Book Meme

Written by

Jana

in

,

From John, a Book Meme:

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123
3. Find the first 5 sentences
4. Post the next 3 sentences
5. Tag 5 people

My nearest book at hand is James Goodman’s Blackout. This is a wickedly good history book, the kind of history that I want to write someday. But honestly this passage just sucks.

“I’m almost 70 years old and I have no place to go,” cried a woman standing across the street from the charred remains of her $57 rental.
“I wish I had died.”

“I’m no bleeding heart,” said the head of the Legal Aid Society’s criminal-defense staff.

The teaser from the dustjacket offers a more provocative glimpse into the book’s topic:

The summer of 1977 seethed.
Unemployment was up.
Crime was through the roof.
Son of Sam was on the loose.
Things couldn’t get much worse.
Then the lights went out.
When they came back on, nothing was quite the same.

I now tag:
All of my female readers, including…Brooke, Barbara, Bonny, Alison, Allison, Alise, Alisa, Allyson, Christi, Kirsten, Deborah, Darlene, Amy, Alberta, Bekah, Lorell, Lucy, Sara, Sarah, Susan, Shana, Sandra, Rebecca, Caroline, JaneAnne, Janice, Emily, Maria, Margy, Jessica, Penny, Angela, Emma, Nicole, Tanya, Elise, Elisabeth, Lisa, Reg, C.L., Wen, Holly, Elaine, Cheryl, Kara, Kate, Kay, and so forth (and dang it, if I forgot to name you in my list, let me know and I’ll fix it ASAP)! And if you’ve already played along once, feel free to join in the fun again. :)

You can answer in the comments or on your own blog… :)

Comments

11 responses to “Book Meme”

  1. matt b Avatar
    matt b

    My book is Isaac Haldeman’s The Tabernacle, Priesthood, and Offerings. Published by Revell, in NYC, 1925.

    “Beautiful as were the other two hangings, this was transcendently beautiful, gorgeous in color, mysterious in the outspreading wings, awesome, strange, terrible in the figure of the lion, the ox, and the eagle, but above all in the face of the man looking out from the midst and dominating, the very look like that of a spoken command. If the hanging at the gate represent our Lord as the Way, and the hanging at the door of the Tabernacle represent Him as the Truth, the Vail shall be a symbol of Him as Life, thus making the trinity of His claimed appellatives complete. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.””

    Haldeman was a leader among the New York Baptist fundamentalists. The book is a Christian reading of the Book of Leviticus.

    Reply
  2. jana Avatar
    jana

    mattb: Gorgeous imagery. Thanks for playing! :)

    Is this a source for your dissertation?

    Reply
  3. matt b Avatar
    matt b

    Indeed. I’ve decided at some point I have to stop reading secondary sources and get into the meat. So I’m buying up Amazon’s stock of early twentieth century religious writings. I don’t seem to have much competition. Heh.

    Reply
  4. C. L. Hanson Avatar
    C. L. Hanson

    By “C.L.” do you mean me? Or C. L. Beck? Or Pearson? My parents really should have given me more original initials… ;^)

    No matter, I did the meme anyway. :D

    Reply
  5. Brooke Avatar
    Brooke

    Too fun to resist. I did it.

    Reply
  6. Rechabite Avatar
    Rechabite

    “If a well-behaved woman was religious, slave owners denied their slaves even the rudiments of Christian instruction. If a well-behaved woman was maternal, slave owners denied slave mothers access to their own children. If a well-behaved woman was chaste, slave owners constantly threatened their slaves with sexual violation.”

    Now do you want to try to guess which book that is? Hint: it has to do with well-behaved women. No kidding! :)

    (And I have actually only read up to page 117 so far.)

    Reply
  7. lma Avatar
    lma

    I really like this meme a lot. Thanks for tagging me, Jana.

    I played over on my blog, so anyone who is interested can hop on over and see what I’m reading now.

    Reply
  8. Kaimipono Avatar
    Kaimipono

    Oh, sure, do this to me when I’m at work.

    Okay, here you go, right from the middle of the legal analysis in Alfred Brophy’s recent book, Reparations, Pro and Con.

    “One wonders whether the lawsuit might be more viable is the class were people descended from the people who worked for (or bought and sold or whose life was insured by) the defendant companies. Because the companies continue in existence, there is at least the possibility that they are subject to suit. The two major problems are locating a substantive basis and overcoming the statute of limitations, of course.”

    Reply
  9. jana Avatar
    jana

    kaimi:
    Can I just say how happy I am that I’m a historian and not a lawyer?
    :)

    Reply
  10. jana Avatar
    jana

    rechabite:
    great passage, great book :)

    lma:
    thanks for playing again! If I ever get out from underneath the pile of research papers, I’ll play again, too. (for now, the only items w/in arm’s reach are far fewer than 123 pages–thank goddess!)

    Reply
  11. jana Avatar
    jana

    mattb:
    Sounds like so much fun! I’ve ditched secondary sources at this phase, too. I’m having too much fun toodling around in the archives! :)

    People, do you know how awesome it is to fondle a well-creased honorable release from the Civil War, sweat-stained and torn at the edges, showing where the soldier carried it in his chest pocket daily? That, to me, is THE BEST!

    Reply

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