While She Knits -- Favorite Books Meme

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I've enjoyed reading various people's Favorite Books Meme---can we play it while she knits?

Here's what you do.  Grab one of your favorite books and post the first sentence.  Other people try to guess the book.  Make it as easy or hard as you want.  Remove character's names if you want to.  If no one's guessed it in a week or so, we can all come back here and reveal our books.


So, I might say:

There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.

And then YOU would say...well, what DO you say?  What book is it from?    C'mon, it's an easy one!

Comments

[zumie-ashlen.livejournal.com]

Darn you! I want to crawl through my bookcases now and find the most obscure book I have !

Well, here's one that has a pretty cool opening line, anyway:

I stopped when I smelled the magic. It was strong magic. Old magic. And it carried a faint scent of the sea. And yet I was a thousand kilometers away from the nearest body of salt water.

Well, okay, first four lines. But they were short.

Now, will anyone guess?

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

ARGH ARGH ARGH I SHOULD KNOW THIS ONE.

[faeriemusicsmom.livejournal.com]

Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers, if I'm not mistaken.

Here's one: "The Prince was dead."

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Yay! You got it!

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

The first line of the prologue was too short and general, so I went for the first line of the first chapter and there are a WHOLE LOT of names that would make it obvious.

Six years after _______ returned to _______, and a bare season after he and my twin brother ____ nearly killed each other over which of them should be the king's heir, our father's estate at ______ was destroyed in a battle that began by accident.

And I'm just about to head out the door to turn this one back in to the library, so have a go at this one as well. I'll leave in the first letters of the names, though.

The big groundcar jerked to a stop centimeters from the vehicle ahead of it, and A------ P--, driving, swore under his breath. M---- settled back again in his seat beside him, wincing at a vision of the acrimonious street scene from which P--'s reflexes had delivered them.


Checkers, your line was setting off "You've read this! Recently!" bells in my head, but it wasn't until I saw faeriemusicsmom's comment that I actually went "OMG IT'S TOTALLY STRONG POISON HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT."

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Rosie, your first is A Coalition of Lions.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

This is fun!

"The Prince was dead."

Oo, is that from The Hallowed Hunt?

Here's one for the game (probably not too hard): "After Farmer Flint of the Middle Valley died, his widow stayed on at the farmhouse."

ETA: rosaleeluann, I can totally get your second one, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut now. ;) (And I have a sinking feeling I ought to recognize your first one, too...)

[faeriemusicsmom.livejournal.com]

Yep, that was Hallowed Hunt ("The Prince was dead."). Good call--it's so short, it could have been a lot of things.

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Ooh, fun! Here's a probably easy one:

"She scowled at her glass of orange juice."

And a probably not so easy one:

"On a clear August evening, borne upon the light breath of a fair wind, the fleet was entering Torbay."

[mycenaeth.livejournal.com]

I'll guess the hornblower series although I haven't read it for the second one.

[mycenaeth.livejournal.com]

I don't have a lot of books in my apartment (yet!) but here are two favorites;

"The music-room in the Governor's House at Port Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli's C major quartet."

and this one will be easy

"------, the head of a family of field mice, livend in an underground house in the vegetable garden of a farmer named Mr. Fitzgibbon."

[diadactic.livejournal.com]

I know the second one. The character is Mrs. Frisby; the book is Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH. I LOVED that series as a kid (ten, eleven) but don't much care for them now.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

"The education bestowed on ****** ****** by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living."

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Oh! Cold Comfort Farm! I love that book with a passion!

[(Anonymous)]

Because someone was going to post this eventually:
"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink"

And also:
Tumber Hill! It's my clamber-and-tumble-and-beech-and-bramble hill!

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

I know the first one but I'm going to give someone else a chance to get it first.

Favorite Book Meme

[(Anonymous)]

O.K. I saw this post and HAD to comment...i've been lurking for a while, but this was too good to pass up. A fav. beginning of a book of mine (And my sisters) goes like this: "_____ was a devil. An apprentice,s devil." (The author was my childhood idol)
~~i-heart-sora-and-axel~~

Re: Favorite Book Meme

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Welcome, former lurker! Glad you decided to come out and play. I have no idea of the book, though.

[diadactic.livejournal.com]

Mother taught me to be polite to dragons.

I always loved that line.

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

That's from Patricia C. Wrede's Talking to Dragons. I really need to re-read that series!

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like this! Here's one:

"This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."

