« "See? See What He's Done Now?!?" | Main | In Today's Thrilling Episode of "Headlines Featuring Mutually Opposing Clauses" »
In response to all the "book reading memes" with which I am continually tagged, a new book reading meme:
1. Open the book you're currently reading to page 133.
2. Read the fourth line on the page.
3. Put the book back where it had been resting.
4. Tell no one of what it was you just did.
5. Think of five friends to tag with this meme.
6. Do not actually tag them. They are busy and have lives.
7. Go about your life as if nothing has happened.
8. Carry the secret of this meme to your grave.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.scalzi.com/mt4/mt-tb.cgi/97
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference A Book Reading Meme:
» Book Club from Info Breaker
The first rule of book memes is that you do not talk about book memes.
memes, book memes, books
Technorati Tags: memes, book memes, books... [Read More]
This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on July 23, 2007 4:01 PM.
The previous post in this blog was "See? See What He's Done Now?!?".
The next post in this blog is In Today's Thrilling Episode of "Headlines Featuring Mutually Opposing Clauses".
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
Comments (35)
Ha ha ha!
Yes!!!
god, I hate memes.
Posted by Lisa | July 23, 2007 4:10 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:10
Hey -- I didn't tag with you with this meme six months ago. Didn't you not get my e-mail?
Dr. Phil
Posted by Dr. Phil | July 23, 2007 4:14 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:14
"They are busy and have lives" unlike us :)
Posted by Jeremiah | July 23, 2007 4:24 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:24
"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled reading...
Posted by John H | July 23, 2007 4:33 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:33
That is too hilarious... and John H, shouldn't you tag yours with a spoiler warning? ;)
Posted by Jeri | July 23, 2007 4:38 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:38
I must not be popular enough to be tagged with memes.
Uh.
Thank God.
Posted by Kate Baker | July 23, 2007 4:39 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:39
As you say, sir.
To. The. Grave.
Posted by JFargo | July 23, 2007 4:40 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:40
Jeri, I don't think that one line is giving anything away (except for Ron still being alive that far into the book)...
Posted by John H | July 23, 2007 4:48 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:48
I finished the book John H is in the middle of last night, so right now I am not in the middle of any book, so I can't participate. I could have carried that secret to my grave, but chose not to.
However, if the author of this blog had waited 24 hours, I could have not memed and not tagged others with the fourth sentence of page 133 of one of his novels, which shall go unnamed, because he was foolish enough not to wait 24 hours.
Posted by TransDutch | July 23, 2007 4:50 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:50
John H, it is too a spoiler! Now I know there are words! And thoughts! And male persons! And Ron saying those words and thoughts and talking about male persons on page 133!
You have forever ruined the book for me.
I knew shouldn't have gotten on the internet...
Posted by Carol Elaine | July 23, 2007 4:52 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:52
Yeah, that right there may just be the very best meme ever, and the only one I would actually consider doing.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must finish sendin out these chain email letters....
Posted by la gringa | July 23, 2007 4:53 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 16:53
"With trembling fingers, his heart beating frantically - he gently reached for the clasp of her bra."
Nope. I won't tell you what the book is.
Posted by Christian | July 23, 2007 5:06 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 17:06
I thought the first rule of book meme was to never mention book meme.
Posted by Shayera | July 23, 2007 5:16 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 17:16
How did you know the book I am reading is currently resting?
Posted by Patrick M. | July 23, 2007 5:33 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 17:33
Damn John H. I read that on Saturday, and I recall the line but not the context. I'll have to check it when I get home...
Posted by Keri | July 23, 2007 5:49 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 17:49
could offer.
Weak!
(It was The Hobbit. My HP is still over the Atlantic).
Posted by Steve Brady | July 23, 2007 6:20 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 18:20
I think it's finally been proven that the majority of blog readers only read the first 5 lines of any new post!
Posted by Kate Baker | July 23, 2007 6:42 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 18:42
Christian: Too easy, sucka. It's Those Who Trespass by Bill O'Reilly. Right?
A general comment: I missed something. When did these little surveys acquire the name "meme"? I thought a "meme" was an intellectual concept that caused a paradigm shift. These meme-things, while sometimes fun to read and share, are more like what you'd write on wide-ruled notebook paper and pass around a middle school study hall. Which is to say, I wonder how many paradigms have shifted on the output of a cootie catcher.
Again, I'm sure I'm missing something. I'm not the heppest cat in the shake shop.
Posted by Jeff Hentosz | July 23, 2007 6:47 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 18:47
That's awesome - but I can't tell anyone!
Posted by F-L | July 23, 2007 6:47 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 18:47
Why page 133? What is so special about that page?
