The countdown is on – only five more days until school begins on August 31! The first day of school is always a bitter-sweet moment for us at the Topsham Public Library because that means summer reading will soon be over and lazy summer days are quickly coming to an end. So, to help get our heads back in the game, I thought it would be appropriate to give you all a quiz. Don’t worry, and put your calculators away – no math is involved.
Below you will find a list of first lines from books. Some are from new books, some are from old books, some are from books I read for English class and some are from books I read instead of reading books for English class. You can earn 10 bonus points if you tell me which one is Emma’s favorite first line. (If you don’t know who Emma is, read last week’s post.) The answers will be available in next week’s blog.
1. Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,/From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,/Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
2. The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.
3. 1801 – I have just returned from a visit to my landlord – the solitary neighbor that I shall be troubled with.
4. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
5. Call me Ishmael.
6. The primroses were over.
7. Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
8. It was the day my grandmother exploded.
9. There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
10. My mother’s name was Mercy Stone Goodwill.
11. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition, and Astrology.
12. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
13. Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.
14. You better not never tell nobody but God.
15. The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.
Do you ever find yourself in need of a book suggestion? Of course you do, we all do. Sometimes it’s hard knowing what book to try next. I find it especially hard after finishing a good book – nothing else quite matches up.
