View Full Version : First line from which book?
osarusan
27/08/2006, 2:01 PM
Literature test. (come on guys and girls, how well read are you?)
The following is the first line from which (very) famous book.........
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
strangeirish
27/08/2006, 2:37 PM
The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger.
'In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.'
Anyone?
osarusan
27/08/2006, 3:18 PM
The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger.
'In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.'
Anyone?
Roy Keane's autobiography.
But seriously, is it a novel?
strangeirish
27/08/2006, 3:27 PM
Roy Keane's autobiography.
But seriously, is it a novel?
Ha Ha Ha...........
It's a play.
Roy Keane's autobiography.
But seriously, is it a novel?
Thats what I thought too.
beautifulrock
27/08/2006, 3:57 PM
The Merchant of Venice i believe
strangeirish
27/08/2006, 4:08 PM
The Merchant of Venice i believe
Yep, that's it.
strangeirish
27/08/2006, 4:25 PM
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a
bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow
dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild
morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
-- Introibo ad altare Dei.
????
osarusan
27/08/2006, 4:46 PM
Oh, which Joyce novel is it................
Ulysses.
"The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon."
strangeirish
27/08/2006, 4:58 PM
"The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon."
Lord of the Rings.
Edit: I meant Lord of the Flies.
Block G Raptor
28/08/2006, 11:27 AM
****** *******awoke slowly.
A telephone was ringing in the darkness-a tinny, unfamiliar ring. He fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on. Squinting at his surroundings he saw a plush Renaissance bedroom with Louis XVI furniture, hand-frescoed walls, and a colossal mahogany four-poster bed.
Where the hell am I?
osarusan
28/08/2006, 1:51 PM
And possibly the greatest first line of any novel..............
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
****** *******awoke slowly.
A telephone was ringing in the darkness-a tinny, unfamiliar ring. He fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on. Squinting at his surroundings he saw a plush Renaissance bedroom with Louis XVI furniture, hand-frescoed walls, and a colossal mahogany four-poster bed.
Where the hell am I?
Havent the foggiest idea.
Block G Raptor
28/08/2006, 2:01 PM
I'll leave it for a while to see if anyone else gets it. then I'll start leaving clues hidden in my paintings (Which you'll have to buy from me to get ha ha ha )
****** *******awoke slowly.
A telephone was ringing in the darkness-a tinny, unfamiliar ring. He fumbled for the bedside lamp and turned it on. Squinting at his surroundings he saw a plush Renaissance bedroom with Louis XVI furniture, hand-frescoed walls, and a colossal mahogany four-poster bed.
Where the hell am I?Reading an over-rated book called the Da Vinci Code perhaps?
And possibly the greatest first line of any novel..............
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Oddly I just finished re-reading that novel last night, it's George Orwell's 1984. I swear that book gets more and more disturbing as the decades go on
Alright here's one from the greatest author of all time
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats
Block G Raptor
28/08/2006, 2:09 PM
I was just a kid who wanted to play football but got a lot more than I fcuking planned for when the dream came through
osarusan
28/08/2006, 2:11 PM
Reading an over-rated book called the Da Vinci Code perhaps?
Da Vinci Code??!! Glad I didnt recognise it!!
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.
Alright here's one from the greatest author of all time
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas??
Fear and Loathing is correct, not a clue what your one is though!
soccerc
28/08/2006, 5:58 PM
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.
100 years of solitude.
Rathfarnham Utd
29/08/2006, 2:31 PM
I was just a kid who wanted to play football but got a lot more than I fcuking planned for when the dream came through
Sounds like Robbie Fowler's effort- My Life (?) My Autobiography...or some such.
basically how he nearly won everything except for bad luck and Houllier.
BohsPartisan
29/08/2006, 2:54 PM
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.
strangeirish
29/08/2006, 3:08 PM
It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.
The Bell Jar. Superb reading.
