All Readers Must Participate
Dahlia Lithwick put this up on Facebook:
That is silly, of course. The sentence will explain no such thing. However, I think it’s an interesting exercise, and I encourage you to post your answers in the comments. It’s a fun little exercise that gives people a chance to have a little insight into what you’re reading (or, if the nearest book to you is someone else’s, what someone close to you is reading).
My answer was: “I’m not jealous of Margot, never have been.” (The nearest book to me was one my daughter was reading.)
If we’re going with the nearest book to me that’s mine, the answer is: “If the standards of traditional sonata form are used as a basis for analyzing this movement, numerous deviations are found.”
One foot further away: “In the Adams Morgan neighborhood, black guys would shoot me sly grins and say. ‘Big pimpin’!'”
OK. Two rules.
First: don’t say what the book is. Just tell us the line. In some ways, this is reminiscent of the post where I asked for punch lines to jokes, but asked you not to tell the joke. Somehow, just giving us the sentence is more intriguing. There’s always Google if you want to find out where someone else’s quote came from.
Second: quote the first complete sentence. Sentence fragments don’t count. In a way, that’s a shame, because in the last book quoted above, it means I didn’t get to use this fragment, which appears at the very top of page 45: “even the nerdiest-looking white guys, bow ties and all, would fix on Hannah’s butt and not give me a passing glance.” Not a complete sentence; doesn’t count.
Third: everyone must participate. Even lurkers.
So, what’s your sentence?