An Internet "Meme" (Sigh....)

So Chris from A Mountain Homeschool tagged me for an internet meme, and I thought that I'd go ahead and actually do it. Now for the record, I'm not much the kind of person who does these things. When I get emails from friends with heart-tugging inspirational stories that end, "Forward this on to everyone you know!" my typical response is to skim the email, then click duhhhhhh-Lete!

I suspect this kind of anti-social attitude explains in part my lousy performance in this last year's Homeschooling Bloggers Awards.

Nevertheless, here are the rules of this particular meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people.

So what book am I reading?

If this meme had come around last year at this time, I could have done a whole bunch of really good ones: I had just gone through C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince--not to mention the entire Chronicles of Narnia series.

Alas, this year things have gotten pretty busy, and I haven't been able to read as much for personal pleasure or edification. I suppose I could throw in something from Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes or The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer, but I haven't exactly been reading them very faithfully.

So, I'll have to include a passage from the book I'm reading to the Pillowfight Fairy: E.B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan. Page 123, fifth through seventh (complete) sentences:

When the skunk wandered close to the building, Sam reached over, dangled the noose in front of the skunk, slipped the noose around the can, and gave a jerk. The noose tightened, and the can came off. As it did so, the skunk turned around and squirted--right at Mr. Brickle, who jumped back, stumbled, and fell.

Hm. That was actually a pretty good one. These three sentences actually tell something of a story all by themselves. With this kind of random pick-a-sentence-by-formula, it's not unlikely that you'll get something pretty boring, along the lines of:

"What did you say?" he said.

"Oh, nothing."

For the next few moments they just sat there.

The passage from Trumpet of the Swan actually makes you want to know what happened in the rest of the story. Incidentally, we haven't gotten to that part of the story yet, so it's made me a little curious to know what comes next.

As for the bit about tagging five more people: blue-eyed homie don't play that. If you think this sounds like an interesting exercise, go right ahead and do it (and feel free to post a comment back to me if you do).