A book meme of my own
Aug. 14th, 2006 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wellinghallFifteen first lines of books or short stories - just supply the title and the author.
1. "Put down that wrench!"
2. The deck of the French ship was slippery with blood, heaving in the choppy sea; a stroke might as easily bring down the man making it as the intended target.
3. My attention was drawn to the spots on my chest wheb I was in my bath, singing, if I remember rightly, the Toreador song from the opera Carmen.
4. As a teenager, I was a great fan of science fiction and fantasy.
5. The tall and dour non-com wore Imperial dress greens and carried his communications panel like a field-marshall's baton.
6. It was January in northern New York State, sixty-five years ago.
7. A January gale was bearing up the Channel, blustering loudly, and bearing in its bosom rain squalls whose big drops rattled loudly on the tarpaulin clothing of those among the officers and med whose duty kept them on deck.
8. It all began with William's aunt, who was in a good temper that morning and gave him a shilling for posting a letter for her and carrying her parcels from the grocer's.
9. Slowly, deliberately, Starr crushed out the butt of his cigarette.
10. "But if he thought the woman was being murdered - "
11. Watson had been watching his companion intently ever since he had sat down to the breakfast table.
12. One high horn shriled and ceased.
13. There was a village once, not very long ago for those with long memories, nor very far away for those with long legs.
14. Down by the corner of the street,
15. There was a king called Fornjot who ruled over Finland and Kvenland, the countries stretching to the east of what we call the Gulf of Bothnia, which lies opposite the White Sea.
ETA: Again, I have italicised the ones that people have got.
1. "Put down that wrench!"
2. The deck of the French ship was slippery with blood, heaving in the choppy sea; a stroke might as easily bring down the man making it as the intended target.
3. My attention was drawn to the spots on my chest wheb I was in my bath, singing, if I remember rightly, the Toreador song from the opera Carmen.
4. As a teenager, I was a great fan of science fiction and fantasy.
5. The tall and dour non-com wore Imperial dress greens and carried his communications panel like a field-marshall's baton.
6. It was January in northern New York State, sixty-five years ago.
7. A January gale was bearing up the Channel, blustering loudly, and bearing in its bosom rain squalls whose big drops rattled loudly on the tarpaulin clothing of those among the officers and med whose duty kept them on deck.
8. It all began with William's aunt, who was in a good temper that morning and gave him a shilling for posting a letter for her and carrying her parcels from the grocer's.
9. Slowly, deliberately, Starr crushed out the butt of his cigarette.
10. "But if he thought the woman was being murdered - "
11. Watson had been watching his companion intently ever since he had sat down to the breakfast table.
12. One high horn shriled and ceased.
13. There was a village once, not very long ago for those with long memories, nor very far away for those with long legs.
14. Down by the corner of the street,
15. There was a king called Fornjot who ruled over Finland and Kvenland, the countries stretching to the east of what we call the Gulf of Bothnia, which lies opposite the White Sea.
ETA: Again, I have italicised the ones that people have got.
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Date: 2006-08-14 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-08-14 05:22 pm (UTC)Other than that no clue. Though some of them sound very familiar.
MKK
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Date: 2006-08-14 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 04:35 am (UTC)MKK
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Date: 2006-08-15 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 05:39 pm (UTC)12. "The tombs of Atuan", by Ursula LeGuin (though it isn't the first line. It's the first line of chapter one, but there's a prologue. I have to admit that I only got this because of scouring the contents of my book case last week in order to find quotes for my own book extract quiz.)
14. "When we were very young", by A.A. Milne
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Date: 2006-08-14 05:44 pm (UTC)But perhaps it is a mistyping rather than an indication it comes from something else?
*wonders*
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Date: 2006-08-14 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 06:00 pm (UTC)I deliberately excluded prologues etc - but should have said so.
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Date: 2006-08-15 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 12:01 pm (UTC)*runs down into library stack to check out a hunch*
*comes running back*
"Farmer boy", by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is the only one of that series that I don't have at home, so I don't know it as well as the others. The "New York State" put me off the scent. Had it been North Dakota or Minnesota or Wisconsin I'd have got it immediately.
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Date: 2006-08-15 09:28 am (UTC)11. Conan Doyle, one of the Sherlock Holmes stories though I cannot recall which one.
15. This is one of the sagas.
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Date: 2006-08-15 09:55 am (UTC)11, yes - but which one?
15, yes, but which one?
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Date: 2006-08-15 10:09 am (UTC)15. I had to cheat a little on that one. It's the Orkneyinga saga also known as the History of the Earls of Orkney
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Date: 2006-08-15 11:10 am (UTC)15. Well done!
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Date: 2006-08-16 04:09 pm (UTC)Why thank you :-)
It's How Watson Learned the Trick from 1924.
It is indeed. Well done!
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Date: 2006-08-15 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-08-15 01:27 pm (UTC)I'm pleased to say I have actually read at least one book on the list. You have to guess which one, although it probably isn't hard.
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Date: 2006-08-17 04:09 pm (UTC)I'll give you a hint on no 4. Several people on my flist know the author.