# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/21 "2010-03-09T21:21:34Z")
“But Bill puts the blame in the wrong place.” Statistics II for Dummies ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/22 "2010-03-09T21:21:53Z")
**AuntiePam** , the way this has gone so far, maybe cheating should be encouraged. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/23 "2010-03-09T21:22:16Z")
“Purple head prefect one year, Grey head prefect the next – or even no head prefect at all.” Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde ---
**Author:** ![MitzeKatze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@MitzeKatze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MitzeKatze)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/24 "2010-03-09T21:22:57Z")
Page 111 is a full page picture of Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) so I am using page 112 instead. The sentence: Fanned by a rapidly anti-Sheppard media campaign-WHY ISN’T SAM SHEPPARD IN JAIL? asked the headline of a _Cleavland Press_ article- many Ohioans were demanding the doctor’s scalp even before he stepped foot in court. The Book: _The Most Notorious Crimes in American History_ _50 Dastardly Deeds that Shook the Nation (Some of them Still Unsolved!)_ By LIFE, I am not seeing specific author/reporter credit on the cover. ---
**Author:** ![moldybread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@moldybread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moldybread)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/25 "2010-03-09T21:23:36Z")
To us, it just seemed a bit half-arsed compared with"Hand of Doom" or “Iron Man” or any of those heavier numbers. But fucking hell it was catchy: I was humming it all the way home from the studio. “I AM OZZY” autobiography of the prince of fuh king darkness ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/26 "2010-03-09T21:24:23Z")
“We went into the ballroom where light blazed down from three cut glass chandeliers and was reflected dazzlingly from the cream and gold, many-mirrored walls.” _All Creatures Great and Small_, by James Herriot ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/27 "2010-03-09T21:24:26Z")
This is pretty funny considering my user name. No more red-skinned demons carrying fire out of Canada; no more stern-faced judges reading out the law of God; no more endless tree chopping and stone digging for everyone not otherwise employed. Landscape with Reptile: Rattlesnakes in an Urban World, by Thomas Palmer. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/28 "2010-03-09T21:24:33Z")
While on the other side is of the monitor is: “Note that if you uncheck the After Pressing Enter item, Excel keeps the cell pointer in the current cell when you press enter.” Using Excel 2007 Bill Jelen, Que Publishing 2007 ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/29 "2010-03-09T21:24:57Z")
_I couldn’t help it, though._ The Lie by Chad Kultgen ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/30 "2010-03-09T21:27:43Z")
_Si, tengo un bolgrafo gris._ From Arriba: Communicacion y Cultura (I’m brushing up on my Spanish, but too lazy to type up the accents in this post.). ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/31 "2010-03-09T21:27:43Z")
“Some of the topics in 023 have been relocated to 020.71 to eliminate dual provision.” Edition 14 of the Abridged Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index Yes, I’m at work. Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/32 "2010-03-09T21:31:10Z")
Now this is sad, page 111 in my book is examples of first lines from books. It has only **10** complete sentences. So, [Blank] From: Worlds of Wonder - How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy. By David Gerrold. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/33 "2010-03-09T21:31:12Z")
_The available data suggest that Santa Barbara Island played a role in regional trade and interaction spheres, and was probably utilized to obtain a variety of marine resources._ from “Marine Shellfish Harvest on Santa Barbara Island.” by Torben Rick, Jon Erlandson, and Kristina Horton in California Archaeology (Journal of the Society for California Archaeology). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/34 "2010-03-09T21:34:26Z")
“The Swiss reformers believed that it was imperative to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.” A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Present - John Merriman (actually page 112 - 111 is a map.) ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/35 "2010-03-09T21:34:27Z")
“They could not possibly get along upon his wages alone, and the family could not live without hers.” Upton Sinclair’s _The Jungle._ ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/36 "2010-03-09T21:34:45Z")
“He swept out and they heard his horse’s hooves pounding away” From _The Raven and the Rose_ by Jo Beverly, a novella inside _Chalice of Roses_ ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/37 "2010-03-09T21:34:49Z")
“The most pertinent consideration about the incognitum, however was that it appeared to be extinct- a fact that Buffon cheerfully seized upon as proof of its incontestably degenerate nature.” A short history of nearly everything, Bill Bryson ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/38 "2010-03-09T21:39:10Z")
Closest is my thesis which doesn’t count, and whilst “The Oxford Companion to Philosophy” is temptingly near I’m probably going to have to admit that the closest book at hand that I actually paid for is Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy “Bob Smith at Fox News New york. Have you seen the coverage of the incident in Switzerland?” If we get enough of these can we try and reconstruct them into a narrative? ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Goliath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rex\_Goliath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Goliath)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/39 "2010-03-09T21:39:47Z")
“If one of the ‘passengers’ is a blond girl, encourage the ‘Indians’ to kidnap her in hopes of making her their savage bride.” _I Like You_, by Amy Sedaris, from the section “Children’s Games” ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901/40 "2010-03-09T21:42:44Z")
The 11th complete sentence “on” page 111 is actually near the end of page 112, but that’s what I’m going to use. “The histogram of b(x;15,0.4)and the corresponding superimposed normal curve, which is completely determined by its mean and variance, are illustrated in figure 6.15.” _Introduction to statistics_, second edition (1974) by Ronald E. Walpole. I probably bought it when it was brand new and haven’t touched it since, but you did say “the closest book”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grab-the-book-nearest-you-right-now/531901.md?page=3)