Thursday, June 5, 2008

I'M TAGGED...AND THRILLED TO A T!

This is the first time I've ever been tagged and, obviously, I'm totally thrilled...like Alice when she entered the magic garden of flowers!

Mystic Margarita has tagged me and I owe her big-time, because this is a tag that I've seen on some other blogs and had wished that I could also play this tag-game.
Ok, here are the rules:
Pick up the nearest book.
Open to page 123.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the next three sentences.
Tag five people, and acknowledge the person who tagged you .


The funny thing is, I always sit with a book when I'm using the Internet, simply because net traffic moves so slowly (I have a pre-historic dial-up connection) that I always reach for the book when I'm caught in a net-traffic-jam (while it's loading, I'm reading).

At present I'm reading Dorothy L Sayers' Have His Carcase starring her adorable, aristocratic, amateur- sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey and his will-she-marry-me detective-novelist girlfriend, Harriet Vane. Most of us have read or heard about the popular Agatha Christie, D L Sayers was her contemporary crime-fiction writer in the Golden Age (Inter-war Britain). Her novels are much more allusive and erudite (and so, less popular), Wimsey is quirky, self-deprecating, well-read and very, very amusing. The plots are convoluted (as they should be), the setting is always vividly re-created and the Wimsey-Vane relationship is a working-comedy-of-manners.

Though the sentences I'm posting (from Page 123, sixth sentence onwards) sadly do not demonstrate Sayers' wit, tag-rules are rules. Here's Inspector Umpelty (I just love the name, don't you?) detailing the mysterious actions of the murder-victim, Paul Alexis, (a few days prior to his murder) to Lord Peter Wimsey (another delightful name!):

"To cut a long story short, they went to the Seahampton branch of the London & Westminister and got the O.K on the notes, after which Bennett handed over the gold and Alexis took it away in a leather hand-bag. And that's all there to it. But we've checked up the dates with the bank-people, and it's quite clear that Alexis drew his money out here for the purpose of changing it to gold as soon as ever he saw the account of Ann Bennett's death in the papers."

Now, doesn't that fill you with suspense - WHY and WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? As I've not finished the book yet (my pagemark's on Page 252), I don't know the answers myself.

To finish my tag-task, I'm tagging
sidhubaba
nancy
scatterbrain
jyotsana
sayani
Happy reading!

15 comments:

jyotsana said...

hi sucharita what u ve askd me to do sounds very exciting...i m more than willing to do it. it has to b done the way uve done it i understand...but pl. solve the problem coz honestly i do not know what tagging is tho ive heard about it a lot...and i also dont know how to create links within the text.notice u'll never find within the text links on my blog for the simple reason that i dont know how its done. pl help.i would love to do this. but immediately i grabbed the book next to me...strangely its a book written by me...there was no other book around...ive seen the sentences that need to b posted....NOW HELP

Mystic Margarita said...

Awwww...I'm glad you enjoyed the tag :) I am a great Dorothy Sayers fan myself! While I'll admit that Agatha Christie and, more recently, P.D. James make up the top two in my list of detective fiction, Sayers is definitely a close third.

Sayani said...

hey am thrilled and excited that you tagged me :)
Am So glad and happy ?
bt right now i don't have any book around only some maps :(
sorry
but surely i will do this tag tomorrow !!!!
as u have done ...its seems so exciting

thanks dear and stay well

Siddhartha said...

I have the same problem as Jyotsana. I haven't the foggiest what to do!

tina said...

i wish i could be tagged with this one, as well :) reading while waiting for the dialup connection, hmmm. why didn't i think of that? :D

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Jyotsana/Sidhubaba

Since I've been tagged for the first time myself, I'm giving very elementary advice: you have to write a post on your own blog where you do the job that is asked of you.
In this case, you have to take the book you are reading these days, open it to page 123, reach the fifth line, write out the 6th-7th-8th lines and your own comments on the book/author/tag/etc.
In you post, you must also mention the name of who tagged you (in this case, yours truly) and tag 5 other bloggers (write their names on your post AND visit their blogs and leave a comment regarding what you've tagged them about).
To create links, when you are writing any names, block the name, go to the hyperlink-icon (the bull's face icon) on top and add the url of that person's blog.

Hope this helps and happy tagging!

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi Margarita,

Agatha Christie is my No.1, too. I've read all her books n-number of times. P D James is also a big favourite, I love Adam Dalgliesh, and I wish she'd write more of the Cordelia Gray novels.

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Sayani,

Thanks a ton for takiing up my tag. BTW, what was the map for?

Tina,

To heck with the rules (which limits the tag to 5 people at a time). I'm visiting your blog right now and tagging you!

Jaquanda Rae said...

Concerning Calabash, I read Dubliners in my second year of college. I remember writing a paper on paralysis...perhaps I was referring to other stories apart from Araby. I remember a fair and strange persons...vaguely.

Hope I get tagged one of these days. Sounds like fun.

jyotsana said...

hi sucharita thanx a ton...and i have responded in the post.with much affection

Nancy said...

Thanks, Sucharita!
I have just finished my part of the game this morning, posting and linking to five more people through my book review blog (vellum-nancy.blogspot.com -- there's a link to the right of my wine blog, which I hope people could follow, too).

Thanks also for reminding me of the Lord Peter Wimsey series. I tried one years ago, when I was a righteous teenager, and I was appalled at the opening scene in which a woman finds a dead body on the beach and calmly examines the slit throat and all the tendons and things. I thought "yeah right," and put it away. I must try Miss Sayers again.

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Jyotsana/Nancy

thanks again for responding so promptly. can't wait to read your tag-responses.

Jaquanda,

as I said to Tina, to heck with rules. I'm tagging you anyway. Please write a post on the book you are reading now.

Eye! said...

Hi Sucharita! - I have finally managed to find some time to reply to your kind words on my Children's blog; talesfromtheflowerpot :) Thanks so much! I actually thought nobody was reading it, so it has been a bit too dorment for a while but will come up with more stories soon.
What did your daughter think of it?
(I have 2 cats; Kahlo & Joolz)- they're cute too.

Hey, I read about this 'tagging' - what does that involve?? Sorry, but it's all new to me.. :)

I've just finished reading The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier - very very interesting & enjoyable - have you read it??

K.C. said...

OH, I have been tagged by Lady blue in this one. I will have the millionaire book, go figure. I can't keep my nose out of them. EVen though everyone is giving me so much incredible advice in my comments that I should write my own book... KC

Anonymous said...

hi sucharita!

a fun, first tag to try. and yes blogger can be quite confusing with linking and such in the text.

i love strolling through all these new blogs and seeing what people are reading - such good suggestions!

my reading list keeps getting longer and longer! between blogging and reading, i'm afraid i'm starting to neglect my other duties.

PD James has always been a favorite of mine. I have not heard of Dorothy Sayers, but certainly will look her up. And thank you for the visit and the 'tag' vis a vis sweet jyotsana!

fondly,
lady blue