Meme nicked from ianthefira

[active_apathy]

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal...along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

Right. So, the closest book is the Collins Australian Pocket English Dictionary; it's the 1986 reprint of the 1981 edition. A thrilling read, for some. A useful reference for everyone else.

The fifth sentence is:

Callisthenics (kal'əs then'iks) n.pl. [ < Gr. kallos, beauty + sthenos, strength ] exercises to develop a strong, trim body —cal'listhen'ic, cal'listhen'ical adj.

Thrilling, isn't it. The second-closest - and much more fun - book is Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves (at exactly one inch closer than Pyramids). And this time, the quote is:

However, so long as there remain sentences on this earth that begin with capital letters and end with full stops, there will be a place for the semicolon.

Disregarding that last inch, we come to Mr Pratchett who, in this particular copy of Pyramids (which I am, in fact, yet to read), gives us:

That's one of the signs of real royalty, not having any money.

Comments

[one-bullet-left.livejournal.com]

Eats, Shoots and Leaves is one of my favorite books EVER. Pratchett is a genius but Pyramids isn't one of my favorites of his. I'm more a City Watch/Death/Going Postal girl.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Greatly agreed! On one mailing list, we call her Saint Lynne.

I've only read up to Wyrd Sisters, following the order in which they're listed in the books. I'd have got myself a copy of Guards, Guards at the same time, but I'm rather obsessive about matching covers for sets of books and they didn't have a pretty black one of it.

[one-bullet-left.livejournal.com]

Guards! Guards! is the first Pratchett book I ever read.* It's the book where the series starts to grow up a bit. I'm not really a fan of the earlier Discworld books, though they have their moments. Once you get as far as Night Watch, they are downright powerful (but still bloody hilarious). Make sure you also read his YA Discworld books. They are AMAZING. And as long as you're in the section you should pick up Jonathan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand. Similar sense of humour and bloody brilliant. (Erm... sorry... my inner book tyrant got out of its cage in this comment)

*See, I didn't want to read Pratchett. I spent years deliberately not reading Pratchett despite the pestering of many good friends. You see, the covers (Josh Kirby *snarl*) were ugly and I Don't Read Satire and I'd heard they were very intelligent humor and What If I Just Didn't Get It? I'd have felt mighty stupid. Then one day on Thanksgiving my brother-in-law showed up and said "Hey, Erin, there's this author you've REALLY got to read, he's like listening to you talk!" and handed me Guards! Guards! At which point I threw up my hands and said "FINE, I'LL BLOODY READ THEM IF YOU'LL ALL STOP PESTERING ME!" Which confused the poor boy. But I read the book and then spend stupid amounts of money on the rest of the books and... yeah.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

One of my friends bought me a copy of Carpe Jugulum, which I read despite the covers which I agree were hideous (but the black ones are stylish and pretty and look beautiful on my bookcase, which means I'll be buying new copies of Carpe Jugulum, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites on principle) and then made a mental note to buy and read all the rest sometime. And then put off doing it for quite some time, and now plan to exchange my bank balance for pretty black Pratchett books.

And your inner book tyrant may run free in this journal whenever you want. Your suggestion is now on a scrap of paper held under the foot of the plush huskie sitting on top of my monitor, where I cannot help but see it until next I'm in a bookshop (which will be when my copy of Wicked arrives, I think).

[nyctanessa.livejournal.com]

I'm also obsessive about matching covers. I need to get a hold of T2T and ROTK massmarkets with the same cover design as my Hobbit and FOTR.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

My LotR is the seven-book box set, which is also pretty and black. I'm not going to find a Hobbit (or other Tolkien) to match, so they'll all have to be consistent with a special LotR.

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

A thrilling read, for some

A few months ago I was visiting London, and while travelling on the Tube I ended up sitting next to somebody who appeared to be reading a copy of the dictionary from cover to cover.

He'd got as far as Su. I'd admire his patience if I didn't suspect that he was crazy.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

That's... beyond words, really. Reading the dictionary is the silliest thing I can think of to do - even ahead of Scientology.

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

Reading back on the post I made about it closer to the time, he was only up to Se.

People on the Tube are often crazy. That's why nobody talks to anybody else. Although I was amused by the time a random guy jumped on at one station, pulled out some balls and gave us all a random juggling performance, then got off two stations later (after asking us for money, natch). He was funny.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Things to do before dying, #13515: The Tube.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I read a pocket dictionary once.

I was really bored. Youth will do that to you.

It did my vocabulary wonders though.

[eighthcloud.livejournal.com]

Not fair! I don't have a book near me!

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

You could leave it for later! Or pretend to look in some obscure book no-one's ever heard of (because it does not, in fact, exist)!

[eighthcloud.livejournal.com]

Then I shall leave it for later and return to this post once I get home.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I approve.