Nearest Book

Well at this point I'm obviously going to be late for work, but I'll chalk it up to a miscommunication. :P I just had to get in on this meme, from Pluff Mud.

1. Open the nearest book
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the next three sentences on your blog
5. Don't go and get a "cool" book. Grab the closest one at hand

Keep in mind that while I'm not at "work", I'm at my desk at home, which is where I do more work than play (in the physical sense of the desk and supplies close at hand--I definitely play more on the computer than work!) so there aren't any "entertaining" or interesting books at hand. So here we go:

"Try to avoid the bars that are high in saturated fat. When looking for an energy bar, read the labels. Stay away from bars with ma huang, ephedra, large amounts of caffeine and large amounts of ginseng."

Some explanation: this is from a text book I frequently use as reference, the XHTML book in the "Web Warrior" series of texts. Not exciting, I know. The above snippet comes from an example of what formatting a certain paragraph would have in an example project. It isn't cool, and when you consider the book is about web design, it certainly isn't interesting. But it was on the top of the pile. Page 123 of the textbook under it is actually a chapter test, so there aren't really even sentences. Damn, why couldn't I have had a cool book close at hand? Let's try another book, the one I read on airplanes, which isn't close at hand but surely is interesting; page 123 should have something of interest:

"I went to school--but in your manner of the phrase--had no education. When a little Girl, I had a friend who taught me Immortality--but venturing too near, himself, he never returned--Soon after, my Tutor died--and for several years my Lexicon--was my only companion. --Then I found one more--but he was not contented I be his scholar--so he left the Land."

Umm, yeah. A tough three sentences; I chose to go by periods although I see that perhaps that isn't quite where the sentences end. That, dear readers, was an excerpt from a letter from Emily Dickinsin to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, whom she sent a few of her poems. Their relationship is discussed in the chapter "The Pleasures of Abstinence" in the book "Forbidden Knowledge, from Prometheus to Pornography" by Roger Shattuck. This is a chapter I have never read. Of course, a book discussing Faust and Pandora and the Marquis de Sade, and page 123 has to be on Emily Dickinson.