Baron in the Trees

Got tagged by Joel with the page-123-meme. For the 3 people left on the internet who don’t know: pick up the nearest book, go to p. 123, post sentences 6-8, tag 5 others. I’ve never understood how I’d get to the nearest book if tagged since I’d likely be near my bookshelf with lots of books, but luckily it came at work where I had just one in the bag:

“Quite the opposite to what the cat was expecting, who found itself thrown out of balance, and falling itself. It tried to save itself by plunging its claws into the branch, and to do so had to twist round in the air; an instant, but enough for Cosimo, in a sudden victorious thrust, to plunge his rapier deep into its belly. He was saved, covered in blood, with the wild beast stuck on his rapier as on a spit, and cheek torn from under the eye to the chin by a triple slash.”

A bit more exciting than Joel’s sentences, this is from Calvino’s Baron in the Trees (in Our Ancestors), about a 12 year old who goes to live in the trees to spite his parents and never comes down — VERY recommended. In fact I want to make a movie of it some day!

As for tagging others, very few people I know from the real world have websites/blogs so the first 5 readers with blogs: consider thyself tagged!