BohsPartisan
30/08/2006, 8:50 AM
Correct!
Block G Raptor
30/08/2006, 10:01 AM
Sounds like Robbie Fowler's effort- My Life (?) My Autobiography...or some such.
basically how he nearly won everything except for bad luck and Houllier.
Correctamundo. just finished reading it. pretty acurate analysis RU
osarusan
30/08/2006, 4:49 PM
"Listen - Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."
Over the post
30/08/2006, 5:14 PM
"Listen - Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time."
Slaughterhouse five
"A child wants to see. It always begins like this, and it began like this then. A child wanted to see:"
Dr.Nightdub
30/08/2006, 9:30 PM
Dunno that one.
How about this:
Peace had settled over the city like the skin on rancid custard. Everyone wanted it, just not in that form. The forecast remained for rain, with widespread terrorism.
osarusan
31/08/2006, 11:20 AM
Not a clua about that one.
Another......but gonna put in 2 lines as the first isnt enough.
It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.
BohsPartisan
31/08/2006, 11:26 AM
Catch 22
A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.
osarusan
31/08/2006, 2:08 PM
How is it people know the lines I put up but I dont know theirs?
Is it because they are better read than me?
Or because my books are more famous?
I'll choose the latter.
A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.
Google is great for looking well read:)
BohsPartisan
31/08/2006, 2:11 PM
Google is great for looking well read:)
I'll have you know I wrote a paper on Pynchon for my degree! :p
I'll have you know I wrote a paper on Pynchon for my degree! :p
Thomas inspired me to smoke dope so the degree went by the wayside. Fair play you are well read:cool:
Block G Raptor
01/09/2006, 3:25 PM
A little off topic but. an ancient manuscript has just been discovered in jerusalem purporting to be the first page of the Bible. it reads "To sadie with love"
"All character's and events portrayed in this book are fictitious any similarity to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental"
Church leaders throught the world have condemed it as a Fake:D ;) :D
EnDai
03/09/2006, 11:24 AM
That was when I saw the pendulum. The sphere, hanging from a long wire set into the ceiling of the choir, swayed back and forth with isochronal majesty.
strangeirish
03/09/2006, 3:00 PM
Foucault's Pendulum.
BohsPartisan
04/09/2006, 3:58 PM
A little more than one hundred days into the fortieth year of her confinement, Dajeil Gelian was visited in her lonely tower overlooking the sea by an avatar of the great ship that was her home
A little more than one hundred days into the fortieth year of her confinement, Dajeil Gelian was visited in her lonely tower overlooking the sea by an avatar of the great ship that was her home
No idea
This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun.
BohsPartisan
05/09/2006, 11:34 PM
No idea
Excession by Iain M. Banks.
Don't know what your one is.
sligoman
06/09/2006, 12:15 AM
This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun.The five people you meet in heaven, unsure about author though:confused:.
Superhoops
06/09/2006, 1:48 AM
The five people you meet in heaven, unsure about author though:confused:.
Mitch Albom
The five people you meet in heaven, unsure about author though:confused:.
Correct , Mitch Albom
osarusan
19/07/2007, 3:58 PM
From the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6906540.stm).
It seems editors at big companies dont know their first lines either. I got 4/10.
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."
superfrank
19/07/2007, 7:40 PM
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974."
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides?
superfrank
19/07/2007, 7:48 PM
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as ******* ***** notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Miserables on it's side blocking his view, but ***** who is with *****&***** and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn the radio up, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so"
Brett Easton Ellis - American Psycho...great book.
"Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know."
"Gosh these hols are whizzing by," moaned Dick peering at the calendar on the kitchen wall. "Only two more weeks left, and then we'll be heading back to school."
The Famous Five get ASBOS.
LeixlipRed
19/07/2007, 11:48 PM
I'm suprised no ones taken the wee and given this a shot,
"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times"
On a more serious note :p
"Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen."
Not a difficult one but topical seeing as the movie is out soon
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