Meme

[muchabstracted]

Tagged by rymenhild

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 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.
6. Tag five people.

Olympos, by Dan Simmons. Ha! I don't need to dig for the intellectual book in my closet. (Georgette Heyer was second closest.) Look:

"Don't make me download Latin," said Mahnmut. He nodded toward the huge horses being reined to a stop not five yards in front of them all, throwing up a cloud of dust that rolled over the Achaean captains.

Furious, Penthesilea leads a battleline of Amazona," translated Hockenberry. "With crescent shields, and she glows in the middle of thousands, fastening golden belts around the exposed breast, female warrior, and the maiden does run with men."

And I shall tag... oh, lynnoxford, countessofgroan, fleurdelis28, dushai, and ayelle, if any of you feel like doing it. I would quite like to tag Bran, but I don't think I'm allowed.

Comments

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I don't have the same editions of books Bran does. It's a sad result of publishing history.

Also, that scene's a hilarious one to post.

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

The fourth sentence on that page was the Latin. *grins* I was very happy the meme landed on one of the Iliad/Aeneid pages.

[dushai.livejournal.com]

Wow, I don't have any of my usual junky books around. The nearest several are all display-worthy. :)

El Coronel No Tiene Quien Escriba ends before page 123, though.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies does also. :)

Ah, here's Guns, Germs, and Steel. Let's see, p. 123, 5th sentence... "If the conditions change, different types of individuals may now survive or reproduce better and become 'naturally selected', with the result that the population undergoes evolutionary change. A classic example is the development of industrial melanism in British moths: darker moth individuals became relatively commoner than paler individuals as the environment became dirtier during the 19th century, because dark moths resting on a dark, dirty tree were more likely than contrasting pale moths to escape the attention of predators." Yeah, yeah, we learned that in high school biology -- get to the good stuff, Jared!

Dave Barry's Greatest Hits yields slightly more interesting results: "So the result is that the Midwest is now infested with giant mutant fleas that, according to the Sun, 'are themselves as large as the small dogs they kill, draining them dry of life fluids in as little as two minutes'. The Sun even printed an actual artist's depiction of a dog being attacked by a flea the size of Sylvester Stallone."

Giant mutant fleas and evolution. Coincidence? Hmm...

[muchabstracted.livejournal.com]

How bizarrely connected! And the first two books were nothing... *shivers*

*is not superstitious, really*