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

[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).