The 123 Book Meme

Published on Sunday, February 17, 2008 in the water cooler
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I’ve been tagged by Lee of Tar Heel Ramblings for this meme which requires me to do the following:

• Open the book that you are currently reading or pick up a nearest book.
• Open to page 123
• Find the fifth sentence
• Post the next three sentences

This meme couldn’t have come at any other time, than when I am reading a book in French.

I recently borrowed from my local library, a children’s novel, “Les Mésaventures de Grosspafine” by Marie Christine Bernard.

I have only begun reading it and haven’t even gone past chapter 2. The fifth line on page 123 of the book is part of a very interesting paragraph about a little boy suddenly discovering that he has magically turned into a grown man. So I will post the whole paragraph instead for your amusement.

Extrait

“Soudain, pris par une étrange impression, il regarda ses mains. Mais… mais… Il avait du poil sur les dos des mains ! Et… Elles avaient grandi, ses mains ! C’étaient des mains… des mains de… des mains d’homme ! Il baissa la tête pour examiner son corps. Tous ses vêtements étaient bien trop petits pour lui ! Des jambes poilues dépassaient du bas des pantalons, de longs orteils avaient perce le bout des espadrilles, son nombril lui faisait des clins d’œil entre la chemise (dont les boutons avaient sauté, évidemment) et le pantalon.”

Traduction

“Suddenly, taken by a strange feeling, he looked at his hands. But… but… there was hair on the back of the hands ! And… the hands had grown large ! There were the hands… the hands of… the hands of a man ! He lowered his head to examine the rest of his body. His clothes had become too small. Hairy legs exceeded out the bottom of his trousers, long toes pierced through the end of his sneakers, his belly winked at him from between his shirt (of which the buttons had popped out) and his pants.”

I am not going to tag any one here. But anybody interested may do so and comment here, linking to your post.

Have fun !

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	Kathy	February 17th, 2008 at 20:54:34 EST
	And amused, I am! Wow, what a fantastic part of the story to wind up on page 123!

	Jaffer	February 17th, 2008 at 21:18:09 EST
	It was very timely indeed ! Marie Christine is concious of a young audience throughout the book. She makes the villans comedic and the scary scenes are short enough for young children.

	Lee	February 21st, 2008 at 16:24:07 EST
	Great job with the meme, Jaffer. And thanks for the translation. I only speak one language and some would argue that I have a handicap there.

	peterahon	March 8th, 2008 at 21:02:25 EST
	thanks for accepting my entrecard ad… hey i like this kind of meme on books. okay have several books reading simultaneously but let me use J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, the sentence is: “The night is best: sometimes when you have difficulty in fallin asleep it is because your ears have been reached by the cries of the dead which, like their writings, are open to many interpretations”. have not reach this far i just got the book from the Gwangju International Center’s Library. The copy I have does not have yet the citation of Mr. Coetzee’s Nobel Prize for Lit award.

	Jaffer	March 9th, 2008 at 09:56:08 EDT
	Thank you for visiting peterahon. No sweat about the entrecard. Waiting for the Barbarians is a wonderful tragedy. Enjoy your read and keep visiting !