Random Quotes: p123, para5, next 3 sentences

[Kell]

OK, I spotted this on a blog & thought it might be fun:

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences in a reply here, along with the title & author of the book

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.

[Michelle]

it was a fun place. He ived in it on his own, from choice. His divorce had been a long time ago, and the wounds had been deep.

Peter James - Dreamer

[Kell]

I no longer wanted to think about how strangely things had turned out. After I finished “Farewell, Black River,” and “The Drunken Concubine,” His Majesty wanted more. I begged his pardon and explained that I was not prepared.

~ Empress Orchid by Anchee Min (it’s in my bag, so it was the closest to hand – LOL)

[Maureen]

I'm not reading this yet - but it is next to me in my to be read pile.

"There were 2 buttons, one red, the other green. He pushed the red one. when nothing happened, he pushed the green"

Chromosome 6 by Robin cook

[Icecream]

He spoke excellant English, telling me that he once spent twelve months in Hong Kong, living with an English cabaret singer called, Dorothy d'Amour.

"She was Thirty seven, and I was eighteen. She taught me all the English I would ever need to know in one night."


Angels and Christians by MJ White

[Angel]

William Maitland of Lethington, dancing a dutiful branle with Mary Fleming, exerted himself to charm her out of her nervousness. Mysteriously, his efforts had quite the opposite effect. He could not understand why she seemed to find him so frightening

Fatal Majesty by Reay Tannahill

[Maureen]

Angel, you need another sentence.

[Maureen]

Ok, now from my current book - Blue Genes by Val McDermid

Bill I still was not talking to. and Gizmo doesn't do conversation. So I booted up the computed and settled down for a serious session with my football team. Not many people know this, but I'm the most successful manager in the history of the football league.

[Angel]

Maureen wrote

Angel, you need another sentence.

Another one added. The kids were harrassing me at the time :grr:

[Kell]

"... Nice hunks of sliced dead pig. Fried in its own grease. Dripping with fat..."

~ Cold Granite by Stuart McBride (this is the August choice for Posh Club which I've not read yet...)

[Kell]

"... But that's what the police are thinking. I heard my dad talking about it on the phone with one of the deputies. They don't think she got drunk and took an unplanned dive, they think she shot up and - " Adam pressed his palms together and made a diving motion.

~ Vampire Beach: Bloodlust by Alex Duval (which is turning out to be a very decent read, actually!)

[Kell]

He was still rubbing down the gelding, the last of the four, when the Romans returned. They were arguing and didn't see him in the shadows. He was about to show himself and reassure them their horses were uninjured, when Lucien said, "I tell you, our plan isn't going to work!..."

~ The Cleopatra Curse by Katherine Roberts (another good 'un from CBUK!)

[Kell]

She felt herself go hot at the exalted company and managed to mumble something respectful as the small man greeted her, thanked Chymes, retrieved his small sherry and departed to the other side of the room.

"Charming man, Hercule," said Chymes with a winning grin, adding as soon as the small foreigner was out of earshot, "but a tad overrated. All that 'little grey cells' stuff he goes on about..."

~ The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (which Louise very kindly lent me)

[Kell]

"Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those co-ordinates again... thirty, thirty-on, seventy-five, twelve?"

~ Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riorden

[Acesare*]

"He squeezed through the window, swam to shore and began weeping at his own foul luck. All his hurricane booty was lost, except for the packet of hash, which bobbed to the surfac eat the precise moment the first police car arrived.

"Yet the drugs weren't the most serious of Gil Peck's legal concerns."

Carl Hiaasen - Stormy Weather (not started reading it yet, it just happened to be sitting on top of the pile of books I unpacked from my suitcase and don't have shelf room for).

[Kell]

"On Saturday, I will slaughter them for the party.You and Lucy must come." He wipes his hands clean.

~ Disgrace by J M Coetze (My Olympic Challenge entry for South Africa, which arrived today)

[Acesare*]

"How's the recruitment going?"

"Slowly. The Come and hear the Pregnant Wife Killer Justify Himself speil isn't exactly going down a treat."

Maid of the Mist - Colin Bateman

[Maureen]

On her back, she guided her leg into the wall and kicked. The grille fell clattering to the floor. She froze.

Speaking in Tongues - J Deaver

[Kell]

He was very thin and could have been called handsome, except for the fact that his black eyes were full of cunning and his nose was as sharp as the blade of a knife.

“I put some of them outside on the terrace – this lot had a whole gang of ruffians with them,” Lysander continued. “I told them I was full and sent them packing…”

~ Ithaka by AdeleGeras

[mira]

"It's the map," said William, his voice still faint with excitement, "I bet it's been in the bird's nest for hundreds an' hundreds of years.

William's Happy Days by Richmal Crompton

[Acesare*]

Can you imagine Jake in a terrible state of angst trying desperately to make sense of this? Like all cats, he has a limited number of coping strategies so spraying urine in these new-found areas of conflict seems a good course of action. So he sprays and then gets walloped by his owners

Cat Detective - Vicky Halls

(I had wanted to remove the 'like all cats' bit - that would have been funny :D )

[Sugar]

" 'I got out at last, in spite of you and Jane' said I, 'and I pulled off all the wallpaper so you can't put me back' "

from The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmore

[crystall_child]

I don't know how long I lay there. It grew sreadily darker, but whether it was the day drawing on to dusk, or part of the strange, foreboding silence that overtook my home that afternoon, I could not say. I was lost in my misery. Above me the trees moved and sighed in the wind, and there were voices in it.

Daughtre of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

[TammyRich]

'That's rude,' said Lisa promptly. 'You shouldn't ask a lady that.'

'I think she's about twenty-five,' persisted Dale.

The Bad Mother's Handbook. Kate Long
Haven't read it. It just happens to be on the top of my TBR which is currently next to the computer.

[Lilywhite]

Unless ...
The owner of Red Farm tried to ignore the wild way her heart was beating. She had asked them to light the lantern tonight as they did every night, so there would be a beacon, but she had given up hoping long, long ago.

The Beloved ~ Posie Graeme-Evans

[Lilywhite]

"They dropped the charges," Savannah said.
I quickly corrected her. "There weren't any charges."

Kelley Armstrong ~ Dime Store Magic

[mrstrecool]

He thought of the blank pages in the victim's datebook. Eight weeks ago the entries had stopped. That was when Nina Peyton's life had screeched to a halt.

The Surgeon-Tess Gerritsen. This is sitting on top of my TBR pile.

[Galactic Space Hamster]

OK, I spotted this on a blog & thought it might be fun:

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences in a reply here, along with the title & author of the book

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.

What a cool idea!

"He regained his focus in time to see Applecore, who was kneeling a few inches from his nose, bend at the waist and decorously throw up. Despite her appearance and proximity, watching didn't trigger his own reflex as it might have done with another human being. He sat up, that did trigger his reflex."

War of the flowers - Tad Williams.

[Sofia]

The stranger thought for a moment.
"Maybe."
"I don't know if God is just.


The Devil And Miss Prym-Paula Coelho

[pontalba]

"They returned with data, with calculations, and with charts. They came carrying specimens of minerals and plants. Both also returned with people, living human specimens of the diversity of mankind."

Peoples and Empires by Anthony Pagden

(just came by DHL today!)

[Gilly]

Keep you to your priestcraft, Father, there is need of a burying, and when that is done, of a nuptial mass for your king and for my lady whom he has chosen queen.'

Igraine stood within the curve of Uther's arm.

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Bradley

[Lilywhite]

"If you were an actor from the royal troupe, I would reward you with three hundred taels," he said, taking hold of my hand,
I sang, I no longer wanted to think about how strangely things had turned out.

Anchee Min ~ Empress Orchid

[Tra_XxX]

Mary Bold was sitting on a low easy chair, with the boy in her lap, and Eleanor was kneeling before the object of her idolatry. As she tried to cover up the little fellow's face with her long, glossy, dark brown locks, and permited him to pull them hither and thither, as he would, she looked very beautiful in spite of the widow's cap which she still wore. There was a quiet, enduring, grateful sweetness about her face, which grew so strongly upon those who knew her, as to make the great praise of her beauty which came from her old friends, appear marvellously exaggerated to those who were only slightly acqainted with her.

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

[Liz]

(The following passage is describing Vivian Stanshall)

"Thank God some people helped, but people don't know how to deal with his kind of severe behaviour. He didn't sleep because when you take that many Valium tablets your metabolism goes completely. He was taking them in huge doses."

