Guess the book v3.0

New thread, new quotation:

"Of all experiences in connection with towing, the most exciting is being towed by girls."

- should be easy, therefore a very short excerpt!

Yea you guys were right, and yes its the same book! I'm not sure why they had two different titles, i liked "in a sunburned country" way more. Seemed more creative and applicable to the book. oh wells!

thorolds sounds familiar but i'm not sure what it is, grr..

I want to say Three Men in a Boat, only I don't think it is. I'm going to take a sneaky look at my copy . . . . I was right; it isn't. Could it possibly be Three Men on a Bummel, then? Haven't got that one so I can't check.

Oh, hang on! I thought we were playing the first line game! In that case, I still think it's Three Men in a Boat, but I'm going to have to wait for Thorold to confirm, 'cos I'm not rereading the whole thing!

Yes - you're right, Sloth, and since you also got the last one independently, it's doubly your turn :-)

I thought that might be an easy one to remember, from the sheer oddity of the remark when taken out of context. Probably difficult to guess if you haven't read it, although you could probably rule out Virginia Woolf...

Okay - I can see how this game could be stretched out for years by picking something really obscure so, instead, I've decided to go for a non-obvious quote from what I think will be an extremely obvious/well-known book.

"Technically, if you can get technical about such things, maybe I did hold it for a couple of seconds too long. I do remember noticing how soft and smooth her skin was."

is it from The Beach by Alex Garland?

#7 ROTFLMAO!

alk290 - You're dead right, it is. I didn't think it was going to be THAT quick! Your go alk!

I literally JUST read that book, so I feel I had a little bit of an *unfair* advantage... :)

Alright, I'm hoping this one is neither too easy or too hard...

"Tom woke up, but Tim did not."

Oh! Oh.oh,oh! I know that one! iIREALLY DO!!!!

It's by John Irving. Is it Until I Find You? Or Hotel New Hampshire?

ETA Touchstones but they didn't work.

Or A Widow For One Year?

Whichever one it is it's brilliant. Not Garp?

BOOKSLOTH, looks like third time was the charm - it's from A Widow for One Year :)

Aha - it's me again! Never try to catch out a sloth with a John Irving book. I don't read them; I worship them!

Okay - here goes:

"The eight geese spread out in a line astern, evenly spaced, with him behind."

Is it 'The Snow Goose' by Paul Gallico? Or is that too obvious?

It's a good guess. A brilliant guess! Let's just pause a minute to take a look at what you WOULD have won (caravan . . . motor boat . . .big wads of cash . . . cookies etc. . .) I'm afraid it's the WRONG answer.

King Solomon's Ring by Konrad Lorenz?

Nope. There is a very slight clue in the quote (VERY slight).

Can you give us another quote?

I can:

"They made for the east, where the poor lights had been, and now, before them, the bold sun began to rise. A crack of orange broke the black cloud-bank far beyond the land; the glory spread, the salt marsh growing visible below."

I don't know if there's much there by way of clues but I hope it's at least enough to give you an example of the lovely lyrical style of the book.

You're right, that's lovely, still don't know what is is..(I knew Snow Goose was too easy..)
Is it a seafaring book - guessing that 'astern' was the clue?

No, the clue was that the 'he' who is flying along behind the geese is not, himself, a goose. I'm not sure how much of a clue that is but if you try thinking of all the books you know where something like that happens you'll be on the right track.

Is it Father Goose by Bill Lishman? About the guy who flies around in his little plane with geese?

Nope.

I'd guess 'Fly Away Home', but I think that's only a movie.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, maybe?

is the "he" an animal himself, or are we talking fantasy-type character?

Sorry if this getting all 20-questions. At least i didn't ask animal, vegetable or mineral.

The 'he' is a human being and this book is owned by several thousand of us. (I've been waiting right from the start for someone to guess Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. No, it isn't.)

And, btw, what has happened to 20 questions lately? Must go and check that out.

The obvious thing that springs to mind with a character not himself a goose flying around with geese is Nils Holgersson, but I don't have a copy to check, and I haven't read it in adult life.

If this were the 20 questions thread I'd ask "was it translated from Swedish"?

Maybe it's too obvious, but no-one's mentioned it yet. The tagmash "fiction, geese" brings up a remarkably long list, so it could be all sorts of things...

If this were 20 questions I'd say No.
As it isn't, I'm still saying No.

...Did it win the Nobel Prize in 1909 then? :-)

No, it obviously isn't Nils. I missed your previous post where you said "several thousand". Which is probably about the number of different books that use the idea of flying around with geese...

And no again! So why has 20 questions ground to a halt? Anyone know?

The Snowman? Maybe Peter Pan? I am, as you see, casting around at random ;-)

20 questions, then. Has the character got a broom?

Um, I wouldn't like to swear to it but it's not an identifying feature, anyway.

What book is this from:

"the zipper replaced the button"

#38 Give in.

Okay - time for another clue maybe? This book is considered by many (including me) to be the definitive modern reworking of this story. (And when I say 'modern', we're talking 1st half of the 20th C.)

