I'm picking up a book tag from The 7MSN Ranch blog. I so enjoy the photographs on Linda's blog. The rules of the book tag are as follows:Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next two to five sentences.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the intellectual one:
Pick the Closest.
Tag five people to do the same.
I'm going to follow her lead and leave the tag open to any reader who would like to join in.
The book next to me on the sofa where I'm sitting with my laptop is 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins – a book I am thoroughly enjoying at the moment.
So . . . page 56 . . . fifth sentence . . .
"Later in the evening, we heard them singing and playing duets, Mr Franklin piping high, Miss Rachel piping higher, and my lady, on the piano, following as it were over hedge and ditch, and seeing them safe through it in a manner most wonderful and pleasant to hear through the open windows, on the terrace at night. Later I went to Mr Franklin in the smoking-room, with the soda water and brandy, and found that Miss Rachel had put the Diamond clean out of his head."
I am enjoying reading more regularly now that the house is generally quieter with the boys living away from home. I am alternating a study book with a book simply for pleasure.
The rain has started to be heavy again in Wales with more worries about flooding, so we did not ride this morning. It seems that with the return to GMT from British Summer Time, winter has decided to exert itself. Nevertheless it is fine to sit in the lounge with an open fire after a dinner of roast pork. Good evening to you all.
3 comments:
Naomi Novik, "His Majesty's Dragon", p.56, fifth sentence: "Temeraire [the dragon] generally slept during the heat of the day, while he was gone, and woke again after the sun had set; after supper Laurence would go to sit outside and read to him by the light of a lantern. He had never been much of a reader himself, but Temeraire's pleasure in books was so great as to be infectious, and Laurence could not but think with satisfaction of the dragon's likely delight in the new book, which spoke in great detail about gemstones and their mining, despite his own complete lack of interest in the subject. It was not the sort of life which he had ever expected to lead, but so far, at least, he had not suffered in any material way from his change in status, and Temeraire was developing into uncommonly good company."
Well, that turned out to be unexpectedly apropos!
I think you'd like the book. It is a cross between the Dragonriders of Pern (but much better written) and Horatio Hornblower (but more fun), with a bit of Jane Austen thrown in.
Thanks for playing along, and your lovely comment about my blog. This looks like a great read. I wonder if my local library will have it...
Despite the savage efficiency of their policy of removing the Chinese coastal population, initiated in 1661, the Oboi regents failed to bring Taiwan into submission. They did form a brief alliance with the Dutch to smoke out the last Zheng-family holdouts on the Fujian coast, but two expeditions against Taiwan planned in 1664 and 1665 both fizzled out. The Manchus, after all, were inexperienced at naval warfare and, after 1773, were largely preoccupied with the civil war of the Three Feudatories.
"Kanxi's Consolidation", from In Search of Modern China, Jonathan Spence.
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