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

[seabiscuit1009]

Awww...Kaila, I love that book. I'm re-reading it right now, but it's not next to me. What's next to me is...

Sec. Cit. Most noble Caesar! we'll revenge his death.
Third Cit. O royal Caesar!
-Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Yep...the Shakespeare dork has spoken.

By vales and sharp ravines in Lakedaimon, the travellers drove to Menelaos' mansion, and found him at a double wedding feast for son and daughter
-The Odyssey

I'm next to my bookshelf of books I had to read for school, so any book I grab is bound to have some weird random quotation on page 51. Don't really remember what they're talking about at this point in The Odyssey...and I even read the book, instead of using Sparknotes like the rest of the class did.

[Emilie]

"It was too far to return to dinner, and an allowance of cold meat and bread, in the same penurious proportion observed in our ordinary meals, was served round between the services."
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

[kk]

I'm in my grandfather's computer room, and there are books literally coating the place, so let me see which is the closest...

"Bandstop LC filters (fig 1-33) eliminate a relatively broad range of frequencies while passing frequencues below F1 or above F2."

--Electronics Pocket Handbook

[Kaila Kirchner]

yes it is

"Mildred, how would it be if, well, maybe, I quit my job awhile?"
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

i had to go quite a way to find a book. usually they're piled high beside me but we'll be having company soon and they all had to go bye-bye.

[vashmata]

Heh, this is the second closest book- the closest is written in Hebrew, and I don't have hebrew letters on this computer.

"[...lords used up their servants, and empty stools at the table.] If another slave appeared who wasn't on the roster, it was always assumed someone else ordered him bought or brought in from elsewhere on the property."

The Elvenbane, Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

[kk]

"When nothing is an S, there certainly are no S that fail to be P and there are no S that are P; thus both the A and E sentences are true, from this hypothetical viewpoint. There is no logical conection now between A and E; knowing the truth or falsity of one of them does not enable us to tell the truth or falsity of the other."

And that is from The Elements of Logic, another one of my grandfather's books. He has so many books in here, it doesn't take very long to find one, it just takes some time to find one that is even vaguely understandable.

[Mousey]

-Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, by Eoin Colfer.
And, second closest book:

Frodo had a very trying time that afternoon. A false rumor that the whole household was being distributed free spread like wildfire; and before long the place was packed with people who had no business there, but could not be kept out.

-The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring. Do I honestly have to put the author on THAT?

[meteorite]

You have to lobby to be heard. Then you have to marshal experts on your side so you can convince the majority to support your claim over the one they have always supported. Finally, when you are in the majority, the burden of proof switches to the outsider who wants to challenge you with his or her unusual claim.

Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer. A very good book as an introduction to critical thinking.

[EricG1793]

-The Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring. Do I honestly have to put the author on THAT?

-Mousey

Kind of.... Some of us may not live in a country where the book was distributed, or some us simply may not know or remember the author....

Either way, I'll save you the trouble.... The author of The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbitt. I don't remember if that's one B or 2...) is J.R.R. Tolkien.

[vashmata]

Either way, I'll save you the trouble.... The author of The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbitt. I don't remember if that's one B or 2...) is J.R.R. Tolkien.

It's 2 "b"s nd 1 "t" (the hobbit)
if magazines count, it's "You don't need to wait for an obvious clue to make notes to yourself on a map-any time you find something interesting in an area you'll visit repeatedly, jot down some info."
Nintendo power for november 2007

if not, "...he'd kneel near the goal net and pray for several minutes. But at the start of one match, his prayers took so long that the kick-off began before he was ready."
Uncle John's
Bathroom reader
wonderfull
world of odd
by the bathroom readers' institute

[Small town]

...descendant: a person who is descended from another

devise: to grant real property by will; a gift of real property by will
The Amazing Story of the Tipton's in America by Sharon Taylor.
was the closest book

[A Traveller with Magic]

[Let's see. Dictionary? Not a book. SYWTBAW: well, we already know the quotes from that.]

"...the things a witch did was stand right on the edge, where the decisions had to be made. You made them so that others didn't have to, so that others could even pretend to themselves that there were no decisions to be made, no little secrets, that things just happened."

-Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett


"...space occurs if all of an object's motion through time is diverted to motion through space. This occurs when all of its previous light-speed motion through time is diverted to light-speed motion through space. But having used up all of its motion through time, this is the fastest speed through space that the object- any object- can possibly achieve. This is analogous to our car being test-driven directly in the north-south direction. Just as the car will have no speed left for motion in the east-west dimension, something traveling at light speed through space will have no speed left for motion through time."

-The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
(I cheated, I know. The next closest was "Write the following scales..." in Elementary Rudiments of Music.

[magicalmike]

...saw the jewel-studed sword of honour presented to teh hero. Beowulf drank the cerimonial cup in the bangueting hall..

Beowulf is the closest to me for some odd reason, althought Garth Nix's ragwitch is close.

[Emi]

Gatsby's butler was suddenly standing beside us. "Miss Baker?" he inquired. "I beg your pardon, but Mr. Gatsby would like to speak to you alone."

--The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald. Reading this for English. I find it quite interesting...

"Hello, Miss Doyle," he says, smiling at my soggy appearance. Melting snow drips from my hair onto my nose. "You look... well." I'm a fright. "Why didn't you respond to my note?" he asks. I feel foolish. And happy to see him. And wary.

--Rebel Angels by Libba Bray,
A really good book, the sequal to A Great and Terrible Beauty

I felt a chill tingle along my spine. "Remember how I decided that I wanted you to not ignore my birthday?" I asked quickly hoping it wasn't too clear that I was trying to distract him. "Yes," he agreed wary. "Well, I was thinking, since it's still my birthday, that I'd like you to kiss me again."

Do I have to say where that's from? Brownie points to whoever guesses first!

[Kaila Kirchner]

some people don't read twilight.

"Due south of the R, on the edge of the constellation, is one of the brightest face-on spiral galaxies in the heavens, M83."
The Star Guide, Robin Kerod

i know weird. i don't even know why we have this book. no one in my house studied/studies astronomy.