"What are you reading?" meme

I obey PZ Myers:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5.Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

I was tempted to look past the book nearest to me, "English Literature, with Readings" edited by Pace. Because I have not read it and don't intend to. But, reinforced by rule #5, I grabbed it. Amazingly pages 121-124 are torn out. What are the odds?

Anyway as commanded....
The next closest book is Time's Arrow and Evolution by Harold Francis Blum, 1951. The chapter is 'Structure And Its Reproduction' and the magic sentence is:

The crystals of most organic and some inorganic compunds are not formed of ions, however, but of molecules held together weakly by Van der Waals forces, or hydrogen bonds.