Ginger Geezer: The Life of Vivian Stanshall
Lucian Randall & Chris Welch

[Kell]

"If you get me the camp number. They do have telephones on the Isle of Man, don't they? I've never been there, but I hear the Manx are a little backward -"

~ The Secret Purposes by David Baddiel (which I'll be reading very shortly for the reading circle...)

[pontalba]

"She helped me up by one arm and walked me into the bedroom. I sat on the edge of the bed and looked numbly out the window at the wet trees and the rain on the river. When I closed my eyes my head spun and I could see gray worms swimming behind my lids."

Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

[Purple Poppy]

'Good. Then you won't mind working for it'. I spun and bolted. I didn't get far.

Stolen - Kelley Armstrong.

PP:006:

[Acesare*]

They had almost stopped when Clay said, apropos of nothing, "If heaven ain't a lot like Dixie, I don't want to go."

That set them off again, all three. Alice was still laughing when she said, "If they're flocking, then roosting for the night in gyms and churches and malls, people coiuld machine-gun them by the hundreds."

Stephen King - Cell

[Renniemist]

‘I’ is for Indian and in the night the hostile tribes gather on the landings, their eyes and beads shining in the darkness, their feathery headdresses forming a barricade behind which huddle the Unnamed Dread. The things that live under the bed crawl out and join them and here and there, a cutlass flashes. We fly past them all on our unstoppable, rollercoaster dreams.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

[Laramie]

5 potencial simple
colegiria colegiriamos
colegirias colegiriais
colegiria colegirian

my sisters "501 spanish verbs" by Christopher Kendris, Ph.D. and Theodore Kendris, Ph.D.

[Liz]

He told Greenblatt how the power of the PDP-6 would be improved by a new piece of hardware which would expand its memory to a size bigger than any computer in the world. He promised that the time-sharing system would be better than any to date - and the hackers would control it. He worked on Greenblatt for weeks, and finally Ricky Greenblatt agreed that time-sharing should be implemented on the PDP-6.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
Steven Levy

[Pilgrim]

"Siobhan sucked air between her teeth as a body and face she recognized walked into the room."

Resurrection Men - Ian Rankin
(e-book)

[Weave]

I always liked this:

'True joy is a profound remembering, and true grief is the same. Thus it was, when the dust storm that had snatched Cal up finally died, and he opened his eyes to see the Fugue spread out before him, he felt as though the few fragile moment of epiphany he'd tasted in his twenty-six years - tasted but always lost – were here redeemed and wed. He'd grasped fragments of this delight before. Heard rumour of it in the womb-dream and the dream of love; known it in lullabies. But never, until now, the whole, the thing entire. It would be, he idly thought, a fine time to die. And a finer time still to live, with so much laid out before him'. - Clive Barker, Weaveworld

And this:

'After my religion period, I took up with a swindler: Allardyce Merriwhether. After Mrs. Pendrake his honesty was downright refreshing'.

[Purple Poppy]

Howl's Moving Castle! What a great film. I loved it. I prefer Kiki's Delivery service, but all the ones I've seen so far are very good. Artistically brilliant with a beautiful naivity (sp???) Great for adults as well as children.

PP:mrgreen:

[Icecream]

And as for her reasons for wanting counselling..

'I think,' she began, 'I think I'm just very lonely and that's why I keep hearing voices...' Immediately she examined their faces for their reaction.

This Present Darkness Frank Peretti.

[kernow_reader]

Just joined but here is my contribution...

"If dying turns out to be nothing but a trick that might as well be a trick with words, if death is a mere hiccup in time after which life goes on as before, why all the fuss? Is one allowed to refuse it - refuse this deathlessness, this puny fate? I want my old life back, the one that came to an end on Magill Road."

"slow man" J.M. Coetzee. :readingtwo:

[Liz]

The dwarf was soundly whipped, and as a further punishmeny, forced to drink up the bowl of cream, into which he had thrown me; neither was he ever restored to favour, for soon after the Queen bestowed him to a lady of high quality, so that I saw him no more, to my very great satisfaction, for I could not tell to what extremity such a malicious urchin might have carried his resentment.
He had before served me a scurvy trick, which set the Queen a-laughing, although at the same time she was heartily vexed, and was have immediately cashiered him if I had not been so generous as to intercede. Her Majesty had taken a marrow-bone upon her plate, and after knocking out the marrow, placed the bone again in the dish erect as it stood before; the dwarf watching his opportunity while Glumdalclitch was gone to the sideboard, mounted upon the stool she stood on to take care of me at meals, took me up in both hands, and squeezing my legs together, wedged them into the marrow-bone abouve my waist, where I stuck for some time and mage a very ridiculous figure.

Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift

[Liz]

Appleby had been taking four times as many Atabrine tablets as the amount prescribed because he wanted to be four times as good a pilot as everyone else. His eyes were still shut when Sergeant Tower tapped him lightly on the shoulder and told him he could go in now if he wanted to, since Major Major had just gone out. Appleby's confidence returned.

Catch-22
Joseph Heller

[Liz]

It was on his track, and not upon the convict's, that Frankland had stumbled. If I could get his knowledge it might save me a long and weary hunt. But incredulity and indifference were evidently my strongest cards.

The Hound of the Baskervilles
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[poppy]

He could imagine quarrelling with her to be great fun. His spirits rose, the sense of isolation sloughed from him.
"You're not really such a philosopher, I bet," he smiled at her. "I don't believe you naturally let ill alone."

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

[pontalba]

"I have always found it difficult to loosen my grip of the letter suspended above the abysmal chink. It is like diving into icy water or jumping from a burning balcony into what looks like the heart of an artichoke, and now it was particularly hard to let go. I gulped, I felt a queer sinking in the pit of my stomach; and still holding the letter, I proceeded down the street and stopped at the next letter box, where the same thing happened all over again."

Despair by Vladimir Nabokov

[Liz]

He looked up at Atrus, his pale eyes fixing his son.
"You have spent six weeks now, learning how to copy a number of basic D'ni words and have discovered just how complex and beautiful a script is. But those characters also mean something, Atrus."

The Myst Reader: The Book of Atrus
Rand & Robyn Miller

[Acesare*]

There was silence for five minutes. Danny was still beneath his hand. Thinking the boy had dropped off, he was about to get up and leave quietly when Danny said from the brink of sleep:
"Roque."

The Shining - Stephen King

[everydayxangels]

"Ned knew that she and a young man had begun courting, and he believed her tears must have resulted from something he had said or done. Possibly the two had been "indiscreet", although he did not think Gertrude capable of so drastic a moral lapse. The more he pressed her for an explination, the more trouble and adamant she became"

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

[Kell]

Now," she was saying in a heavy German accent, "vee hev extracted ze eyeballs! I shall allow each of you a short time to examine zem. Please pass zem to your neighbour promptly ven you hev finished."

~ Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (it's worth mentioning, it's at a kids' party!)

[Inver]

'In fact it is brown. Andy had said nothing. He turned and walked away'

Makes you wonder what that was all about....:lol: will have to read on to find out....lol:lol: (ok it seems they were talking about hair colour :lol: )


Secrets of a Family Album - Isla Dewar

[Liz]

DAY 38: November 1

At breakfast the captain announces that the Susak will pick up the Singapore pilot at 11 tonight, and will be in berth by midnight. 310 containers will be unloaded and 150 loaded. Departure from Singapore will be 3 p.m. tomorrow.

Around the World in 80 Days
Michael Palin

[Pilgrim]

She liked Rose enormously, and had since the day they met, and she sincerely hoped that Rose's husband, Aubrey, would gain his seat in Parliament, but she had no intention of being outshone by anyone.
Southampton Row by Anne Perry

[Purple Poppy]

Joe tasted the champagne. It was the best.
'Is he Russian?' Joe asked.

Pricess Diana's Revenge by Michael Larrabeiti.

PP :006:

[Jenn]

You don't mean, like, I have to slit my wrists or something? "No, no, no that's not what I mean. It would be a staged suicide attempt, a ruse."

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

[Snowflake]

He had black eyebrows, silver gold hair, dark blue eyes. I thought, Oh, what a man you are going to be, then remembered that women shouldn't think like this anymore. But perhaps I'm old enough to admit to taking unquenchable pleasure in men.
'There's some museli,' said the future heart-stopper, if you're hungry.'

