Friday, December 29, 2006

The page 123 meme

While perusing Reading Matters, one of the book blogs that I frequent, I came upon this particularly whimisical meme.

The page 123 meme

The instructions are as follows:
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
3. Post the text of the next three sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the book and the author.
5. Tag three people.

Page 123 was the end of a chapter with only three sentences, so I turned to page 124 and counted two sentences down.

Here it is:

Thus, on All Soul's Day, 1959, Materlinck and I found ourselves in a crocodile winding its way through a profusion of bamboos, tree ferns, palms, banana plants, cycads, orchids, overhanging mosses, and pitcher plants. The sub-tropical atmosphere dripped with outlandish perfumes; in the outside world beyond the curved glass walls it was freezing cold. As Fr Brown paused at a fork of the path, it began to snow.

What fun, this is one of those books that have been sitting on my book shelves for ages. It's a beautiful and odd book in 101 chapters, each titled with a different color from Dragon's Blood to Dorian Gray:

Shamrock Tea - Ciaran Carson



I'll be sending this to some of my friends in hope that they're bored enough to participate^_^.

1 comment:

CC said...

Here are some of the answers I received:

"It was Adelaide, interestingly, that put an end to all this. For decades it had been one of the more arrestingly unprogressive of Australian cities. The blame for this can be dropped in the lap of one Sir Thomas Playford, who for thirty-eight years, from thh 1930s to the 1960s, was South Australia's premier, or governer."

--Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned Country"


At length there was nothing more to be said; the ladies drove on, and the others returned into the house. Mr. Collins no sooner saw the two girls than he began to congratulate them on their good fortune, which Charlotte explained by letting them know that the whole party was asked to dine at Rosings the next day. Mr. Colin's triumph in consequence of this invitation was complete.

-- Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice"


On the other side of the glass, Hagrid was standing with his back to them, looking up and down the street. "Get under here, quick," said Harry, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag. "Oh I don't know, Harry," said Hermione, looking uncertainly toward Mrs. Weasley.

--J.K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

"Finding it so much like myself-- so like a brother, really--I felt that I had been happy and I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."

--Albert Camus, "The Stranger"