Friday 12 August 2011

It's National Book Week

... and - as far as Facebook is concerned, anyway - the rules of the game are as follows:
1) Pick up the book closest to you.
2) Turn to page 56.
3) Copy the fifth sentence as your status (without mentioning the book [which raises some context-based questions about the whole point of NBW, surely?] and also appending the above rules).
A dilemma. Page 56 of the book I am currently reading (The Summer Without Men, by Siri Hustvedt) begins with 'Boris wrote back:' followed by a lengthy - and indented - quotation.

Under normal circumstances, of course, I would not consider a colon an impediment to the accurate enumeration of whole sentences. But here, somehow, it seems to upset the applecart.

Worse still, if I count the colon-ised pre-sentence, the fifth (full) sentence on that page comes out as 'There was no love to my love' - and I ain't having that.

If I don't, it is, simply, 'Boris.'

Solutions sought.

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