A Literary Time-Passer

I was browsing through blogs the other day and discovered the following . . . game, for lack of a better word: 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. This sounded like a good way to ease into my day, so I went to my bookshelves. Because I divide my books by genre (speculative, literary, mystery, children's, and so forth) I took the first novel from four categories (plus one other). Here's the result: Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. It was not a wise thing to do, but I kept on worrying, till an old man came in, with an order for some clothes. She was beautiful, alive and blatantly triumphant. She examined the blade of her knife. Then, shouldering their burdens, they set off, seeking a path that would bring them over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, down into the Land of the Shadow. The sources? Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. Alcott, Louisa. Little Women. Allingham, Margery. The Fashion in Shrouds. Atwood, Margaret. The Edible Woman. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. O.K., so I cheated—the last book is not near the beginning of my bookshelves, but it is one I'm currently re-reading. Via Coyote Wild.