From 'The Queen of the Tambourine' by Jane Gardam.

[Weave]

He did not fancy sleeping in it. It looked cold, and hard. But it was probably better than just lying down on the rock, he thought, as he ruefully watched the soldier swing easily up the cliff and arrive at the hole.

Castle in The Air by Diana Wynne Jones:readingtwo:

[Liz]

"Yes," Tom said. "He's supposed to be there by one o'clock."
Freddie nodded.

The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith

[Liz]

(Zaphod speaking)

"I put the two ideas together and decided that maybe that somebody had locked off part of my mind for that purpose, which was why I couldn't use it. I wondered if there was a way I could check. I went to the ship's medical bay and plugged myself into the encephelographic screen"

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams

[Liz]

"Look, I just don't know."
A low voice echoed dully round the cabin.
"I know," said Marvin.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Douglas Adams

[Liz]

After a while he got dangerously bored with this train of thought, felt the air slipping away beneath him, felt that he was drifting down into the paths of the bouncing boulders that he was trying so hard not to think about, so he thought about Athens airport for a bit and that kept him usefully annoyed for about five minutes - at the end of which he was startled to discover that he was now floating about two hundred yards above the ground.
He wondered for a moment how he was going to get back down to it, but instantly shied away from that area of speculation again, and tried to look at the situation steadily.
He was flying.

Life, the Universe and Everything
Douglas Adams

[Adrian Friday]

OK, I spotted this on a blog & thought it might be fun:

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences in a reply here, along with the title & author of the book

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.
Hi Kell, Here you go!
His voice was low and serious. Just the facts, ma'am. He was a full four inches shorter than Dominick, and Dominick could see the top of his head, where the hair was beginning to thin and his pasty white scalp peeked through.
Retribution by Julianne Hoffman - G.P. Putnam & Sons, NY, USA copyright 2004

[Liz]

"The Met Office is going ice-cold thick banana whips, and funny little men in white coats are flying in from all over the world with their little rulers and boxes and drip feeds. This man is the bee's knees, Arthur, he is the wasp's nipples. He is, I would go so far as to say, the entire set of erogenous zones of every major flying insect of the Western world."

SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH
Douglas Adams

[1sillywabbit]

He told me his brother had gone away travelling some-where, and I said by the way you really do look very much like him.

He said I should think so too we're twins and I said oh I didn't realise.

He said what so he didn't ever tell you about me? and he seemed surprised.

Page 123,..
'if nobody speaks of remarkable things' by jon mcgregor

Wabbit xx :snowmanandsmilie:

[Purple Poppy]

'Its true, Eve. It's never mattered particuarly. It's just that for some reason May could never stand the sight of me'.

Voices of Summer - Rosamunde Pilcher.


http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q77/Catkintails/Kittenkatlove.gif

PP

[poppy]

"The Met Office is going ice-cold thick banana whips, and funny little men in white coats are flying in from all over the world with their little rulers and boxes and drip feeds. This man is the bee's knees, Arthur, he is the wasp's nipples. He is, I would go so far as to say, the entire set of erogenous zones of every major flying insect of the Western world."

SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH
Douglas Adams

That sounds hilarious Liz :lol:

[Liz]

Yes, the Guide series of books are quite good fun. They're always good for a giggle. :mrgreen:

[Liz]

For every sandwich the size and shape of the trimmings were different, but the Sandwich Maker would always effortlessly and without hesitation assemble them into a pattern which fitted perfectly. A second layer of meat and a second layer of trimmings, and the main act of creation would be accomplished. The Sandwich Maker would pass what he had made to his assitant who would then add a few slices of newcumber and fladish and a touch of splagberry sauce, and then apply the topmost layer of bread and cut the sandwich with a fourth and altogether plainer knife.

Mostly Harmless
Douglas Adams

[Kell]

"... How's it going, pixie? Feeling better?"

A fresh wave of rage washes over me, breaking the celebratory mood I've enjoyed for most of the evening.

~ The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin.

[Liz]

The Vietnamese, however, have a very strong concept of order in the natural world. A few miles south of Da Nang are the Marble Mountains, which rise short, sharp and sheer from the flat, flooded fields around them. Each one, they believe, represents a different element - Wood, Fire, Metal, Earth and Water.

FULL CIRCLE
Michael Palin

[Liz]

Then, as if she had been in a state of repose for twenty minutes, she trilled slightly breathlessly: "Well...isn't this nice."
YES, MISS FLITWORTH.
"Don't often have occasion to open up the parlour these days."

REAPER MAN
Terry Pratchett

[Kell]

"We're still friends, aren't we?" But I didn't find anything to laugh about in this last remark of hers. I just picked up my book and walked off without another word.

~ Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

[KW]

My wife wept with chagrin the night Luciana was born and I myself hung dutifully over the cradle, preparing to hide my bitter disappointment.

Susan Kay's PHANTOM
ISBN 1933626038

[Liz]

"That's the whole point. Don't you ever pay attention?"
The grandmother watched them with interest.

WITCHES ABROAD
Terry Pratchett

[Liz]

"You said you couldn't do anything!" he said accusingly.
"That wasn't m-" Om paused. There will be a price, he thought.

SMALL GODS
Terry Pratchett

[Liz]

"She died, you see. She was brutally raped and beaten. The shock was very great."

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

[KW]

"What happened, Jamie?"

He didn't turn to face her but lowered his head, and fingered the handle of his duffle. "We got carried away."

"We were dancing."

"We were at first."

From Wilde by Katherine Warwick.

Okay, okay, but I happen to have my own books lying all over the place! LOL.

[Liz]

"You actually did the work."
I snapped my head around. "You mish my point," I slurred.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Colapinto

[Liz]

I was pretty devastated. It was so obvious, but Peter denied it, foolishly. I found that everybody seemed to know about it.

Peter Cook: So Farewell Then
Wendy Cook

[KW]

"Next, try deadlifting one of the 150 pound sandbags for one set of as many reps as possible."

Dinosaur Training by Brooks D. Kubik

[Liz]

I was pouring brandy down his throat to keep him warm. For all its good and bad points - the lowest being The Con Man, of course - it wasn't fair that almost all the series had been lost to posterity, and if I could have a word with The Man Upstairs to ask for one sketch to be saved I'd have to say Lengths. Without a doubt.

Peter Cook's Universe & All That Surrounds It
Edited by Paul Hamilton

[samgrosser]

From Wilde by Katherine Warwick.

Okay, okay, but I happen to have my own books lying all over the place! LOL.

'Are you all right, Anna?' he asked at last, when she stumbled on her way to the door, clutching a chair for support. 'You seem a little under the weather.'

'I'm fine, thank you Mr Morris,' Anna replied. 'Just tired, I think.'

'Why don't you sit down for just a moment. Get your breath.'

From Another Time and Place by Samantha Grosser.

Yes, KW. Me too. LOL

[Liz]

Yet none of his plans for 1933, outlined in a letter to Arnold Gingrich, publisher of a new magazine called Esquire, seemed to include his native land: "I go to Cuba in a small boat April 12 ti fish that coast for two months in case I go to Spain to make a picture, if not, for four months then to Spain. Go from Spain to Tanganyika and then to Abyssinia to shoot, Will be back next Janurary or February."

Hemingway Adventure
Michael Palin

[Wraith*]

"Like most men, I'd rather face the muzzle of an assualt rifle than a ****** off wife"

Det John Corey.

Wild Fire by Nelson Demille

[Freewheeling Andy]

".. until its abandonment between 1850 and 1853, in the reign of the drunken and wildly extravagant Sultan Abdul Mejid, who was so enfeebled by excessive indulgence in the pleasures offered by his Haren that he was unable to enjoy even the incomparable views from his palace across the Bosphoros."

A Traveller's Life by Eric Newby

[Liz]

"Let us guess at the age of our murderer. I put him - I am diffident, and you will accuse me of formulating sub-hypotheses - between 35 and 50. Yes, there are reasons..."

LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK
Colin Dexter

[Weave]

'Graham, its Jack.' He kept his voice down now. 'Sorry to call you so late.'
'No problem. Is everything ok?' Graham asked with concern, used to Jack's late-night calls over the past year.

A place called here by Cecelia Ahern

[Liz]

The enchantment was no more, the spell was broken. We were mortal again, two people playing on a beach. We threw more stones, went to the water's edge, flung ducks and drakes, and fished for driftwood.

Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier

[Weave]

'They both had the same mannerisms, the same direct way of looking, the slanting cheekbones, sharp chin'.

Chocolat byJoanne Harris:mrgreen:

'For the grounds were regularly patrolled by porters in night-blue uniforms who meted out their own brand of justice'.

Nocturnes by John Connolly, taken from the story, 'The Ritual Bones'

[pontalba]

"He sort of steps back and smiles a little, and looks at me as though he's thinking, "Today we're cordial! What can account for that?"

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

[Purple Poppy]

'I want to tell you of our journey down the river'.
The Spellcoats - Diana Wynne Jones

[Tiger]

Shaking, the man hurried off and began to comply.

Doctor Who: The Stone Rose (by Jacqueline Rayner)

[Liz]

"I know Daisy. She would wait ten years for me, as I said before; in fact, if necessary, she would wait twenty years for me."

THE DIARY OF A NOBODY
George Grossmith

[Acesare*]

"Now, just a minute -" John began.

"Just a minute yourself, Mr Woods," Chief Molyneux interrupted. "Your son has been present at the commission of four homicides; and whether he committed them himself or whether some wacky ghost came popping out of him and committed them for him, he's still a danger to the community at large, and he's probably a danger to himself, too."

Death Dream - Graham Masterson

[thebottle]

For instance, the programmer must supply the condition to be evaluated. The condition must be a Boolean expression, which is an expression that results in a Boolean value (True or False). In addition to supplying the condition, the programmer also must supply the statements to be processed when the condition evaluates to true and, optionally, when the condition evaluates to false.

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Reloaded by Diane Zak

[Weave]

'Eva!' roared the Fury for a second time, and now she started to walk away from them'

The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

[Acesare*]

For instance, the programmer must supply the condition to be evaluated. The condition must be a Boolean expression, which is an expression that results in a Boolean value (True or False). In addition to supplying the condition, the programmer also must supply the statements to be processed when the condition evaluates to true and, optionally, when the condition evaluates to false.

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Reloaded by Diane Zak

Facinating - such imagery and amazingly well developed charaters. I must read it ;)

[Kell]

We had to come to some sort of arrangement. We had elected to have one bunk for the two of us, one of the very top ones, which are very hot and can't be reached without undertaking the most perilous and ridiculous contortions. THe parents had taken the two bottom bunks, and the children had distributed themselves as best they could among the three remaining.

~ The Sexual Life of Catherine M by Catherine Millet

(Thank goodness the 6th, 7th & 8th sentences on page 123 weren't of a sexual nature!)

[Wraith*]

"Can the sarcasm Anita"
"Please, I never use canned sarcasm. Always fresh"

Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter

[thebottle]

Facinating - such imagery and amazingly well developed charaters. I must read it ;)

Yes, indeed, lol :).

[Liz]

There were six beds in the dormitory, and the sheets, marked in huge letters 'Stolen from No.- Road', Smelt loathsome. In the next bed to me lay a very old man, a pavement artist, with some extraordinary curvature of the spine that made him stick right out of bed, with his back a foot or two from my face. It was bare, and marked with curious swirls of dirt, like a marble table-top.

DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON
George Orwell

[Liz]

Commoners were just about allowed a stick to throw. Magrat found herself wondering what Nanny Ogg would be allowed - a small chicken on a spring, probably.
There was no specific falcon for a withch but, as a queen, the Lancre rules of falconry allowed her to fly the wowhawk or Lappet-faced Worrier.

LORDS AND LADIES
Terry Pratchett

[Wraith*]

Some more of Anita's

"Nothing helps you sleep at night so much as being absolutely certain that you're right, and everyone else is evil. "

"There's no one so self-righteous as someone policing someone else's morality."

[Talking to friend Veronica, Anita Blake worries she may be pregnant.]
Ronnie: I could ask, who's the father, but that's just creepy. If you are, then it's this little tiny, microscopic lump of cells. It's not a baby. It's not a person, not yet.
Anita: We'll have to disagree on that one.
Ronnie: You're pro-choice.
Anita: Yep, I am, but I also believe that abortion is taking a life. I agree women have the right to choose, but I also think that it's still taking a life.
Ronnie: That's like saying you're pro-choice and pro-life. You can't be both.
Anita: I'm pro-choice because I've never been a fourteen-year-old incest victim pregnant by her father, or a woman who's going to die if the pregnancy continues, or a rape victim, or even a teenager who made a mistake. I want women to have choices, but I also believe that it's a life, especially once it's big enough to live outside the womb.

[Rosie]

'Emile would not make a mistake like that,' said Christopher, keeping his brother under close scrutiny. 'As soon as he went into the studio this morning, he saw that it was gone.'
'Where was it kept?'
'On an easel near the window.'

The Painted Lady by Edward Marston:readingtwo:

[Liz]

What was the routine on Tuesday afternoons? Why was there no register taken? Was there any likelihood that Valerie had, in fact, returned to school that afternoon, and only later disappeared?

LAST SEEN WEARING (re-read)
Colin Dexter

[Liz]

"Why?"
"How asphyxiated?"
"By ligature."

THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER
Jed Rubenfeld

[Liz]

"You couldn't have slipped out for a while? Gone up to see the chief clerk or something?"
"I certainly didn't go out of the office."

THE SILENT WORLD OF NICHOLAS QUINN
Colin Dexter

[caroline]

At this I protested so strongly that I think she believed me honest, for she took the money and gave me a warm new plaid for it, and an old hat of her man`s. She showed me how to wrap the plaid round my shoulders, and when I left that cottage I was the living image of the kind of Scotsman you see in the illustrations to Burns`s poems. But at any rate I was more or less clad.

The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan

[Liz]

'I heard you, but I'd like to know when.'
'It was in nineteen-nineteen, I only stayed five months. That's why I can't really call myself an Oxford man.'

THE GREAT GATSBY
F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Liz]

'What submarine commander?'
'From the Black Sea Fleet. Whom she was engaged to.'

A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS IN UKRAINIAN
Marina Lewycka

[Angel]

I did not understand why my mother flushed. She had been uncharacteristically quiet up to this point, though she was clearly taken, as we all were with the charming Count.

Painting Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis

[Liz]

'That's all.'
'You'll find out yet. Listen.'

THE LIAR
Stephen Fry

[Liz]

'Silence! I will have quiet! I promise you, you will all be facing detention if you do not stop this instantly...'

SEMI-DETACHED
Griff Rhys Jones

[wrathofkublakhan]

If you in the morning Throw minutes away
You can't pick them up In the course of the day.
You may hurry and scurry, And flurry and worry,
You've lost them forever, For ever and aye.

...................
Jerry Barker's poem in the story, Black Beauty - April's Reading Circle Book

[kitty_kitty]

'Anti-Muggle Pranksters,' Said Mr Weasley, frowning, 'We had two last week, one in Wimbledon, one in the elephant and castle. Muggles are pulling the flush and instaed of everything disappearing - well you can imagine. The poor things keep calling in those -pumbles, I think they're called - you know, the ones who mend pipes and things.'

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I know it is longer than the 3 lines but i wanted to get in all on as it is quite funny as Mr Weasley is talking about regurgitating public toilets!!

[Tiger]

There was a lot more, but I was ready for it. I'd known there would be major trouble when I got back, even though the most important thing was that Sadie has been cured.
"But look at Sadie!" I snap.

The Tide Knot by Helen Dunmore (my current book)

[Liz]

So fortunate! Otherwise, they might have been one short.
Mrs Murdoch was another person that evening for whom Anne Scott was little more than a tragic but bearable memory.

THE DEAD OF JERICHO (re-read)
Colin Dexter

[Liz]

Morse looked up slowly. 'It was Westerby's typewriter - I thought I told you that.'
'No, sir.'

THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE
Colin Dexter

[Liz]

'All right, darling.'
'I hate to leave our fine house.'
'So do I.'

A FAREWELL TO ARMS
Ernest Hemingway

[Squawk]

"Thus I suffered much with thee and much I toiled, being mindful that the gods in nowise created any issue of my body; but I made thee my son, thou godlike Achilles, that thou mayest yet save me from grievous destruction. Therefore, Achilles, rule thy high spirit; neither beseemeth it thee to have a ruthless heart. Nay, even the very gods can bend, and theirs withal is loftier majesty and honour and might."

The Illiad - Homer

I swear it was the closest book to me apart from History books.

