Book Meme Challenge

Thanks to Motomama, for posting this. It's interesting, and if nothing else, time-consuming:

Grab the closest book to you. Resist the urge to get hold of one of the cooler, intellectual ones! You've gotta be honest. Turn to page 123. Go down five sentences, and then post the next three sentences in your blog. Simple.

OK, I've cheated a bit, because the only books in the computer area right now are the kids' textbooks, and that's no fun. So I went into the living room, and there on the coffee table were not one, but two books. Not wanting to choose between the two, I decided to cheat again and do both.

The first: The Museum of Hoaxes by Alex Boese.

"Therefore it came to be known more anonymously as 'the Surgeon's Photo.' For years, skeptics were sure that the photo was somehow a hoax. But no rigorous studies of the image were conducted until 1984, when Stewart Campbell analyzed the photo in an article in the British Journal of Photography."

The second: The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

"Rous says they 'were unjustly and cruelly put to death, being lamented by everyone, and innocent of the deed for which they were charged'. More states that their only fault was in being 'good men, too true to the King' and Vergil avers that their true offence was to stand in the way of Gloucester's ambitions. Croyland observes that this was the 'second innocent blood which was shed on the occassion of this sudden change'."

OK, these are both non-fiction books, and that's not a whole lot of fun. So, in the spirit of fun and fairness, I'm going to re-do the challenge with the first two fictional books I find. Surprise, surprise: they are both Arthurian.

The first: Guinever's Gift by Nicole St. John:

"I did not even knock, just threw myself in, and shut and barred the door, sagged against it. Someone was gasping in shuddering sobs, and I did not even know at first that it was I. Then there was Charles' voice, filled with concern."

The second: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley:

"Silence, again, a silence that stretched and dragged; Vivianne felt her body cramped with the tension of stillness but she did not move, with the long discipline of her training. At last Morgaine murmured, 'How still he lies...but he is breathing, soon he will wake. I see my mother...no, it is not Mother, it is my aunt Morgause, and all her children are with her...there are four of them...how strange, they are all wearing crowns..and there is another, holding a dagger...why is he so young?"

This is fun. I've done two non-fiction, two fiction. I think I'll do just two more, to round it out. This time, autobiographies:

The first: Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon:

"That was the reason we waited outside. Malcolm went in and was quite literally, physically thrown out. CBS wasn't interested at all, but Malcolm barged his way in."

The second: Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier:

"She meant us menfolk. I laughed quietly with them. They were right, we'd never notice."


That was amusing. Any other takers?