There was me, thinking the blog-meme meme (is that a meta-meme?) had died … but how wrong I was. I’ve been tagged by Sterling Camden, and as he’s been a long-term reader of VCTB since waaaaay before it was vaguely worth reading*, I cannot refuse him. Plus, he’s a really decent bloke, as far as I can tell of someone I only know blogospherically.

So, the instructions:

“To participate, you grab any book, go to page 123, find the fifth sentence, and blog it. Then tag five people.”

Simple enough … the only problem in my house is choosing a book, for there are many. So, like Sterling, I’ll do you one non-fiction and one fiction.

“Quite likely the problems experienced with early cloning efforts are just that: problems that can and will be solved.”

That’s from The Coming Convergence by Analog editor Dr Stanley Schmidt; think of it as a book on The Singularity (as statistical rate-of-change phenomenon rather than metaphorical techno-Rapture) for older folk who aren’t too clued up about where technology is actually at, where it’s going, and how it got there. With baked-in subconscious Western cultural imperialism, too – but that’s par for the course considering Schmidt’s demographic, and he’s not being nasty about it; just those same old assumptions.

Now, some fiction. Let’s see …

“As Hiro and Vitaly approach the vast freeway overpass where tonight’s concert is to take place, the solid ferrous quality of the Vanagon attracts MagnaPoons like a Twinkie draws cockroaches.”

I’m sure there are few among my readership who can’t guess the book that’s from; I really need to start my re-read so I can do an essay on it for SF Site as I promised. But I still haven’t touched the Masterclass reading list … life is full of tasks and time is, as always, more precious than anything. And here I am blogging a meme. Selah.

But what are memes for, if not for sharing the timesuck? So let’s tag some people who’ll give good results: Niall, Liz, Jonathan, Shaun, Justin, Dr Bloomer and Dr Hocking**. Feel free to pitch in even if you’re not tagged, though.

Ladies and gentlemen, consider yourself smacked up with a selfish gene. Bam!

[ * Seriously, I cringe at my own archives. I only leave them up through a combination of intellectual masochism and an irrational obsession over PageRank. Sad, huh? ]

[ ** Yeah, more than five; but there's always attrition in these things, y'know? ]