Book Meme

Gosh, I meant to do this a while ago. Back in August, Scott posted a meme and tagged anyone who read it. I was going to post then, but forgot during the shuffle of life. This morning I was reading some of the blogs that Scott links to and Iccadilly had a post reminding me of the meme. It's simple:

1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences along with these instructions

As Scott points out, don't go digging for a "cool" or "hip" book. That's not what the meme is about. Just grab the nearest one, even if it's technical, and let her rip. If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Here's my "contribution":

He dodged into Windmill Hill, though it was a long time since there'd been a discernible hill, or a windmill, there. He then forced himself to walk straight west, without looking back, for a hundred paces. That brought him clear of Hockley, and into the center of the largest open place in this part of town, where Leather Lane, Liquorpond Street, and several other ways came together in a crazed, nameless interchange half the size of Charing Cross.

The passage is from Neal Stephenson's The System of the World. When I was tagged, I was probably reading The Confusion, the second book in this "Baroque Cycle". Thus far, I liked the second book the best. This third one tends to steer towards a great deal more narration describing the scenes in which the discussion/thought/action takes place. While I like Stephenson's narrative, this gets a bit tedious at times. Or perhaps I'm just tiring after reading the previous 1,900 or so pages.

In any case, I'm making my way through this trilogy in relatively quick succession. This third novel has the promise of much action picking up shortly. There's a great deal of intrigue that I'm interested in seeing how Stephenson resolves. I had hoped to spend a great deal of time focusing on reading this week while the co-signer was on holiday in Oregon. However, life has provided a twist for my Love and she will not take the whole week off as planned.

Her uncle has taken quite ill. He is in hospital after suffering a hemorrhage near the base of the brain stem. So far the prognosis is hopeful. We're still waiting on a report on the damage he has suffered. In the meantime, my Love's mother has been with him and the family, co-ordinating arrangements that need to be made. This has interfered with my Love's plans for holiday since she originally had meant to spend it with her mom.

My Love's sacrifice in this matter is a small one. We hope for a speedy recovery for her uncle. I also hope that the scars of this trauma on the family psyche are quick in healing as well.