The Hill's first Christmas gift

Lo and behold, Mixter has left us a gift on the front porch - a book meme tag! Opening the box to see what's inside, we find a set of rules:

1. Find the nearest book.
2. Name the book.
3. Name the author.
4. Turn to page 123.
5. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
6. Copy the next three sentences and post to your blog.
7. Tag three more lucky souls.

It could have been a pony...

Anyway. Sitting here next to me on the desk is the book I'm reading now, Robert A. Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means Of Ascent. I haven't gotten to page 123 yet, but LBJ was one heckuva interesting dude, and I'm sure he won't disappoint us.

Here we are. Page 123. Fifth sentence. The next three sentences are as follows:

"I have contributed what I could in the way of counsel, but I don't know how much of it will be followed. Most of our old friends are bewildered... my own course in political affairs is yet to be charted. We are giving serious thought to going back to the hill country in Texas and making our contribution to a better world from that spot."

All the best gifts keep on giving, of course, and the three lucky recipients are Beth, who always has some interesting reading handy; Gina, who I've never thanked enough for that music meme; and IrishWalsh, who needs to stop playing with his Wii before he grows hair on his palms. Enjoy.