# Grab the book nearest you. Right now. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 9, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901 "2010-03-09T20:52:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/241 "2010-03-20T13:22:53Z")
And, given my tenacious memory, I got a lot out of it that has remained with me all the rest of my life. _In Memory Yet Green, the autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954_ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/242 "2010-03-20T15:32:18Z")
“I’m walking,” Talia said. _The Stepsister Scheme_ by Jim C. Hines ---
**Author:** ![Frosted\_Glass](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frosted_glass/32/3926_2.png) [@Frosted\_Glass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frosted_Glass)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/243 "2010-03-20T17:05:44Z")
“Mr. Cooger’s ribs under his collapsed shirt were stone-rigid and his teeth under his clay lips were dry-ice cold.” _Something Wicked This Way Comes_, Ray Bradbury ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/244 "2010-03-20T17:08:03Z")
The Habr Gidr was insulted by the paltry sum being offered for its leader. _Black Hawk Down_, Mark Bowden ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/245 "2010-03-20T17:38:09Z")
whoops. Wrong thread. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/246 "2010-03-20T17:40:09Z")
“In this unfamiliar way of reckoning intervals we symbolize the pas- age of time by imagining passenger Brown hurtling along at the speed of light.” _Einstein’s Universe_, Nigel Calder ---
**Author:** ![drillrod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@drillrod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drillrod)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/247 "2010-03-21T15:28:17Z")
“She reached out to one side and caught Jiande’s hand, and squeezed it.” _The Madness Season,_ C. S. Friedman ---
**Author:** ![peekercpa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@peekercpa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peekercpa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/248 "2010-03-21T15:48:10Z")
when we meditate with the spirit of a smile, we awaken our capacity for uncoditional friendliness. _radical acceptance - embracing your life with the heart of a buddha_, tara brach, phd ---
**Author:** ![Gregor\_Samsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@Gregor\_Samsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gregor_Samsa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/249 "2010-03-21T17:30:54Z")
“His hostage, his conduit out of Zurich!” _The Bourne Identity_, Robert Ludlum ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/250 "2010-03-21T23:38:56Z")
“Moist crawled across the carpet, reached up, grabbed the arrow and ducked down again.” from **Making Money** , by Terry Pratchett. That was actually book number 3 - Così fan tutte, the closest book (score) doesn’t have eleven bars on page 111, let alone eleven sentences; Full Speed Through the Morning Dark, the next closest, doesn’t have 111 pages… ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/251 "2010-03-22T03:31:57Z")
The Vinegar Bible, published in Oxford in 1717, was so named because the parable of the vineyard was given as “the parable of the vinegar” in Luke 20. - Salisbury & Sujo, _Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art_ (Penguin) There are not 11 complete sentences in the body text of p. 111; the above is from a footnote. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/252 "2010-03-25T05:06:51Z")
The closest book to me is Overstreet Comic Price Guide (1991-2 edition) Page 111 has no real sentences on it as the page is basically a list of things with prices so … the second closest book is Ingersoll’s Theory of Financial Decision Making. 11th sentence of page 111 is That is, V[sub]1[/sub] \> 0, and the investors’ optimal portfolios are on the upper limb of the locus of minimum variance portfolios. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/253 "2010-03-25T08:33:45Z")
_ **The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing** _ by Al Ries and Jack Trout 11th sentence on page 111: > [@](#): > > It’s not that they don’t make mistakes, but when they do, they admit them, fix them, and just keep coming. Funny since the writers are referring to the Japanese. Hehehe. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/254 "2010-03-25T09:04:47Z")
You want to win, don’t you? _LOOKS_- Madeleine George My daughter asked me to walk to BAM with her to get it for her last week. ---
**Author:** ![Bogeyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@Bogeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bogeyman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/255 "2010-03-25T12:47:11Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > “Oldenburg’s wife had lately died - not of the Plague - and some supposed that he stayed in London hoping that the Black Death would carry him off to wherever she was.” > > From Neal Stephenson’s _Quicksilver_. Also the next to last sentence on the page, because he likes his sentences long and convoluted. A comma lover, that one. Kobal2 beat me to it - the second closest book does not have eleven sentences on p. 111, so I’ll quote the last complete sentence: “The night was as black as a night could be, warm velvet black with no stars at all; he could detect the ship’s motion by her urgent heave and thrust, and living vibration of the wood under his hand, and the creak of the blocks, cordage and canvas overhead, but never a sail nor a rope could he see, nor even the steps in front of his nose as he crept up.” Patrick O’Brian loves commas just as much as Stephenson does and throws in some affection for the often insufficiently appreciated semicolon as well. _Quicksilver_ is my current read-on the-commute-and-during-lunch-book and _The Far Side of the World_ is my backup-read-on the-commute-and-during-lunch-book. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/256 "2010-03-25T19:10:43Z")
“Whosoever knowingly introduces, or manufactures for introduction, into interstate commerce, or transports or distributes in interstate commerce, any switchblade knife, shall be fined not more than $2,000 for imprisoned not more than five years, or both.” - 15 USC section 1244. _Customs Law Handbook_ ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/257 "2010-03-30T20:53:05Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > - Turn to page 111. > - Find the eleventh complete sentence. > - Post that sentence, and identify the book. It is also used in journalistic and technical material and in academic work of a technical or statistical nature. \*The Gregg Reference Manual \*(Ninth Edition), William A. Sabin. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/258 "2010-03-30T20:56:10Z")
I was light to carry. “The Water-Method Man,” John Irving ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/259 "2010-03-30T22:27:24Z")
“Does automatic enrollment merely overcome workers’ inertia, helping them make the choice they would actually prefer?” -\* Nudge - Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness\*, Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/260 "2010-03-31T11:22:52Z")
“Pete, here, is a wise man,” Barnes said confidentially. Robert Heinlein, Columbus Was a Dope, from _50 Short Science Fiction Tales_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901.md?page=14)