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

[nelina]

HAHAHA!!! You asked for it! You see, this computer is in my dad's study, and he's a doctor. The nearest book is his. Here goes...
"It is obvious that the percentage of patients expressing the marker is also of major importance. A significant association with a marker that is present on only a proportion of patients implies either that the disease is heterogeneous with only one form associated with a MHC determinant or, alternatively, the the MHC determinant identified is a clue to the presence of an allele of another locus with which the disease has a more complete and perhaps mechanistic relation..."
That was from the Textbook of Rheumatology (second edition), and it was written by a whole bunch of doctors, I think. Can you understand it? I don't...

"Food for thought requires a mind with teeth" ~Vollys the dragon from "The Two Princesses of Bamarre"

I can tell form the home or hetero genous and allels that it has to do with genetics of rhumatism; ...you'll learn in biology.

Anyway, I am in a library, at the computer (of course) and there is a book shelf infornt of me, facing away. I picked up the first book whose back cover I saw, and judgin by its cover, it is about war. It is called The Butcher's Bill by: David Drake.

Oh My God, I cracked the book open and I thought "51" as i did it, and it opend straight to 51!!!

P 51: He had target now and he fired over open sights, two rounds in the back of the first warrior and three at the second, who leaped up into the last bolt when molten stone sprayed from the boulder sheltering him. A storm of fire from at least twenty Oltenian guns broke wildly on the general area. The Loot was shouting, "closerofile!" his big arm pointing behind the jeep, but nothing this side of Hell was going to keep Bourne from his thrid kill- the molt crouched behind his steaming power gun, firing into the APC as fast as his fibger could pull the trigger.

[crazy_bookworm]

"He says he's allergic to gooseberries," said Jess. Her mum didn't answer. Her eyes flashed down through the lines. Being a librarian, she could read at lightning speed.

"It's a shame about the gooseberries," she smiled, folding up the letter and giving it back. "I was planning to include them in every meal. Bacon, egg, and gooseberries for breakfast..."

--Girl, 15, Flirting for England, by Sue Limb

I love this series, and I adore Sue Limb. She is an amazingly funny author, and the situiations her characters get into are sooo funny.

[Daisy]

Here is mine:

Gwenda Davis had stopped at the top of the hill. She knew what she had to do but she still couldn't quite bring herself to do it. Gwenda had never liked pain.If she so much as cut her finger, she'd have to sit down for half an hour and smoke several cigaretts before she was ready to move. And she was fairly sure her death was going to hurt very much indeed.


-Evil Star, by Anthony Horowitz


I love all of Anthony Horowitz's books.

[meteorite]

"Who?"
"Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks!" Monk explained.
The airport attendant registered shock, then great embarrassment at the words. He opened his mouth to speak, but instead, excitement made him merely stutter.

from The Man of Bronze by Kenneth Robeson. The first in the classic Doc Savage series. I may scavenge them to run a RPG campaign at some time in the near future.

[EricG1793]

The system was so effective that a provincial governor (a representative of the king who governed the province) anywhere in the empire could send a question and receive an answer from the king in his palace within a week.

The Assyrians were good at conquering others. Over many years of practice, they developed effective military leaders and fighters. They were able to enlist and deploy troops numbering in the hundreds of thousands, although most campaigns were not on such a large scale.

- My World History textbook: World History to 1800, by Jackson J. Spielvogel.

[moonwaves182]

'"Idris raised his eyes to the eiling.
New clothes and the finest kahn in AlKal'as?," said Aminah. "And this is how you show your thanks/ I soppse I'll just have to find someone else."'

From 'Wishing Moon' By Michael O Tunnell
Excelent read, haven't read it for ages though. All about geneis and it's a spin off from The old Arabain Nites stories.

[Daisy]

This is the one nearest me right now:


Daniel knew he had behaved like a fool, but he would never admit it. He jerked away from them and walked scornfully down the road to the narrow alley that led to his grandmother's house.


- The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

This is actually a book I am reading for school.

[Zirsta]

"There are some stories that you don't tell aloud, that you make up and tell silently to yourself. Private stories. You spin them over and over again until you don't need them."

Shadow Spinner
Susan Fletcher

[hushpiper]

Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life
by Eric D. Schneider & Dorion Sagan

The laws of physics are not inviolate at all scales and some only hold for a certain bandwidth within hierarchical scales (McShea, personal communication, 2004). There is a phenomenological similarity between gravitational and thermodynamically driven systems.

...I actually got this book because of the relation to YW--entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, all that stuff. Suffice it to say, it's rather heavier reading than anything Diane Duane wrote! And in fact, the closest book to me was one of William Stafford's poetry, but I thought that might not work quite so well for this.

[Septimus]

"Does lecestier know your gunning for him?"
"Well i told him I'd kill him..."
"Seph, if theres one thing i've learned over the years. It's not to tell another wizard your going to kill him before you kill him before killing him."

-The Wizard Heir
Cinda Williams Chima

[EricG1793]

Ironically, the book that's nearest to me right now is my History textbook, again... I won't bother to quote it again.

[dorotheia]

Well Witched by Frances Hardinge:

"I'm feeling a lot better," Ryan explained quietly. "I thought I might go out in the garden."
His father looked up blankly for a moment. "Good." There was a pause while his brain hopped back and actually heard what Ryan had said. "Good," he said again, with more sincerity.

I like this quote, because I often feel like Ryan's father, backtracking to reaffirm or retract something I said when I wasn't thinking. There are many good things about being able to completely absorb yourself in a different world, or a difficult task. For me, it's hard not to treat the interruptions on autopilot, because my brain is otherwise occupied.
I missed this in reading the book the first time, but in looking at page 51 for a quote, it struck me as a scene which is very familiar. I love it when even small everyday struggles in life are reflected by art.

[Stormwind]

"He Remembers Something ---- Sleep did not come easily that night. For a long time Little Jon lay motionless beside Brooks, thinking of the day while he listened to the sounds beyond the window - the familiar and unfamiliar sounds of a world he didn't belong in."

The Forgotten Door - Alexander Key

One I read as a kid, and found reprinted last year....

[apalodorin]

"As seen, for the narrowest magnets the hysteresis loops become very square, indicative of quasi-single domain behavior. This work demonstrated that the switching characteristics for micro- and nanofabricated NiFe magnets..."

-Semiconductor spintronics and quantum computation

Actually a book I read often because it pertains to my graduate research work .

[Trialia]

*crawls back to the forums, looking sheepish for a moment* ... *grin*

Want to know what the closest book to me happens to be? Guess

She crossed Second and turned south, trotting down the avenue at a good rate, while above her, the last against the brightening sky, yellow streetlights stuttered out. Rhiow crossed Second diagonally at Sixty-Seventh and kept heading south and west, using the sidewalk openly for as long as the pedestrian traffic stayed light.