[Fay]

It was arranged in a series of horseshoe shapes facing each other. He searched for any chairs off to the sides, away from other people. There were none.

OUTSIDE THE WHITE LINES
By Chris Simms

[linda321]

Andorra gave 'douze points to Spain, which caused nobody a sharp intake of breath. Cyprus, of course, did the right thing to Greece, but I was wrong about Ireland, who donated eight big ones to the UK's entry, Daz Sampson.
Finland carried off the Grand Prix with a Gothic hard rock horror show, featurng a lead singer with wings and what looked like the worst case of broken veins ever seen on telelvision.

Mustn't Grumble by Terry Wogan.

Timely that isn't it? It's the eurovision song contest again this weekend! It really was my nearest book! Trust mine to have the longest sentances.

[angerball]

"To figure out exactly where the fuselage had broken apart, they looked at whether the passengers had been clothed or naked when pulled from the sea. Sir Harold's theory was that hitting the sea from a height of several miles would knock one's clothes off, but hitting the sea inside the largely intact tail of the plane would not, and that they could therefore surmise the point of breakup as the dividing line between the clothed and naked cadavers. For in both flights, it was the passengers determined (by checking the seating chart) to have been in the back of the plane who wound up floating in their clothes, while passengers seated forward of a certain point were found floating naked, or practically so."

Stiff - Mary Roach (morbid, isn't it? :lurker: )

[Kell]

I watched Dodo wheel the youngest Conway up and down. She seemed to be doing it for my benefit. Children made me sick.

~ The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

[Kylie]

They whisper many strange things, of the towers which rose to the sky, in those Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons which moved without horses, and of the lights which burned without flame. But those times were evil.

Anthem - Ayn Rand

[Liz]

I look out of the window. Behind the sunny street scene you can see the line of the hills, indistinct and pale, and it merges into a bright autumn day and I'm sitting with Kat and Albert by the fire eating baked potatoes in their jackets.
But I don't want to think about that, and I push the thought away.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Erich Maria Remarque

[LittleLijah]

The exception is a fellow hobo. Someone else who understands the train. James does.

Shadow Man
Cody McFadyen.

[JudyB]

'Now there was nothing but cleaning up, and soon, no-one would even imagine it had happened.

But you could smell it.

'What are you doing?'

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

[Echo]

"And when the wind was that way, which was often, the house was full of the stench of this sulphureous combustion of the earth's excrement. But even on windless days the air always smelt of something under-earth: sulphur, iron, coal, or acid. And even on the Christmas roses the smuts settled persistently, incredible, like black manna from skies of doom."

-Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

[Liz]

"Baseball? Baseball games? Just raise that hand up there-"

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
Ken Kesey

[Oblomov]

"I don't think that you understand what you are talking about taking on, Harry" he said.

The Proteus Operation by James P Hogan. I was reading this to pass time while on overnight duty in Chippenham and must say that I am rather disappointed at the amateurish handling of the concept.

[Echo]

"And if you know what's going on, tell the others that know what's going on not to push me."

~The Tommyknockers by Stephen King

[Roger53]

Knots of Weimar citizens stood on street corners staring in curiosity. Someone suggested it was a military exercise; no one disagreed. Manouvres happened in the military.

The Deceiver, Frederick Forsyth.

As random 5th sentences on page 123 from the nearest book go, I don't think this is to bad.. I read the book years ago. A good one like most of Frederick Forsyth's efforts.

[Hazeltree]

I love this thread! :D

My current book:

"For us to learn to use magic outside of the Guild's influence, we must break a law. Ambassador Dannyl has complied with this law. But he, too, laments the loss of opportunity."

The High Lord - Trudi Canavan

My husband's current book:

As if drawn by invisible strings, the heads of the wizards turned to look at it. Wizards wouldn't be wizards if they couldn't see a little way into the future. As the bead swelled and started to go pear-shaped they turned and, with a surprising turn of speed for men so wealthy in years and waistline, began to dive for the floor.

Hogfather - Terry Pratchet

[angerball]

From my current book (which I am oh-so-close to finishing!):

An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears

"'And I cannot bring myself to doubt these manifestations, for I myself have seen one.'

'Really? When?' I replied.

'Only a few months ago,' he said."

[Kylie]

An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears


Wow, when I read your post angerball, I had a bizarre sort of flashback to a dream I had last night. I think I dreamt seeing this book on a shelf; is this a sign that I should go and buy it? (Any excuse to buy books!) :lol:

'The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter - or at least, most minds are'.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling

[angerball]

is this a sign that I should go and buy it? (Any excuse to buy books!) :lol:

Must be. ;) It's your subconscious telling you that you should read it, and you really shouldn't ignore your subconscious. :tong:

[Hazeltree]

"Bannister wants me to be his navigator in the St Pierre. I've refused. She got upset."

Wildtrack by Bernard Cornwell


Her exposed and unsupported breasts drooped; the nipple of one breast seemed larger and darker and more down-pointed than the other. Her knees were spread apart, as if she'd lost all sensation in her legs - or else she'd broken her pelvis.

A Widow for One Year - John Irving

(That was a surprise! He's talking about nude portraits. This is a description of one of the later ones of a particular woman. I've not read the book yet - could be interesting!)


They quickened their pace, without much visible effect, when lo! their quarry was brought to a standstill by two gentlemen coming downwards, who encountered and stopped him.
"Now let us go more slowly, sir," suggested Alison, dragging at her father's arm. To which Mr Grant, complying, said: "My dear, to be alternately a greyhound and a snail is hard upon a man of my years, nor do I understand why you should be stalking Ardroy in this fashion."

The Jacobite Triliogy by D K Broster


Three new books to have a look at - I'm looking forward to it!

[Angel]

He was superficially pleasant, but there was a stubborn inflexibility in him that suggested that he would make a dangerous master

A Conspiracy of Violence by Susanna Gregory

[Liz]

"Suddenly every stranger knows my name. Would you guys please just quit knowing my name for one second? How can a girl be enigmatic under these conditions?"

THE LONG DARK TEA-TIME OF THE SOUL
Douglas Adams

[Kasei]

"I want her to waken."
"We all want that."
"Then help me!"

The Wild Road by Gabriel King.

[Liz]

So, foraging through the headmaster's desk one afternoon I had happened upon a list which called itself Eleven Plus results, listing Intelligence Quotient Results or some such guff. I noticed it because my name was at the top wih an asterisk typed next to it and the words 'Approaching genius' added in brackets. Cromie, the headmaster had underlined it in his blue-black ink ad scrawled, 'Well that bloody explains everything...'

MOAB IS MY WASHPOT
Stephen Fry

[Tiger]

"She's great, isn't she?" said Ron admiringly. "Always good value."
But the smile vanished from his face at once: Viktor Krum had dropped into Luna's vacant seat.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

[Kylie]

'No. He isn't extraordinary. He is simply a man and no more, and is subject to all the fears and all the cowardice and all the timidity that any other man is subject to.'

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey

[Liz]

She was never on the porch anymore when we passed.
'She's dead, son,' said Atticus. 'She died a few minutes ago.'

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Harper Lee

[Liz]

'Ow!'
'Perhaps it'd be best if you sat down and I'll look around.'
The workshop was long and, of course, low, with another small door at the far end.

MEN AT ARMS
Terry Pratchett

[Kylie]

My first thought was that I had ruptured an artery, and was bleeding to death, and should be discovered, later on, looking like a second Marat, as I remember seeing him in Madame Tussaud’s.

Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith

[ii]

"... An anchient family to be so driven away! Strangers filling their place!" No, except when she thought of her mother, and remembered where she had been used to sit and preside, she had no sigh of that description to heave.

Persuasion
Jane Austen

[pontalba]

"Now you will ask me why I stayed there. I could say, I do not know, could give ten thousand paltry reasons, all untrue, and be believed:--that I stayed for food, who could have combed ditch-banks and weed-beds, made and worked a garden as well at my own home in town as here, not to speak of neighbors, friends whose alms I might have accepted, since necessity has a way of obliterating from our conduct various delicate scruples regarding honor and pride; that I stayed for shelter, who had a roof of my own in fee simple now indeed; or that I stayed for company, who at home could have had the company of neighbors who were at least of my own kind, who had known me all my life and even longer in the sense that they thought not only as I thought but as my forbears thought, while here I had for company one woman whom, for all she was blood kin to me, I did not understand and, if what my observation warranted me to believe was true, I did not wish to understand, and another who was so foreign to me and to all that I was that we might have been not only of different races (which we were), not only of different sexes (which we were not), but of different species, speaking no language which the other understood, the very simple words with which we were forced to adjust our days to one another being even less inferential of thought or intention than the sounds which a beast and a bird might make to each other. But I don't say any of these."

Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner

[Kylie]

'What is going on here is a burning of books before they have been written.'
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham

Pontalba, that's quite a paragraph :lol:

Why is this thread suddenly called 'Random Quotes: p124, para5, next 3 sentences'? Does that seem strange to anyone else? Am I missing something?

[Kell]

Why is this thread suddenly called 'Random Quotes: p124, para5, next 3 sentences'? Does that seem strange to anyone else? Am I missing something?
I changed it as that's what the random quotes challenge originally was, but folks seldom go right back to the very first post. (It's actually page 123, but I mistyped - I've corrected it now).

The original post said:
Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences in a reply here, along with the title & author of the book

We've just had so many new members since then I thought I'd add it to the title so everyone could see it, as often it's difficult just to pick a quote from a book you're reading (I know if I was asked just to pick a quote from a book I'd struggle to think of one). :D

[Kylie]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Kell! You're right. New members probably wouldn't go back to the beginning of such a thread as this (I know I didn't!)

I'll keep this in mind the next time I post a quote. Usually I only post if a quote jumps out at me, such as the burning books quote I posted earlier.

[~V~]

More often than not the central French words belonged to the written medium, mainly of the fourteenth century. It has been estimated that by this date about 21 per cent of the English vocabulary derived from French, in comparison with about 9 per cent soon after the conquest. But most of these words were relatively 'exotic', belonging to the specialist discourses of church, law, chivalry (knightly behaviour) and the running of country estates.

English: history, diversity and change - David Graddol, Dick Leith and Joan Swann

(Do I get a prize for dullest quote?)

[lovesreading06]

Hope this is right

The cook, a tall shrivelled female who looked as through all of her body juice had been dried out of her long ago in a hot oven, walked on the platform wearing a dirty white apron.

Her entrance head clearly been arranged beforehand by the head mistress.

Now then bogtrotter," the trunchbull boomed." tell cook what you think of her chocolate cake."

Maltilda by Roald Dahl

[angerball]

"I was thinking of maybe a nice Thai restaurant", I suggested.
They looked at me with that flummoxed, dead-end expression that you have to be fourteen years old to produce with conviction.
"Or perhaps an Indian?" I offered hopefully and got the same no-one-home look.

- Down Under by Bill Bryson

[Liz]

Was it to alter now with every mood to which he yielded? Was it to become a monstrous and loathsome thing, to be hidden away in a locked room, to be shut out from the sunlight that had so often touched to brighter gold the waving wonder of its hair? The pity of it! the pity of it!

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (re-read)
Oscar Wilde

[Liz]

Life is life, and kind is kind. What I wanted was to take one more magnificent trip to the West Coast and get back in time for the spring semester in school. And what a trip it turned out to be!

ON THE ROAD
Jack Kerouac

[nicnic]

'I found them first, and it was accidental, and I told no one, so it wasn't my fault. Roy was a boy who had no parents and lived alone. He was rarely at school and he was a cutter'

From a story called 'The Healer' in 'The Girl with the Flammable Skirt' by Aimee Bender

[Ratna]

'In his final messages, the ones sent by carrier pigeon, he had described the old man so that she could not mistake him when he reached Los Angeles, as Robert knew by then he would. Tall and stooped, wrapped in a long gray cloak and wearing a wide-brimmed hat, he was the personification of evil. The eyes were what you remembered, Robert wrote.'

Genesis of Shannara - Armageddon's Children, by Terry Brooks.

[Liz]

"My ancestor Henry VIII, for instance, wrote a book. Against heresy. That is why one is still called Defender of the Faith."

THE UNCOMMON READER
Alan Benntt

[rosegarden]

Philip began to perspire slightly. 'I gathered he was well known, by the people he was going to see, as an authorised representative of the earl'.
'What was his name?'

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Carole
:jump:

[angerball]

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Oh, fantastic book, Rosegarden! :mrgreen: The sequel comes out next month - can't wait! :D

[poppy]

'I think there's something a bit special about me, Miss Lightowler,' I said. 'I think I need to be a writer.'

'Don't be silly Daphne,' she said, not even looking at me again. 'You'll go to Tech and you'll be a typist.'

Oracles and Miracles - Stevan Eldred-Grigg

[muggle not]

Millions aree condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobodyh knows how many rebellions, besdides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be veryt calm generally; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrowminded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playingon the piano and embroidering bags.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte bronte

[Echo]

"The bed was warm, soft, pillowy, and she turned over and felt herself sinking into the black warmth. She sighed -- and as she did so, she felt something solid and heavy on her chest, like a huge weight. A glimmer of understanding forced its way back into her consciousness: she was not in her bed after all; this was not a dream; she was truly sinking into the black bottomless depths of the North Atlantic, her lungs at their last extremity.

I was murdered, was the last thought that went through her mind as she drifted down, and then she sighed once again, the last of her air escaping her mouth in an eruption of silent horror more intense than the wildest cry."

The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

[Liz]

"Now he surprises you with Bonetti's attack."
But Inigo was not surprised for long. Again his feet shifted; he moved his body a different way.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE
William Goldman

[Kell]

Aww, Liz - that's one of my favourite books!

I was going to post p123, para5, 3 sentences from The Stand by Stephen King, but there's only 1/12 sentences on that page, as it's the end of the chapter! So, I shall do the same, but from page 124 instead (which actually takes me to the 1st 3 sentences on p125!):

"We're getting low on gas," Poke said.
"Wouldn't be if you didn't drive so f*ckin fast," Loyd said. He took a sip of his third milkshake, gagged on it, powered down the window, and threw out all the leftover cr*p, including the three milkshakes neither of them had touched.

In case anyone's wondering, all this is still pre-plague, and Loyd and Poke are on their killing spree...

[angerball]

"Wulfric? This is new!"
"I know. I mean, I've known him since we were small, when he used to pull my hair and run away."

- World Without End by Ken Follett.

[Janet]

'Deed you ain't! You never said no truer thing 'n that, you bet you.' And once he said: 'Hear him beg! and yit if we hadn't got the beat for him and tied him, he'd a killed us both.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

[rosegarden]

'Ok, we didn't see one. But you could say that anything was an angel. Any girl, anyway.

Nick Hornby - A Long Way Down

Carole
:jump:

[Liz]

Ridcully looked around at the side. The handle seemed to be going up and down by itself.
'I'm not having this,' he muttered, 'not in my damn university.'

SOUL MUSIC
Terry Pratchett

[sib]

I had to walk miles before I found a place where the river was wide and shallow enough for me to wade and swim, and then miles back again to pick up the tracks again. By that time it was too late for me to follow them far. They went straight off in the direction of the pine-woods on the east side of the Misty Mountains, where we had our pleasant little party with the Wargs the night before last.

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

[Kell]

Tom whispered a curse. He opened the door slightly and listened to the quick tap-tap - tap-tap of Freddie's shoes descending the stairs. He wanted to make sure Freddie got out without speaking to one of the Buffis again.

- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith


THE UNCOMMON READER - Alan Benntt
And slightly off-topic, I was looking at this in Sainsbury's today - it looks rather good!

[Liz]

It is very good, Kell. It's a lovely little story to fill an afternoon. :)

[Filmophobic]

Kell, sounds like a fun game. Here's mine.

"That's the sort of person who writes to me, Tinsel. Men of rank and action. In their eyes I'm a worthy public figure - not an exmployer whose word can be flouted, as certain red-haired fairies seem to think." - The Xmas Files, Nicky Winder.

[Chrissy]

Retiring to the couch, he stretched out to finish his reading in comfort. He was surprised to turn a page and find Mallory's job proposal for placing the boy in a remote scientific community. There, he would not be a solitary freak, but one of many such freaks, and he would cease his ritual attempts to kill himself every Halloween; this had been Mallory's argument for selling an unbalanced job candidate.
(Winter House by Carol O'Connell)

Mods (and rockers!) no offence taken if you delete if you don't think it's a good idea to resurrect this dead thread! ;)

[Kylie]

Good thread resurrection, Chrissy! :mrgreen:

Yesterday, when Margot, Peter, and I were peeling potatoes, somehow the conversation turned to Moffi. "We still don't know what sex Moffi is, do we?" I asked.
"Yes, certainly," Peter answered. "He's a tom."