And another:

"Let's go fight the girls!"

[kitsune-rains.livejournal.com]

First is "The Princess Bride".

LOVE that book!

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

I'm taking out the place names of this one, because even though it will probably be obvious anyway, I like to feel I'm trying.

But it's truly one of my favorites, so I'll pretend I'm trying.

"In the last days of ___, far up to the west beyond ___ ___ and close beside the great waterfall, there lived an Ape."

(Another favorite is, "It was a dark and stormy night.")

Great idea, by the way! I'm having a wonderful time trying to guess everybody's!

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

I had to tell that story from memory every week to my campers this summer, so I know it extremely well by now!

[annikah.livejournal.com]

"There was a wall. It did not look important."

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

Is that Stardust?

[kitsune-rains.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is a well-known book, so I'm going to give you two lines and all of the names.

"I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world.
My surname is Lu and my personal name is Yu, but I am not to be confused with the eminent author of 'The Classic of Tea.'"

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is a well-known book, but judging by the current guessing frenzy, y'all need a challenge.

"I swim out to them on the murmuring sea. As I reach them, their circle opens to let me in, then re-forms."

There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood. Best. First line. Ever. Especially with what comes next.

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

is is L'Engle?

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Here are a couple I haven't already done at my journal:

I Will Not drink more than fourteen alcohol units a week.

and

When the present century was in its teens, and on one sun-shiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss _________'s academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness, driven by a fat coachman in a three-cornered hat and wig, at the rate of four miles an hour.

[zumie-ashlen.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Umm... darnit I read the back of this book once, I know it! *gnashes teeth*

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

I come back to see if anyone has posted any I can guess, and all the ones I know are guessed already! Sounisians are FAST.

Back to painting my still life... (I will be SO HAPPY when we finally get to use COLORS.)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Ok, I can't help but post this one, and I'll give you two sentences just in case.

It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow.

<3 <3 <3

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

No one's guessed after all this time so I'll tell you that it's from Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

I am embarassed. I know almost none of these. :-(

However, I will get in on the fun:

"Sylvie had an amazing life, she just didn't get to live it very often."

If no one has read this, I will be sad.

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

A very great and good book, that. :-)

Two favorites:

"The man who was not Terence O'Grady came quietly."

and

"The primroses were over."

A long first sentence from a superb book

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

From the Fosseway westward to Isca Dumnoniorum the road was simply a British trackway, broadened and roughly metalled, strengthened by corduroys of logs in the softest places, but otherwise unchanged from its old estate, as it wound among the hills, thrusting further and further into the wilderness.

This should be easy, especially since MWT references this book in 'The Thief.' The author was a brilliant writer, and if you haven't read any of her books you should run, not walk, to your nearest bookshop or library or second-hand shop and buy her books!

Re: A long first sentence from a superb book

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Can't find my copy to check, but am thinking it must be Eagle of the Ninth.

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

"Even great deeds that are done by magic can be forgotten utterly."

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Not sure anyone else has read this book. Hint: the last line is:
"But I'm also pretty positive I made the right decision, the leave it all up to nature...Human nature, that is."

[(Anonymous)]

"My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much."

Absolutely loved this book.

[traboule.livejournal.com]

Is that the dragon book - Pigs Don't Fly?

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

The easiest in the universe:

"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Also:

"The tempurature of the room dropped fast."

Another easy one:

"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday...."

And lastly:

"How can people's lives look so good when they're so foul underneath?"

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

1. HP PS/SS

3. LOTR FOTR

see I am smart because I respond before everyone else XD

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

One from a favorite, and one from what I am currently reading:

'Do not, I beg of you, my lord, say more!' uttered Miss Milborne, in imploring accents, slightly averting her lovely countenance, and clasping both hands at her bosom.

and

The sheep had been brought down from the mountains, because the year was dwindling; winter would soon be here.

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

Omigosh. I just handed the first one to my daughter, telling her "if you don't love this book more than life, please don't ever tell me!" I'll probably give her SYLVESTER or COTILLION next.

I know I know the second one, but I can't jar it out my brain...

[openedlocket.livejournal.com]

Here's one:

From the castle wall, Lynet watched the battle with mingled horro and hope-mostly horror.

Another:

When I was little, the great mystery to me wasn't how babies were made, but why.

Last one, I promise: It was Molly who drew the line.

[openedlocket.livejournal.com]

whoops typo.

mingled horror and hope