This tag was a unique one received from my good friend Chanbury so I decided to work on it while my other posts are percolating...
Rules: I have this strange aversion to rules, unless they are Biblically backed, so these seem more like "guidelines" to me...
1. Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages. That is a silly rule, I am going to find a book that is at least interesting. The closest book to me right now is my Latin Dictionary, and that is not thrilling enough!
2. Open the book to page 123. This I did, and then rejected the book, and did again, and again. Is there an unspoken rule that nothing interesting can happen on page 123?!??!??!!?
3. Find the 5th sentence. Do we count semicolons as end punctuation, or is that simply a drawn out pause? Oh well, I'll just be random...
4. Post the next 3 sentences. Or four, or five... Maybe I should post the whole book!
5. Tag 5 people. Ha! I didn't follow any of the other rules. What makes you think I will acknowledge the validity of this one? Never!
A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilke Collins (This is from a collection of mystery stories, published in 1920. I found some great books in a thrift store!)
We had come to see blackguards; but these men were something worse. There is a comic side, more or less appreciable, in all blackguardism: here there was nothing but tragedy--mute, weird tragedy. The quiet in the room was horrible. The thin haggard, long-haired young man, whose sunken eyes fiercely watched the turning up of the cards, never spoke.
Now for the commentary. This reads like a tense section in Sherlock Holmes. A blackguard, according to the dictionary, is a thoroughly unprincipled person; a scoundrel, not a guard who likes dressing in dark colors, or a member of an elite security force!
Ok, that was fun, but I want to do it again!!!!
The Black Tulip by (the best author EVER) Alexander Dumas
When he became aware that his arm was broken, this man, so harsh to others, fell swooning on the threshold, where he remained motionless and cold, as if dead.
During all this time the door of the cell stood open, and Cornelius found himself almost free. but the thought had never entered his mind of profiting by this accident; he had seen from the manner in which the arm was bent, and from the noise it made in bending, that the bone was fractured, and that the patient must be in great pain; and now he thought of nothing else but of administering relief to the sufferer, however little benevolent the man had shown himself during their short interview.
If you never read another of my posts again, I will be fine with that, but I want you to do something for me. Go back and read this section again, but slowly this time. Savor the richness of the words. Act as if you were eating your favorite dessert, and you want each moment to last as long as possible. Ponder the words as you read them, do not speed along, picture it in your mind. Think about what you now know of this situation, simply from three sentences!
Well? Did you read it again? Was it any better when you slowed down? Leave me a comment and let me know what you thought...
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Mrs D 
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Feb. 13, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Overall it was very good. Not too wordy, not too descriptive. Just the right amount of speech needed to convey the tone of the moment.
Except for "Swooning". Which is fun to say by itself - but not in that sentence.
~Katalina
P.S.
People down here don't know what a good Strawberry tastes like. They are sadly in need of buckets full of P-town juicy, red goodness.
And Watermelon. They need ripe watermelon.