The Diary of Anne Frank

[Nollaig]

"My master kept his room; I took possession of the lonely parlour, converting it into a nursery: and there I was sitting, with the moaning doll of a child lain on my knee; rocking it to and fro, and watching, meanwhile, the still driving flakes build up at the uncurtained window, when the door opened, and some person entered, out of breath and laughing! My anger was greater than my astonishment for a minute. I supposed it one of the maids, and I cried "Have done! - "

Wuthering Heights

[Readwine]

"There's a connection between the attack here in Savja and John's murder," Fredriksson continued. "The attacker went to school with this woman and John Jonsson."
"Has he been apprehended?"

The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Eriksson (in my briefcase TBR next)

So eerie that the quote actually mentions the murder in that precise page and paragraph.

[peacefield]

"And eventually I was able to lever myself out of the chair and prepare to rejoin the world; to go home to sleep, and then to start afresh the next morning. It wasn't so bad. The worst that could happen would be failure."

Stone's Fall: A Novel - Iain Pears

[chesilbeach]

"Yes, it's really a shame, I'm sorry too, Christl! But I said from the start that the thin air up here wouldn't agree with Anthony. It's not the right thing for old people."

The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

[Ceinwenn]

"He was dressed in a suit that declared its vintage as circa 1970s. The trouser legs were flared, while the beltline that must have once hugged his hips and waist was rolled up and tied around his waistline with an old tie. The Jacket had two vents in the back." ~ The short story The Mupandawana Dancing Champion in An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

[Nightwish]

"Whoever conjured the Mark could have Disapparated right after they'd done it, leaving Harry's want behind. A clever thing to do, not using their own wand, which could have betrayed them. And Winky here had the misfortune to come across the wand moments later and pick it up."

Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling (My brothers re-reading it and it was right next to me, better hurry up and finish OotP for him :lol:)

[Charm]

'Please take the cuffs off and let me have a few minutes alone with Percey.'
Sachs hesitated. Her face was an expressionless mask.

The Coffin Dancer ~by~ Jeffrey Deaver :smile2:

[Ceinwenn]

Out of curiosity, charm, had you alread read to that point, or did you have to go find it & read it for the 1st time?

[Charm]

Had to go and look for it. I'm on page 96 at the min! Now I want to see what the hell he's talking about :lol:

[poppy]

"Trouble is, you're not dressed the part," Lula said to me. "You gotta be in black leather."

"I'm not wearing black leather," I told her. "And you shouldn't either. You look like an S&M ad."

"This is bounty hunter clothes," Lula said. "All the bounty hunters on television wear clothes like this."

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich

[MissWhitlock]

9:30: The stoves are lit. The blackout curtains are taken down and the Van Daans go into the bathroom. One of my Sunday morning tortures is that lying in bed I have to look straight at Dussel's back when he's praying.

Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex.

Never knew we had this book. :lol:

[rwemad]

'There's nothing to talk about,' he said. He was very pale, almost greenish, but he looked a lot more determined than he had when we brought him in.

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay

[Ben]

In it's influential editorial on the Road Hill murder, the Morning Post alluded to this case: 'That it should be a child [who killed Saville] would be incredible if Eugenie Plummer had not taught us to what length the wicked precocity of some children will extend.' Eugenia's precocity was sexual, but it also rested in her cool decit, her composure under pressure, the containment and chanelling of her disturbance into bare lies. If newspaper readers had been horrified to find a clergyman convicted of sexually molesting a child in 1859, they must have been more disturbed, a year later, to find the situation had been turned upside-down to reveal the child as the agent of evil, a creature who had undone a man's life with her lewd imaginings.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. - Kate Summerscale.

[sadya]

'Maar de heftigheid was vals. Hopeloos. Ze was nu op een afstand van me, haar kleine schouders strak en vastberaden, haar stap snel, als van een klein meisje, dat op zondag met haar ouders aan het wandelen is en vooruit wil gaan en doen alsof ze helemaal alleen is.'

(roughly translated as: 'But the vehemence was false. Hopeless. She was now at a distance from me, her little shoulders tight and resolute, her step quick, as of a little girl, who goes for a walk with her parents on Sunday and wants to lead the way and pretend she's all alone.')

'Dagboek van een onsterfelijke', translated from 'Interview with the vampire' by Anne Rice.

[Sedge]

"People were yelling and shouting from all over now. There was a babble of tiny voices in both Horza's ears, but all he could really hear was the thundering noise behind him. The deck beneath his feet bucked and trembled, as though the whole gigantic ship was a building caught in an earthquake."

Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks

[Rawr]

'Kids,' Parkins explained patiently. 'You know how they sometimes like to devil new folks. Throw rocks or ring the bell an' run away... that sort of thing.'
'No,' Straker said. 'No children.'
'We seem to kind have misplaced one.'

'Salem's Lot, Stephen King

[lexiepiper]

Curious, I began to listen in to his head, and I was startled out of my gloom by what I heard there.
'So casting spells to back up your insurance really works?' I asked.
He yelped.

Charlaine Harris - Dead As A Doornail

(Again covered for the members of the bookring)

[Inver]

'While her parents slept unawares in their bedroom across the landing, Alice had spent night after night awake in the dark, hands gripping the covers tightly, determined to conquer her demons alone. But not for years now. It had left her alone for years.'

Labyrinth ~ Kate Mosse

[Rawr]

'A regurgitating toilet?'
'Anti-Muggle pranksters,' said Mr Weasley, frowning. 'We had two last week, one in Wimbledon, one in Elephant and Castle. Muggles are pulling the flush and instead of everything disappearing - well, you can imagine. The poor things keep calling in those - pumbles, i think they're called - you know, the ones who mend pipes and things.'

:mrgreen: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J K Rowling.

[chrysalis_stage]

That was the moment it occured to me to try smoking. That eventually replaced the cutting, but I still have the scars. Patrick likes them.

The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas


:lurker:...not read this page yet either....:readingtwo:

[Janet]

"Yes, it's really a shame, I'm sorry too, Christl! But I said from the start that the thin air up here wouldn't agree with Anthony. It's not the right thing for old people."

The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig
:eek2: I picked this up last week in Borders but then decided not to add to my mahoosive to read pile - are you enjoying it?

Back on topic...

Joe wiped himself down with his handkerchief. He said to himself that one day he would pay the Angry Pixie back!

'Come on,' said Frannie impatiently.

The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton - I haven't (re)read this yet.

[Kreader]

I tensed, inhaled and caught the scent of a stranger. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

"Dad?" a voice called.

Men of The Otherworld, Kelly Armstrong.

[lexiepiper]

Sophie-Anne's pride was hurting in a major way. She had to struggle to paste that smile back on her face. 'I believe you know Andre,' she continued.

Charlaine Harris - All Together Dead

[leah86]

"Was this in a resedential area? Mary nods. John: I feel like he jutted out." - One Last Time - John Edward

[Kylie]

Fencing was beginning to bore him.
He was simply too good. He would make his living during his travels by finding the local champion wherever he happened to be, and they would duel, and Inigo would disarm him and accept whatever they happened to bet.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

[Chrissy]

"But...," he continued, "thanks to you, Eva Delectorskaya," he dipped his head to kiss her lips briefly, "we're all going to the United States of America." (last paragraph in chapter)

'Restless' by William Boyd

[Kenny]

If the water is off you can drink from water heaters, melted ice cubes, or canned vegtables. Avoid drinking watr from swimming pools and spas. Another quake, larger or smaller, may follow.

from The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (about earthquakes)

[chrysalis_stage]

Once he had even wept at her feet, his face pressed to her stomach. Why? Why will you not do as the rest have done?

Palimpsest - Catherynne M. Valente

[Sedge]

"Arthur had almost given up. That is to say, he was not going to give up. He was absolutely not going to give up."

Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams

[Ceinwenn]

"But they had their victim, alive, at a particular place and a particular time. From here they would begin a canvass of the immediate area, as well as determine the SEPTA route that stopped across the street. The laundry was a good ten blocks from Kristina Jako's new house, so there was no way she would have walked that distance in the cold." - Broken Angels by Richard Montanari

[lexiepiper]

“How well do you know Tray Dawson?” Andy asked. That was a loaded question. The accurate answer was, “Not as well as you think.”