Posted by Johnny Carruthers | July 23, 2007 6:52 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 18:52
Jeff Hentosz:
Here's what our beloved Wikipedia has to say: "An Internet meme is a piece of digital content that spreads rapidly, widely, and organically from person to person on the Internet. The term is a reference to the memes as virus-like self-replicating packet of information."
Maybe the paradigm shift is due to how these things have taken on a life of their own and how willing folks (including myself, I must admit) are to spread these meme-viruses.
Posted by Carol Elaine | July 23, 2007 7:11 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 19:11
I was about to comment that I would bet a sawbuck that at least 20% of your users were or are reading Harry Potter currently.
Posted by Sean L. | July 23, 2007 7:57 PM
Posted on July 23, 2007 19:57
Somewhere, someone is finding a sentence on page 133 deeply significant and life-changing. But it isn't me.
Personally, I'd rather reveal the fourth line on page 133 of a book that doesn't exist:
"When are the rickshaws supposedly arriving?" Chandra asked.
Posted by Karen | July 24, 2007 3:10 AM
Posted on July 24, 2007 03:10
scene on the raft, and with a pathos that brought tears to
Yeah, it really says that.
You have something against that?! Huh?! Huh?!
Posted by Nikitta | July 24, 2007 5:30 AM
Posted on July 24, 2007 05:30
... Says the man who taped bacon to his cat. You do lead a busy life, John.
However, I'm unable to take this meme to my grave. Here's the fourth line of page 133:
[...] spat dryly. "Blood! Blah! It sticks in the throat. Why can't [...]
Posted by Jeff | July 24, 2007 9:43 AM
Posted on July 24, 2007 09:43
I like the idea of inventing a line:
"She watched in horror as the monstrously putrescent grey balloon floated slowly across the sky and its trailing ribbon entangled inexorably with her innocent kite."
Posted by Anne C. | July 24, 2007 10:05 AM
Posted on July 24, 2007 10:05
And I suppose you expect me to be able to stop after just one line? Aren't you a bibliophile? How could you do that to an innocent reader?
Posted by CJ | July 24, 2007 10:18 AM
Posted on July 24, 2007 10:18
::Don't cream yourself,:: Harvey said, and there were a
Posted by Chris Johnston | July 24, 2007 2:56 PM
Posted on July 24, 2007 14:56
Even if the line is:
quick. Two, because as great as sex is, it's even better when every-
??
OK, just kidding. I read 'The Ghost Brigades' a month ago or more.
Posted by Brad K. | July 25, 2007 2:13 AM
Posted on July 25, 2007 02:13
For God's sake, why are people posting actual page 133s? Why? WHY????!??!!!!??!
Posted by John Scalzi | July 25, 2007 7:37 AM
Posted on July 25, 2007 07:37
August 1, 2007: Headline on Whatever.
Hey kids, let's try an experiment
Scalzi suggests that on August 2nd, all his readers park their cars in the nearest intersection to their home or work-site at precisely Noon EST. Gridlock spreads across 3 continents.
Haven't you figured out how suggestible we are?
Posted by Nathan | July 25, 2007 8:28 AM
Posted on July 25, 2007 08:28
Did you ever watch a Saturday Night Live skit where they make fun of someone like Donatella Versace and wonder if they expect you to know enough about a fashion designer to understand a joke about her personality?
That's how I feel reading this thread.
Posted by DPWally | July 25, 2007 11:26 AM
Posted on July 25, 2007 11:26
Karen:
Personally, I'd rather reveal the fourth line on page 133 of a book that doesn't exist:
"When are the rickshaws supposedly arriving?" Chandra asked.
Anne C.:
I like the idea of inventing a line:
"She watched in horror as the monstrously putrescent grey balloon floated slowly across the sky and its trailing ribbon entangled inexorably with her innocent kite."
Karen and Anne C., you are now required to write and publish these books, with your sentences showing up in the placement as dictated by Herr Scalzi.
I eagerly await these published writings.
Posted by Carol Elaine | July 26, 2007 6:43 PM
Posted on July 26, 2007 18:43
Carol E., I think the rickshaws would strain credulity in my Mavarin ouevre, but I won't rule out using the line in something, someday. However, if the line ever does appear, on page 133 or otherwise, I will take the secret of its origins to my grave.
Posted by Karen Funk Blocher | July 26, 2007 8:53 PM
Posted on July 26, 2007 20:53
For God's sake, why are people posting actual page 133s? Why? WHY????!??!!!!??!
"Rule number 6: There is NOOOOO... Rule 6. Rule number 7..." -Monty Python
Adjust appropriatly. Rule number 8.
Posted by Benjamin | July 28, 2007 1:24 PM
Posted on July 28, 2007 13:24