Bookwormed

I was Bookwormed a couple of weeks ago by Jenny Graman Meyer, whom some of you may know from the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum. I've been procrastinating in my response to it, debating whether or not I was going to play along. Then I figured, why not?

The Rules are:

1) Open the closest book -- not a favorite or most intellectual book -- but the book closest at the moment, to page 56.

2) Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following.

3) Tag five innocents (or more).

Now, as far as I'm concerned, step 3 is optional. <g> If you want to spread this around to your friends, fine, but if you don't, that's OK with me, too.

I'll start with a book I just finished reading last night: David Michaelis' SCHULZ AND PEANUTS, an excellent biography of Charles Schulz. Very interesting, entertaining, and well-written, with lots of sample cartoons thrown in to illustrate various points.

Page 56, fifth sentence:

Years later, he would remember his teacher's astonishment as she stood behind him, marveling that "Charles", alone among his classmates, had taught himself to evoke ice not as a glittering surface but as a solid mass.

In seventh grade, he found another opportunity to shine when Miss Lynn, setting the class to draw editorial cartoons for social studies, praised his contribution, but for some reason--perhaps, he later thought, intending to submit the class's work to a newspaper--handed the drawing to another pupil for the lines to be inked in more darkly. Insulted to the core at her insensitive, misconceived improvement, he still did not let on.

The next one is from Garth Stein's THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN. This is a rather odd little book, told from the point of view of a dog -- a highly intelligent, witty, and perceptive one, to be sure, but still, a dog. I'm not a dog-lover, but I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. (Thanks to Elise Skidmore from Compuserve, without whose enthusiastic recommendation I would never have thought to look for this book in the first place.)

Page 56, fifth sentence:

"It's too much! I can barely take care of myself!"

"You should have called Mike or taken him to a kennel or something! Don't try to kill him!"

"I didn't try to kill him," she whispered.

And of course, I have to include one from the OUTLANDER books. <vbg> In this case, since I am currently listening (yet again!) to A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES, here is a bit from page 56 of the hardcover edition:

He'd brought a loaded pistol upstairs with him; that was placed on the washstand by the window. The rifle and fowling piece too had been left loaded and primed, hanging from their hooks above the hearth downstairs. And, with a small ironic flourish, he drew the dirk from its belt sheath and slid it neatly under our pillow.

"Sometimes I forget," I said a little wistfully, watching this. There had been a dirk under the pillow of our wedding couch--and under many a one since then.

(From A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 7 ("James Fraser, Indian Agent"). Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Anybody else want to play along? What are YOU reading?