February 03, 2003
Opening sentences/paragraphs of ten favorite books
Mer finds the best memes, I swear.
1. Theirs was a land of awesome grandeur, a land of mountains and moorlands and cherished myths. -- Here Be Dragons, Sharon K. Penman
2. The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. -- The Gunslinger, Stephen King
3. The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o'clock. -- Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
4. People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up there as well. -- Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen
5. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. -- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
6. All this happened, more or less. -- Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
7. On September 15, 1981, a boy named Jack Sawyer stood where the water and land come together, hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking out at the steady Atlantic. -- The Talisman, Stephen King and Peter Straub
8. Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. -- Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
9. The book was thick and black and covered with dust. -- Possession, A. S. Byatt
10. When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. -- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
Closing paragraphs of five favorite books
1. Give me your hands, if we be friends, / And Robin shall restore amends. -- A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
2. I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. -- Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
3. "Shhh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they've been waiting for." -- Bridge to Terebithia, Katherine Paterson
4. And it always, at the end, came round to the same place again. -- The Stand, Stephen King
5. One bird said to Billy Pilgrim, "Poo-tee-weet?" -- Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Posted by Lisa at February 3, 2003 07:35 PM |