Ah, and now Anne has something up I can't resist doing:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your journal with these instructions.

Well, here's the real, honest to God nearest book:

"OK, that's how she sees her job. Next you ask, 'what do you need to know to do that?'"

Not very interesting, I'm afraid, out of context. It's from Thinking About GIS, which has sat on my desk for months upon months and which I really need to read one of these days.

If, however, I could put my thumb on the scales a bit and take a not-quite-closest but beloved book:

"Finally, some deep honker has his last word, and the noise subsides to that half-audible small talk that seldom ceases among geese."

Aldo Leopold, "A Sand County Almanac". (The quotation is actually from page 24; in the paperback edition I keep in my office, there is a picture of Canada Geese on page 23.)

On page 22, the sentence is: "What a dull world if we knew all about geese!"

Indeed.