First lines meme - an update
Jul. 17th, 2008 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wellinghallNobody has got 1, 5, or the title of 7 yet.
They were, respectively, first published in 1912 (novel), around 1400* (I suppose you might call it a book of essays), and 1992 (novel).
*Oh, go on, tell me I'm mean.
1. Mr Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth - a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centred upon his own silly self.
No-one's got this yet.
2. On December the third the wind changed overnight and it was winter.
Whoops! This is The Birds, by Daphne du Maurier; which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
phoebesmum got ... and I didn't notice! Sorry!
3. High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince.
The Happy Prince, by Oscar Wilde. Guessed by practically everyone, starting withparrot_knight.
4. No matter how hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. First guessed bypellegrina.
5. One day, I was sitting in my study surrounded by many books of different kinds, for it has long been my habit to engage in the pursuit of knowledge.
No-one's got this yet.
6. The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming.niterobin got this one first.
7. There was a boy who lived in a hamlet in Orkney named Hamnavoe.
tree_and_leaf spotted that this one was by George Mackay Brown, but neither she nor anyone else has yet got the title of the book.
8. Roy Tappen was always mildly amazed when the security police passed him through the high steel gates into the tightest of all Britain's research establishments, the Nuclear-Utilization Technology Centre, whose inmates alternately pronounced the acronym Nuts or vilely anagrammatized it.
inamac and others spotted that this was The Leaky Establishment, by Dave Langford.
9. She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.
Andzelanite spotted that this was Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman.
10. Cicely Yeovil sat in a low swing chair, alternately looking at herself in a mirror and at the other occupant of the room in the flesh.
helflaed knew that this was When William Came, Saki's future-war novella / novelette (I never know the difference).
11. The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended.
phoebesmum could tell me that this was 2001, by Arthur C Clarke.
12. His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before.
And kudos toniterobin, who was the first to tell me that this was Foundation, by Isaac Asimov.
They were, respectively, first published in 1912 (novel), around 1400* (I suppose you might call it a book of essays), and 1992 (novel).
*Oh, go on, tell me I'm mean.
1. Mr Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth - a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centred upon his own silly self.
No-one's got this yet.
2. On December the third the wind changed overnight and it was winter.
Whoops! This is The Birds, by Daphne du Maurier; which
phoebesmum got ... and I didn't notice! Sorry!3. High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince.
The Happy Prince, by Oscar Wilde. Guessed by practically everyone, starting with
parrot_knight.4. No matter how hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson. First guessed by
pellegrina.5. One day, I was sitting in my study surrounded by many books of different kinds, for it has long been my habit to engage in the pursuit of knowledge.
No-one's got this yet.
6. The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming.
niterobin got this one first.7. There was a boy who lived in a hamlet in Orkney named Hamnavoe.
tree_and_leaf spotted that this one was by George Mackay Brown, but neither she nor anyone else has yet got the title of the book.8. Roy Tappen was always mildly amazed when the security police passed him through the high steel gates into the tightest of all Britain's research establishments, the Nuclear-Utilization Technology Centre, whose inmates alternately pronounced the acronym Nuts or vilely anagrammatized it.
inamac and others spotted that this was The Leaky Establishment, by Dave Langford.9. She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.
And
zelanite spotted that this was Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman.10. Cicely Yeovil sat in a low swing chair, alternately looking at herself in a mirror and at the other occupant of the room in the flesh.
helflaed knew that this was When William Came, Saki's future-war novella / novelette (I never know the difference).11. The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended.
phoebesmum could tell me that this was 2001, by Arthur C Clarke.12. His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before.
And kudos to
niterobin, who was the first to tell me that this was Foundation, by Isaac Asimov.
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Date: 2008-07-17 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2008-07-17 09:26 am (UTC)I will have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who's half a man
Or the man who's half a boy
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Date: 2008-07-17 11:11 am (UTC)Saki's When William Came is on my reading stack, BTW.
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Date: 2008-07-17 11:13 am (UTC)And the Saki is well worth reading - a very successful foray into the longer form.