, swift as greyhounds escaping from their leash, and all the pack sprang on him, with their fangs they opened him and tore him savagely, and then withdrew, carrying his body with them, limb by limb. Then, taking me by the hand across the wood, my Master led me toward the bush. Lamenting, all its fractures blew out words and blood: "O Jacomo da Sant' Andrea!" it said, "what have you gained in making me your screen? What part had I in the foul life you led?"

That happens when you are too lazy to bring a book back to the shelf after using a quote from it. *g* It's from Dante Alighieri's The Inferno. The second closest would have been Shakespeare's Hamlet. Also always a good one to quote. ;)

E.E. "Doc" Smith?

Of course it's possible! Toby could always just point...

Well, I don't need you to quote my book but egoboo is always good :-) Or use the random method as suggested! If I'd snagged the nearest book it would've been a German dictionary.

If it's serious, I guess Tom Swift is way out? :-) I'd have to agree with Laura and say E.E. Doc Smith but I'm guessing.

Sorry to hear you suffered injury or was it merely chaos in your eagerness to follow my supposed method?

The Inferno is definitely a good one to quote. I always liked it, even though I had to read it in high school and that was usually the death knell for any book. When the Poet moved up towards Heaven things were much less interesting, I thought.

You read Dante in high school? Oh man! We only read Goethe most of the time. And Shakespeare in English, of course. I would have loved to take on one of the Italian masters at least once. *sighs* I bought my copy when I was in NYC with Uni a few years ago. I couldn't resist when I saw it standing in the book shop. I think it was my love for the Hannibal Lecter movies that drove me to it. He quoted it once one time. ;) And I never even thought about buying Purgatory or Heaven. How boring. Hell is way more interesting. *L*

And Hannibal would certainly agree with you! We did Shakespeare too, of course; I remember studying Macbeth and Richard II [that one is not one of his more stunning plays]but several of the 'classical' novels we covered were just boring. Patrick White [20th century classical Australian novelist] almost made me run out of the classroom and dive under a bus to get away from his book. So depressing!

I can imagine. We had to read "Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe" which is basically the Romeo and Juliet story between the children of two farmers who were at odds with each other in Germany at the turn of the last century. Sooooo boring. You never can quite shake off the feeling that NOTHING happens all throughout the book.

The Shakespeare piece we read was King Lear. Not his best one but more interesting than some of the others. I had hoped for Macbeth or Hamlet, though.

Vibrators....black bitches.... makes you wonder at the state of literature, doesn't it?

And today's quote is:

"You, you frog. Where is my grandmother? I demand to see her at once."
"The Lady Anna is resting. She sleeps late in the mornings."
"Wake her."
"Your pardon, m'mselle, but I take my orders from Madame." The dwarf bowed.

Any guesses?

Nice try, but no. I'm trying to think of hints that wouldn't give it away...

Nope, not Tom Swift either.

I'll give you a clue - the alien they're hunting was a big lion like fellow with tentacles on his shoulders.

No, doesn't help :-( Quite possibly I haven't read it! Could I post your email on my LJ as quite a few people won't dig below an original posting? Then if nobody gets it I'll ask for another clue, like the decade!

Yes, certainly, go ahead! :-)

Untagged, Doing It Anyway Meme....

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