I’ve just come across this chain-meme thingy on Facebook. What you have to do is take the first book you see and transcribe the fifth sentence on page 56, and then pass it on. It’s quite fun, I suppose, but I am always a bit suspicious of such things. Nevertheless, in a fit of preseasonal procrastination I’ve done something a bit similar here. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is guess the books whence these extracts come.
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I, Editor by Henry Gee
This is the Nature Network and therefore Terribly Extremely Very Serious foothold for Nature Senior Editor Henry Gee. If you want fun and games, visit http://cromercrox.blogspot.com/
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Encodyfication
- Date:
- Tuesday, 02 Dec ember 2008 - 10:51 UTC
1. To these deficiencies there might be added one still more serious, namely, that he cannot climb quickly, and so escape from enemies.
2. I heard Moreau and Montgomery shouting in the same direction.
3. And now he wants to go abroad again, without any special object, save the vague purpose of what he calls culture, preparation for he knows not what.
4. All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of some one whom they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of some one whom they wished to please.
5. I begin to get new lights on certain things which have puzzled me.
6. So full of this reeling scene were we, as we stood by the plunging bowsprit, that for some time we did not notice the jeering glances of the passengers, a lubber-like assembly, who marvelled that two fellow beings should be so companionable; as though a white man were anything more dignified than a whitewashed negro.
7. For otherwise the useless Light being reflected every way in the Chamber, will mix with the oblong spectrum, and help to disturb it.
8. Hypothesis: the mess with Gina was caused by his actions in the alley. Therefore, alcohol was largely to blame.
9. Of the emaciated toads, one had diminished in weight from nine hundred and twenty-four grains to six hundred and ninety-eight, and one from nine hundred and thirty-six to six hundred and fifty-two.
10. As it does not appear probable that the tubes are produced by several distinct shocks, we must believe that the lightning, shortly before entering the ground, divides itself into separate branches.
Last updated: Tuesday, 02 Dec 2008 - 10:51 UTC
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Comments
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I like this one a lot better than the original. In the spirit of the meme, I’ve abjured the use of the Google in attempting this one.
I would guess that #2 is from the Island of Dr. Moreau.
Apparently using the pound sign does something funny for the formatting. 6 is from Moby Dick, of course, not 1.
You’re right so far, Mike. But they were the easy ones…
Is No. 3 Middlemarch?
And No. 5 Dracula? (Google makes it too easy…)
… to double-check, I should add!
Is 8 by an Amis?
3 is Middlemarch, and 5 is indeed Dracula … but 8 isn’t Amis. Keep up the good work!
I’d like 1 to be The Descent of Man, but more in hope than knowledge.
..and 7 to be Newton’s “Optiks”
The only literary Gina I know is Gina del Dongo in “The Charterhouse of Parma” but I’m not convinced that 8 sounds enough like Stendhal. Then again he isn’t top of my reading list and most of what I know of him comes from Sondheim:
Stendhal would ruin the plan of attack,
as there isn’t much blue in “The Red and the Black”.
1 is indeed Descent of Man by Chuckie D, and 7 is indeed Newton’s Opticks. You’re on fire!
That leaves 4, 8, 9 and 10.
…. and 8 isn’t Stendahl, either.
Could 8 possibly be a title by Dr Gee by chance?
I think I can guess 8, but I have no way to confirm it yet, so I’ll wait.
@ Penny – no, but you’re closer than you might imagine.
@ Eva – you’re even closer than that.
All right, then I’m close enough to being sure: it’s Jenny’s isn’t it? It’s obviously science-related, and there’s a character called Gina.
You know, Descent was actually my first guess for number one, but you’ve clearly got a very different edition that I do.
I kind of got distracted from trying to answer the rest. I was busy stealing your idea
I know I’ve read 10 somewhere, but I can’t remember where. It’s somewhere in my collection of Victorian science texts, but it might take a while to dig out.
@ Eva – yes, 8 is Experimental Heart by Jennifer L. Rohn.
@ Mike – I’m on to you.
hm, I love and hate these kinds of things…. .at least when I can not come up with answers.
Number 4 is a romantic book, a Jane Austin (or a Bronte…) but I have no idea of what, unless it is Persuasion, the only one of the lot I read recently. It has that desperate mode in there… the romantic desperation.
And the toads…. they haunt me. I have read it (me thinks) but where? And by whom? The quest goes on...and I thought for a second that number 10 was Frankenstein… but I fear not. Just because it fits with the rest (electricity, victorian, horror, a bit of sex, unhappiness…) ;)
Not Frankenstein (I’m almost certain).
I was thinking Lyell, but there’s nothing remotely like that anywhere near page 56 in any of the one’s I have copies of.
This is seriously driving me insane®. I’ve got a strong feeling that I’m going to wind up waking up with the answer around three am something like three weeks down the road.
Mike> It’s not Jules Verne is it?! Somewhere I have this insane idea that I have read the book but I am running out of Victorian/historic novels soon….
unless it is dear old Lovecraft, and Cthulhu is in the asylum waiting for us all [ someone clearly needs a vacation ]
10 isn’t Frankenstein (or Lovecraft, who didn’t write a full-length novel, as far as I can remember)
But Åsa, you are star-grazingly close with number 4.
4 is either Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility.
I cheated for number 10, and was nowhere close.
Actually I was thinking that 4 might be Emma.
Henry> really? I guess Lovecraft did all these novellas rather than an actual novel. Although I’m * happy * about being star-gazing :)
In case Heather & Cath haven’t got it with the three guesses I slam dunk my second [only one left I know] Austin book for a guess: Northhanger Abby
Heather> I thought about P&P but didn’t remember who would have been able to say that really…
Northanger Abbey. She shoots. She scores.
9 and 10 still remain unconquered.
Henry> Thanks for giving me a score although my spelling was … horrible. I am sorry about that. Next time I’ll do better ;)
My list was too hard so I had to give the solutions
I think I shall have to give the solution to 9 and 10, just to put people out of their misery.
9. is The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbery White, and
10. is The Voyage of the Beagle by our very own Chuckie D.
Thanks for participating, everyone – you did really well!
Next stop … poetry
Bora, the one with the most unexpected ‘turn’ on your list must be number 8…