One of my friends recently started a thread on Facebook called “What’s on your page 56?” She offered this brief description:
Page 56 Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with the book and author. Yay.
I was reading Jenny 8. Lee’s “Fortune Cookie Chronicles” at the time, so I opened up to page 56 and wrote down the fifth sentence, which is actually rather disturbing: “The water in Hell’s Canyon in Oregon ran red with blood as more than thirty Chinese gold miners were killed and mutilated by a group of white men who had conspired to steal their gold and force the Chinese out.”
I love the serendipity of this activity. Here is a sampling of just a few of the passages people posted:
- “‘That boy is not human,’ the wife told the doctor,” from “The Hak’awati” by Rabih Alameddine
- “We are between just two connection points,” from “Brain Rules” by John Medina
- “Everybody has nightmares,” from “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller
- “To get to the truth, Luisa Santiaga told her mother that she would love to stay in Barranca and live there,” from “Living to Tell the Tale” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
- “Virtually every male in America understands something about violence,” from “Guyland” by Michael Kimmel
- “‘He’s dead,'” from “The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones” by Stanley Booth
- “We always had something to exchange –books, articles, tapes, boxes of chocolates he received from Switzerland — for chocolates were expensive, especially ones from Switzerland” from “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi
- “It would just be the corona of her cheeks pulsing to mouth, and my remembrance of her splendid eyes, like sitting in a box the lovely latest in France enters the crashing orchestra and I turn to Monsieur next to me, “She is splendide, non?” with Johnny Walker Scotch in my tuxedo coat pocket,” from “Tristessa” by Jack Kerouac
I don’t know the significance of the number 56, but I nevertheless like this sharing of book passages. It reminds me in some ways of found poetry, which I’ve always found interesting.
What does your page 56 say?
Word on the Street 
“Nevertheless, Lieberman’s proposals were not the last.”
–What Went Wrong with Perestroika by Marshall Goldman
PS. Catch-22 = my favorite book
Oddly enough, I still haven’t read “Catch-22.” It’s on my list! I’m currently reading Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” Such a good book!