Charlaine Harris - Dead and Gone

[chesilbeach]

We settle down in our new home, and I resolve to keep a diary.

The Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith

[Sedge]

"A predawn hush had come over the desert basin. He looked up. Straight overhead, the stars were a sequin shawl flung over blue-black."

Dune - Frank Herbert

[lexiepiper]

She suggested a classical costume could be draped to disguise the worst of her scars, but still show off her friend's best physical attributes - her beautiful dark dark Greco-Roman hair and face, long and petite, feminine body.
'Isn't that the whole idea?' Grace pointed out drily.
Now, in something of a panic dictated by the clock, she adjusted her final pins and pearled clips: two tendrils of black hair curled either side of her face, the rest pulled up in a winding plait over her head, emphasising her lovely neck and shoulders.

Titania Hardie - The Rose Labyrinth

[leah86]

"Boss furrowed brow. 'Did this woman look anything like Our Lady?' What lady?" This Charming Man - Marian Keyes

[Kylie]

Then offhand.
'Oh, it's just Ed.'
Just Ed.

The Messenger by Markus Zusak

[Chrissy]

"And some ergot of rye. Two doses for the next three days. Wheel him out."

'the blue afternoon' by William Boyd

[Kylie]

'What's the matter?'
'I'm all run down.'
'Well, shall I help myself?' Tom demanded.

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

[Nicola]

"Do the Russians even know how to play table tennis?"
"Nope, so we've got this thing all sewn up and maybe we'll regain control of the Baltic territories."
Lacke wiped his mouth on his napkin with exaggerated care and said, "It's all pretty strange."

Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist

[lexiepiper]

"No, no, no, that's not what I mean. It would be a staged suicide attempt. A ruse."

Augusten Burroughs - Running With Scissors

[Charm]

I didn't know. But I had a very bad feeling that it wouldn't be much fun for either of us; because as I had realized, we were both still living in Harry's shadow, and I was pretty sure I knew what Harry would say.
Harry would say it was wrong, because this was not the way he had designed Dexter's life, as I remembered oh so well.

Dexter By Design ~by~ Jeff Lindsay

(Spoilers for those who haven't read it yet. :D)

[Inver]

She glanced at the trailer with the tarp. She sized us up as a sale. she went back into the office.

Light on Snow ~ Anita Shreve

[Chrissy]

"Very good, my lady. I fancy there will be time between lunch and dinner to effect a clearance of the kitchen chimney, provided there is no interference from the police. Would your ladyship wish me to instruct the sweep accordingly?"

'Busman's Honeymoon' Dorothy L. Sayers

[Sedge]

"Rudolf I expect not to learn. He is the American, here they believe the child should teach the parent. I see how he look at me when I talk."

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (from the short story 'Abraham's Boys')

[Charm]

I spun and bolted. I didn't get far. This side of the road was forest, and thick woods weren't kind to humans, particularly naked running humans.

Stolen ~by~ Kelley Armstrong :D

[Kylie]

I picked up a paddle as a ball careened past me.
'Wasn't ready!' I protested, as another ball came over the net. I swiped at it and missed.

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

[Suzanna Addison]

"What?" Rachel asked.

"Don't ever feel like you're the one to blame." She sipped some more of her hot chocolate. "You start your life as a victim, and you'll remain a victim all the rest of your life!"

Whispers of the Past by Suzanna Addison (unpublished!)

Situation - Rachel has just been through a horrible experience with one of her teachers and her grandma is telling her she is not to blame!

Next time I'll put in someone else's works.

[MissWhitlock]

"What?"
"Sneak out."
"Why?"

Sloppy Firsts- Megan McCafferty

[Sedge]

"Unauthorized Use of the Smoky the Bear symbol," Mulder mumbled, smiling sheepishly. "But he doesn't know that."
Within moments Rosabeth Carrera was on the phone.

The X Files - Ground Zero by Kevin J Anderson

[Pablo]

Soon enough he is stalking doorways, leading the dancing moon of Jed's flashlight with the barrel of his rifle, and always listening. Corners, however, only reveal more corners, and Jed's light only targets ashen walls, though soon enough they all begin to detect that inimitable growl, like calving glaciers, far off in the distance, which at least in the mind's eye, inhabits a thin line where rooms and passageways must finally concede to become a horizon.
"The growl almost always comes like the rustle of a high mountain wind on the trees," Navidson explained later.


'House Of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski.

[Pablo]

By the way Sedge, who is that gorgeous woman in your avatar? I recognise her but can't put a name to her face. Is she a weather lady?

[lexiepiper]

'How about family members? A boyfriend?' She answered in the negative again and he arched his eyebrows.

Erica Spindler - Bone Cold

[Chrissy]

"But you would have to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. Basically what would have to happen is that your poor mother would have to find you -" He chuckled under his breath, amused by the scenario.

'Running With Scissors' Augusten Burroughs

[Charm]

Seventeen Dead. The number swirled around his head. They had been his responsibility and he needed something, anything, positive to have come out of the raid.

Vampire Apocalypse by Derek Gunn

[Charm]

"You don't get it. It's because the feeling's so strong. And that's love. I know it is."

Cause For Alarm by Erica Spindler

[lexiepiper]

He could have jammed a bloody butcher knife through a cow's heart and into my linoleum. I was grateful he hadn't - what a mess - but why Barbie? Aside from the obvious fact that the doll reflected the body of his last kill, why tell me about it?

Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay

[Charm]

"What the hell d'you do that for? Lucy gasped, her hands stinging from the impact with the ground.
"Don't move! Ned and Jesse, you either."

The Empty Chair by Jeffrey Deaver

[Charm]

When the news of his suicide reached her, she'd assumed that call had been a desparate plea for help. She'd assumed he'd called to give her a chance to talk him out of it. Or to say goodbye.

In Silence ~by~ Erica Spindler

[chesilbeach]

On one side of the palus was a short, grizzled figure in a richly cut tunic. The long grey hair contrasted with his lined, tanned skin. Alongside him stood a huge man carrying a whip.

The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane

[Kylie]

How is this? some carping reader exclaims. How is it that Amelia, who had such a number of friends at school, and was so beloved there, comes out into the world and is spurned by her discriminating sex? My dear sir, there were no men at Miss Pinkerton's establishment except the old dancing-master; and you would not have had the girls fall out about him?

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

[SweetiiPie85]

I recall that Dan's mother had an acid tongue, and that, when introduced to me, she said, 'So this is the child'. And then there followed a period of time in which she scrutinized my face - for any telltale indication of the race of my missing male ancestor, I would guess. But that's all I remember.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

[Ceinwenn]

I recall that Dan's mother had an acid tongue, and that, when introduced to me, she said, 'So this is the child'. And then there followed a period of time in which she scrutinized my face - for any telltale indication of the race of my missing male ancestor, I would guess. But that's all I remember.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Excellent book SweetiiPie, how are you liking it?

[SweetiiPie85]

Excellent book SweetiiPie, how are you liking it?

I can't put this book down. I'm almost half way through and I love it :tong:. It's almost as good as The Cider House Rules.

It is a serious book, however it can make you laugh :D. Have you read it?

[lexiepiper]

'You brought this on yourself by being a cheating, disloyal wh*re.'
'Stop it! You're sick.'

Erica Spindler - Shocking Pink

[Stephanie2008]

"You don't have to pay for this. Take the paper...it's okay. Just take it."
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox.

[SueK]

"How dare you bargain with me? Did you not hear me? You will not marry this Ravenscroft at all".

The Seance by John Harwood

[Sedge]

"Uh, were thrown in," Rubicon said. "The cenotes were sacrificial wells. Perhaps they would club the victims to death, or just tie them up and weight them down so the bodies would sink."

The X Files - Ruins by Kevin J Anderson

[Chrissy]

(Had to go to page 124 as the book is squat and only had 4 paragraphs on 123)

When Nicko was satisfied that the boat was properly tied up to allow for the rise and fall of the tides, and everything onboard was neatly stowed away, he pulled a tattered piece of paper from his pocket.

"Here's the map," he said, showing it to Septimus. "Sam drew it."

Septimus looked at the wiggling lines that wandered across the scrap of paper like slug trails over a pane of glass.

'Flyte - Septimus Heap - Book Two' by Angie Sage