". . . little shall I grace my cause

In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,

I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver . . ."

(William Shakespeare's Othello, I.iii.88-90)

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Book Meme

My friend Rebellious Pastor's Wife tagged me for a fun book meme. Here are the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Right now I'm sitting in bed with my husband's laptop. The nearest book is to my right on his bedside table (I'm sitting on his side of the bed because my 4-year-old is currently occupying my side!) The book was one of my Christmas presents to him (my husband, not my 4-year-old) this year: Steve Martin's Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Here's the excerpt dictated by the above instructions (the incident Martin describes happened in 1971 when he was opening for Ann-Margret):

"One night, from my dressing room, I saw a vision in white gliding down the hall--a tall , striking woman, moving like an apparition along the backstage corridor. It turned out to be Priscilla Presley, coming to visit Ann-Margret backstage after having seen the show. When she turned the corner she revealed an even more indelible presence walking behind her. Elvis. Dressed in white. Jet-black hair. A diamond-studded buckle."

Okay, I know that's seven sentences, not three. But the last four are fragments. And I couldn't just leave you hanging!

I tag Michelle, Nikki, Hannah, Susan K, and Caitlin. It will be fun to see what interesting excerpts come out of this group!

2 comments:

Hannah said...

http://therenaissancebiologist.blog spot.com/2008/02/book-meme.html (take out the space, of course). If the instructions hadn't said "nearest" book, I would have picked Dante instead. Ah well.

Marie N. said...

How about that! I just read the same quote yesterday in an article about him in my Smithsonian magazine. I bet the book is a fun read.