I'm it.

My assignment (Thank you Jason Evans, author of The Clarity of Night - check him out):

1. Take first five novels from your bookshelf.
2. Book 1 -- first sentence.
3. Book 2 -- last sentence on page 50.
4. Book 3 -- second sentence on page 100.
5. Book 4 -- next to the last sentence on page 150.
6. Book 5 -- final sentence of the book.
7. Make the five sentences into a paragraph.
8. Feel free to "cheat" to make it a better paragraph.
9. Name your sources.
10.Post to your blog.

My result:

(and admittedly, I've cheated and picked 5 books I thought would be interesting. In fairness, they were readily accessible as I've read all of them fairly recently. Also, please, if you don’t want the ending of Cat’s Cradle ruined, please do not read this. The last sentence is probably one of the best, and most revealing, ever.)

Maman died today. It pleased him to set himself outside it, with his little vices and extravagances, as a queer fellow or a genius, but he never had his domicile in those provinces of life where the bourgeoisie had ceased to exist. They were targeted – first by Libyan terrorists, and then by liberal Democrats. Pittman experienced a number of problems, however, and reached only 24,000 feet before turning around. If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

I’ve left the sentences as I found them. The paragraph lacks some basic grammatical elements, but I couldn’t bear to change it. It has a rather comical and surprisingly fitting effect.

Sources:

1. Albert Camus, The Stranger
2. Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
3. Al Franken, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
4. Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air
5. Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

I hope you’ve enjoyed!

For anyone who feels like joining, the more the merrier. I'm not one for tagging, but I'd be thrilled to hear about your results. It's an open invitation.