OK, so here's how it goes. Pick up the book closest to you on your desk, on a nearby shelf - whatever. Open it to a random page, and type in the first full sentence on that page. Here's mine: "Although for practical purposes in ordinary situations we use language as if it were transparent and as if meanings and intentions existed prior to it, literature, in its freedom from any referential obligation, demonstrates the supremacy of language over all other activities." From "Modern Literary Theory: A Comparative Introduction", p96
"Birds need foods rich in carbohydrates and fats to help them build up the vital reserves of body fat that they need to survive long, cold nights." (Burton, 1990: p102) Burton, R (1990) Birdfeeder handbook London: Guild Publishing
I put the first book back on the shelf, so I now have a new closest book! "The lawyer put it in his pocket." "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", Robert Louis Stevenson, page 60
she bent over and stretched her legs out wide well she was cleaning cat shit of the carpet ..........janet and john ........
Medium-scale theatres would normally be considered as those with perhaps less than 1000-seat capacity, without a significant array of stage machinery, but provided with proper fly suspension systems and orchestra pit facilities suitable for taking smaller productions with cast not normally exceeding 20-25 individuals. (p20-14, Metric Handbook - Planning And Design Data, Second Edition, David Adler)
in this intricately structured listening experience, then, who speaks? voicing the popular: on the subjects of popular music, richard middleton, page 106
And the peanut butter-eaters on Earth were preparing to conquer the shazzbutter-eaters on the planet in the book by Kilgore Trout. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegutt, page 170
Another book: The character and traits of Death were so much like his own, Shafer was thinking as he sped south along I-95. Pop Goes the Weasel - James Patterson, page 220
"Makes yourself appear to be weak in order to make the enemy proud and rash, he wrote" Forbidden City - William Bell
We debated long whether we should pluck them and at last left them to live out their day, which I was right glad of at my return the Sunday following for there they remained uninjured either by cold or wet. "The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth" page 165
"It had begun the moment the Hallowed Travellers had declined to stay in the nearby Shogunate castle of Sakamoto that had graced the area since before Sekigahara, selecting the Inn instead: 'Everything must be perfect!' the Patron wailed, awed and at the same time petrified." "Gai-jin" - James Clavell
"The more we peeled, the more peel there seemed to be left on; by the time we had got all the peel off and all the eyes out, there was no potato left - at least none worth speaking of." Jerome K Jerome "Three Men in a Boat", page 138
douglas suggests that it is the excessiveness of tears, their superfluity to the species and cultural requirements of biological preservation and reproduction, that leaves them free to represent elements of the social order - elizabeth grosz, voltatile bodies: toward a corporeal feminism, page 196
I changed into my clothes and drove out to find them on the estate, the four of us ending up on the steps of the school playground, just sitting together and smoking, talking about drugs that people used to take in the 1960's, the youngsters boasting about all the things they didn't care about. Andrew O'Hagan - Be Near Me
"its an inexcusable violation" he declared. "whoever did such a thing is barbaric" A few minutes after i spoke to Mr Whttleman, Aunt Bet returned with Uncle Philip and took him into the parlor to show him the piano. He shook his head and grimaced with disgust. Virginia Andrews 'midnight whispers'
