What are the first few sentences on page 51 of the book nearest you?

[meteorite]

I've been cleaning my desk, putting away the detritus of study. Consequently the nearest books are on the bookshelf in the hallway...

"After the summer solstice, the Sun heads south and the days in the Northern Hemisphere grow shorter, until the Sun crosses the equator again on about September 23 -- the autumnal equinox -- the official beginning of autumn."

National Audobon Society: Field Guide to the Night Sky

[D'fr]

The closest book to me is my school math book, I was doing my homework a little while ago.

"Checkpiont
A percentile gives the location of a value in a set of data while the range and IQR are measures of how spread out the data are.
a. Will the range be changed if an outlier is added to a data set? Will the interquartile range be changed?
b. Why does the interquartile range tend to be a more useful measure of the data set's variability than the range?-"
-From "Core-Plus Mathematics Project: Contemporary Mathematics in Context: A Unified Aproach: Course 1, Part A: Algebra and functions, statistics and probability, goemetry and trigonometry, discreet mathematics"

That was long... Math gives me a headache sometimes... Ah, well, lyf thwi cegra.

[Raine~]

I'm surrounded by bookshelves... Haha ^_^

closest book though, apprx:

The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky
pg51
"To me the earth is one single state. The earth is the head of God. God is the fire in the head. I am alive as long as there is fire in my head. My pulse is like an earthquake. I know that if there are no more earthquakes the earth will get cold and all mankind with it, because people will not be able to exist."

pg54 (first page I opened to)
"He was grinding his teeth and I felt as depressed as if cats were scratching my soul."

Quite memorable stuff...

[Kinz]

My closest happens to be my AP Psychology text book.

"Such experiments wouldn't work if the participants knew all there was to know about the experiment before-hand. Either the procedures would be ineffective or the participants, wanting to be helpful, might try to confirm the researchers' predictions."
~Chapter 1, Psychology: Seventh Edition by David G. Myers.

[Emi]

(starts off on the bottom of page 50)

When Karin or I tell Annie something of earthshaking importance, she still sometimes clasps her hand to her forehead and executes a faint. "Oh, Mommy," Karin will say in exasperation, "you're not really dead."

-- "Shoeless Joe" W.P. Kinsella

[wolf_wizard]

umm, I have three stacked on top of each other. The 1st one is Decade of the Wolf Returning the Wild to Yellowstone by Douglas W. Smith & Gary Ferguson. "They may well starve to death, suggested Mech, before they'd walk into a part of the pen with such strong associations to humans"

and... The Cambrige Illistrated History of the Middle Ages 950-1250. Edited by Robert Fossier. "Only the North interests us here, since the customs of the peasants of the Midi are disguised by the second layer of Roman law. On the other side of the fuedal crisis, chronologically speaking, the survivals of the allodial system are important."

and... The Lord of the Rings; The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien. "The talk did not die down in nine or even ninety- nine days. The second disappearence of Mr. Bilbo Baggins was discussed in Hobbiton, and indeed all over the Shire, for a year and a day, and was remembered much longer then that."

[Rubywolf]

Place the carrots inside the dough. Add the tomato mixture and spices. Close the opening in the dough by pressing the sides together with a fork, creating a seal.

- Vegetarian Calzones, Pizzas, and other Baked Goodies.

It's a good book, actually. :idea:

[Emi]

Um, I've kinda used all the books near me... but I'll post up the one I'm reading.

On Sunday, after morning service, the separation, so agreeable to almost all, took place. Miss Bingley's civility to Elizabeth increased at last very rapidly, as well as her affection for Jane; and when they parted, after assuring the latter of the pleasure it would always give her to see her either at Longbourn or Netherfield and embracing her most tenderly, she even shook hands with the former. Elizabeth took leave of the whole party in the liveliest spirits.

-- Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen

[vashmata]

Wow, I'd forgotten about this. Who thought up the number 51 anyways?

Well, this is Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis:

"No one knew precisely what happened. The dragon's broken and twisted body had been found at the base of a cliff. It was assumed he had gone crazy and ended his life by flying headlong into the mountain."

And Urchin of the Riding Stars by M.I.McAllister:

"He heaped food into a basket. When it was full he packed more into his bag, filled leather bottles with wine and water, took it all to Arran, and went back for more. If she thought he had packed a lot for a single squirrel, she didn't say so."

[Poliester]

From "The Face of Battle" by John Keegan:

"And it is almost possible to predict word for word the conclusion that the 'Directing Staff's Solution' would come to: 'Incidents of this sort will not occur if soldiers are properly briefed and kept under strict control by their officers. If a soldier does unlawfully kill a prisoner, he should at once be placed under close arrest and evacuated for psychiatric examination; if found fit to plead, he will be dealt with under Section...' For to the army, quite as much as to the courts, hard cases make bad law."

And it goes on to talk about the behavior of certain soldiers in certain battles (Geneva convention, Irish Guardsmen, etc.). This book was published in the 70s, by the way.

And I also have my English and French-English/English-French dictionaries.

From "The Merriam-Webster Dictionary":
"back.hand.ed adj 1 : indirect, devious; esp : sarcastc <a ~ compiment> 2 : using or made with a backhand"

From "Merriam-Webster's French-English Dictionary/Dictionaire Anglais-Francais":
"cale [kal] nf 1 : wedge, chock 2 : hold (of a ship) 3 cale seche : dry dock"

Happy Reading!

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

...troubles in Ghealdan, or more likely a thief who thinks the pickings will be easier here than in Baerlon or Taren Ferry. Even so, no one around here has so much they can afford to have it stolen. If the man is trying to escape the war... well, that's still no excuse for scaring people. Once the watch is mounted, it should either find him or frighten him off."

[meteorite]

St. Anne Schooner
Level: 1
Career: Any
Durability: 50
Size: Small
Speed: 13
Acceleration: 5.5
Turning (fast): 18
Capacity: 30
Crew: 20
Integrity: Hull: 280

from The Official Game guide: Pirates of the Burning Sea My latest obsession. As if finishing library school wasn't enough...

[fionnaula]

I was fifteen years old, two years younger than my own child would be now. I didn't think of it in those terms: losing a baby. At first it was nothing like a baby I held inside me, only a small impossible secret.

Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver

(My last post in this thread was nearly 2 years ago, oi!)

[the_peridexis]

After college, I called him long distance and said, now what?
My dad didn't know.
When I got a job and turned twenty-five, long distance, I said, now what? My dad didn't know, so he said, get married.

-Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk

It's funny how a few lines of such random texts can be so eloquent.

-Peri

[Stormwind]

Eek, It's been a while, but the only book I have close is Dragons of A Fallen Sun... which isn't mine

("Prince Silvanoshei," Said the queen in a voice he recongized as being her court voice, one she had never used to him. He did not know whether to feel glad or to weep for something irrevocably lost.)

Makes me wonder if I should pick it up to read it more....