Thursday, October 2, 2008

What on earth is a meme?

A meme is like an internet virus. It's an idea or activity that spreads from person to person, kind of like a chain letter, but without the bad luck.

Janeywan is passing one around that's fun so I thought what the hey, why not?

___________________________________________________________

  • Grab the closest book.
  • Turn to page 56.
  • Find the fifth sentence, (not the fifth line, the fifth sentence).
  • Post the text of the next two to five sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
  • Make sure you choose the nearest book to you, not the dearest.
  • Tag five others to do the same.
    ___________________________________________________________
Here are my results for this experiment:





I picked up The Middle Moffat, by Eleanor Estes, which Slammy just did book report on last night at the computer. It's one of my favoritest books of all time so I was excited to see what the quote would be.


The fifth sentence: Everybody sat down around the shiny round table in the dining room.



Ok, this sounds like a good beginning, I thought, but then...



Mrs. Stokes sat opposite Mr. Stokes. Beatrice sat on one side. And Nancy and Jane, best friends, sat on the other side.
First they had vegetable soup. They ate this all right.



Hmm, phooey, we don't get to hear about Jane's lamb chop dilemma. I had to read the rest of the chapter so I could enjoy it again. I think I will have to read the whole book again. I noticed that Estes uses very short sentences, maybe that's one of her secrets. If I could write like her, I'd be pleased as punch. But could I ever come up with characters like The Mechanical Wizard, or The Oldest Inhabitant? I don't know. That woman was a genius. And so was the illustrator, Louis Slobodkin.



Perhaps vegetable soup should be on the menu tonight.



I'm tagging the people in my blog list, have fun! Or not...

2 comments:

janet copenhaver said...

WEEE and a photo to boot! I have to check out this book.

Thanks for playing.

Anonymous said...

Yay! I luv that book!!!