# The Random Book Story Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 17, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003 "2014-06-17T19:15:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HelloKindWorld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e79b87/32.png) [@HelloKindWorld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKindWorld)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/1 "2014-06-17T19:15:27Z")
Alright, this game is played by grabbing the nearest book, opening up to a random page, and posting a sentence or short passage that seems to continue from the last post. So, here goes: From the porch upon the top of the high terrace they could see beyond the stream the green fields of Rohan fading into distant grey. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/2 "2014-06-17T19:18:57Z")
Then we have to hurry to the south and then we hurry north, and we’re talking every minute as we hurry back and forth, and we have to hurry to the east and then we hurry west, and we’re talking every minute and we don’t have time to rest. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/3 "2014-06-17T23:55:47Z")
She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it _was_ my fault. I’d made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn’t understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing. – Rick Riordan, _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief_ [It’s probably advisable to include the source for each quote; otherwise, googling will be a nightmare.] ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/4 "2014-06-18T16:14:05Z")
When he looked over the fence he saw lines of vegetables and soft fruit, and there was an orchard and what was probably a pigsty and, over there, a proper outdoor privy, very professionally done, with the very-nearly compulsory crescent moon shape fret-sawed into the door, and the log pile close at hand so that the most efficient use could be made of every trip down the path. –Terry Pratchett, _Snuff_ My prior quote was from Sandra Boynton’s _Philadelphia Chickens_, ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/5 "2014-06-18T16:45:56Z")
To ensure that the pressure is the vapour pressure, we have to add enough liquid for some to remain after the vapour forms, for only then are the liquid and vapour phases in equilibrium. –The Elements of Physical Chemistry, second edition, by Peter Atkins Well, you did say “the nearest book.” And you do add liquid to an outdoor privy and vapours come out. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKindWorld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e79b87/32.png) [@HelloKindWorld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKindWorld)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/6 "2014-06-18T18:32:08Z")
The thought pierced and pounded Rinaldo, left him pale and determined, and when the visual Rinaldo cast his lot he had two scents mixed in his mind, his wife and the Chesapeake shore. – Hannibal by Thomas Harris (First one was Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/7 "2014-06-20T03:28:53Z")
Green Fluorite grounds excess energy, dissipates emotional trauma, and clears infections. It is particularly effective at absorbing negative energies within the environment. It brings information up from the subconscious mind and accesses intuition. It is an effective auric, chakra, and mental cleanser, dissipating obsolete conditioning. It relieves stomach disorders and cramps in the intestines. – Judy Hall, _The Crystal Bible: A Definitive Guide to Crystals_ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/8 "2014-06-20T03:37:10Z")
I whistled. Then I heard a cry in the grasses up near the white birches. Jean Craighead George, _My Side of the Mountain_ ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/9 "2014-06-20T14:24:26Z")
But for once in my life, I’m getting the attention which is my due. Diana Wynne Jones, _Archer’s Goon._ ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/10 "2014-06-20T15:10:30Z")
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul - a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the lessons of by-gone time are inadequate, and for which I fear futurity itself will offer me no key. To a mind constituted like my own, the latter consideration is an evil. –Edgar Allan Poe, _MS. Found in a Bottle_ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/11 "2014-06-20T15:31:41Z")
Though the Park’s days were seemingly dwindling, its propensity for the spotlight did not go away. Ken Krsolovic and Bryan Fritz,\* League Park\* ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/12 "2014-06-20T22:39:42Z")
Miriam was not the only person who came into prominence over the forces matinee. Noel Streatfeild, _Theatre Shoes_. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/13 "2014-06-20T22:51:47Z")
“Michael?” the President asked. "Sorry, sir. We’ve already given it a code name. The Archangel Michael cast Satan out of Heaven. –_Footfall_, Niven and Pournelle ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/14 "2014-06-21T04:54:27Z")
A dead thing was lying on a beach, rotting on indigo sands. _Tuf Voyaging_, George R.R. Martin ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2014, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/15 "2014-06-22T08:44:36Z")
**ROT GRUB** FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 5-20 ARMOR CLASS: 9 MOVE: 1" HIT DICE: 1 hit point % IN LAIR: 0% TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 0 DAMAGE/ATTACK: Nil SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Non- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: S PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil Rot grubs are occasionally found in heaps of offal or dung. They are rarely found in ceilings, walls, or floors. These small creatures will viciously burrow into any living flesh which touches them, for they greatly enjoy such fare to dine upon. The victim must immediately apply flame to the wound (1-6 hit points damage per application) or have a _cure disease_ spell cast upon him. Otherwise, the rot grubs will burrow to the heart and kill their host in 1-3 turns. _– Advanced D&D Monster Manual, 1st Edition._ ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/16 "2014-06-23T01:01:41Z")
Coinciding with the Prescott Trail, it descends west from Mount Livermore along a stone wall, then turns left on an old carriage road and descends by switchbacks. –White Mountain Guide, 26th edition, Appalachian Mountain Club ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/17 "2014-06-23T20:59:07Z")
They were in orbit, black space topside, but the amorphous boiling cloud of diffuse colors, shot with brilliant lights, loomed below. The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/18 "2014-06-24T16:07:23Z")
Appearances count; demonstrations convince; nationality inspires; politics gets things done. _War, Technology and Experience Aboard the USS Monitor_, David A. Mindell ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/19 "2014-06-24T17:26:18Z")
\*“Along the way he proved himself to be astute, farsighted, shrewd, and unscrupulous, so his enemies would claim, but also a man of indomitable courage, irresistible drive, and ruthless determination.” \* Description of Ben Holladay from Long Day’s Journey: The Steamboat and Stagecoach Era in the Northern West ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003/20 "2014-06-24T19:18:11Z")
Your father went soft. I would have let you starve. The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-random-book-story-game/691003.md?page=2)