#39

the book is copyrighted 1953. so technically it is the second half of the 20th century. It did evolve out of a short story from the first half.

david perrings

psst... dperrings... Booksloth is giving another clue for her book which hasn't been guessed yet, not guessing yours -- the way the game works is that we go until there's a correct guess, and then the winner picks the next book.

my bad

david perrings

I shouldn't butt in on my own clues, I know, but that sounds a lot like it could be 2001, a Space Odyssey to me.

ETA touchstones

No worries, David -- it just looked to me like you weren't getting the flow, not like any upsets were a-brewing.

Anyway, I have no ideas about either of your clues, so I'll get back to my lurking.

Booksloth,

Not 2001 but similar type author

Grrr. Never mind - now you have to have a guess at mine. Other than now assuming yours may be sci-fi I don't think I'm going to stand much chance with it.

im working on yours.

david

Booksloth, can we have another quote from yours?

Sure can. Does it need to be a consecutive quote or should I find something with a clue in it?

Oh, I don't care! I was just getting lost with the 20 questions... :)

Okay - bit more of a clue here then -

"The education of any civilized gentleman in those days used to go through three stages, page, squire, knight, and at any rate the _____ had been through the first two of these."

I think that might give it away but, just in case it doesn't here's another clue. The book is actually a trilogy though I think it's more frequently sold as a single volume these days. (My copy is a single volume.)

Ok stab in the dark. Booksloth, is it a reworking of the Icarus story?

Oh no. (I am looking sooooo smug here)

It's a kid-oriented retelling, yes?

It's the retelling of a story (or group of stories) that have been fashioned to suit both children and adults alike. I would say the version you're looking for is an adult one.

Is it a reworking of King Arthur? Perhaps The Once and Future King which I think was written in multiple parts.

I was thinking the same thing dreamlikecheese, but I'm not even sure how we went from flying with geese to page, squire, knight reference!

Hooray! You got it Cheese! Even I was getting fed up with that one! Now if you'd like to go and sort out the First Line Game and 20 Questions I'll be able to go to bed at a sensible time tonight. (I'm just about to walk the dog, though, so don't expect any answers for the next hour or so!)

Yay! I kind of got it at Page, Squire, Knight, but I couldn't remember whether The Sword in the Stone was part of TOaFK or the reverse. I'm glad someone on slightly more solid ground came up with it!

Ok i will try this again since i do not see another at the moment.

What book is this from:

"the zipper replaced the button"

Sorry it took me so long to get back. The devil sleep got me!

I have no idea about dperrings' one, but as I managed to solve Booksloth's one I'll post a line up.

"He had known for a long time that he was predestined to make a widow happy, and that she would make him happy, and that did not worry him. On the contrary: he was prepared. After having known so many of them during his incursions as a solitary hunter, ___ ___ had come to realise that the world was full of happy widows."

ooh, how racy!

Oh I say, good guess! Assuming Cheese has now gone to bed, I just checked
my copy and I'm afraid you're wrong, but if there was any justice in the world you should have been right IMO.

This thread is developing a strange surreal quality - googling the first phrase of #61 gives, sure enough, LITTOC.
What is wrong, Booksloth? Is Cheese really asleep? Have all the buttons been replaced by zippers? Does anyone know?

you googled the phrase?
I'm speechless!
Isn't that cheating?

Could it be that Sloth is still mixed up between this and the first line game?

Sounds likely, because it was indeed Love in the Time of Cholera. Well guessed!

Looks like you're up aces!

Thorlod, you're right! I was checking for the first line. Sorry I confused everyone, but please take comfort from knowing you're nowhere near as confused as I am. (You didn't really think I'd judst read through the whole book to check, though, did you?)

Maybe!

In keeping with the raciness, here goes:

"In my case, the pleasures of lovers which we shared have been too sweet - they cannot displease me, and can scarcely shift from my memory. Wherever I turn they are always there before my eyes, bringing with them awakened longings and fantasies which will not even let me sleep. Even during the celebrations of the Mass, when our prayers should be purer, lewd visions of those pleasures take such a hold upon my unhappy soul that my thoughts are on their wantonness instead of on prayers."

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise By Peter Abelard, Heloise, Betty Radice, M. T. Clanchy

Your turn dperrings.
I should have found a harder passage!

I am still stuck on this one

What book is this from:

"the zipper replaced the button"

I will post a new clue though in a little bit

david

That isn't even a complete sentence. And I'm sure there are several histories of clothing that might contain that fragment.

Im sorry, it should have been:

The zipper displaces the button

I remember that line from somewhere! It struck me as suck an interesting turn of phrase...

I just can't remember where I read it!

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller?

no but i will give you the rest of the line:

The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour.

Man...I've read this too. It sounds really familiar.

Is it Fahrenheit 451?

very good.

your up

david

"I remained unconvinced - feeling that there was something wrong somehow with our entire system - until I returned home after Grey's visit with me at the office and learned that your mother had received a phone call. A simple and brief phone call in which someone quietly informed her that two funeral masses would be reserved in the next week at St. Joseph's church. For her husband and son. Her punishment was that she would be allowed to live..."

Wow! I have no idea what that is but I can't wait to find out!

i will guess Vanity Fair by Thackeray

That'll be the Vanity Fair that was written 30 years before the invention of the telephone then? (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

Not Vanity Fair.

"He could be a doctor, he had a kindly face although sometimes his eyes were strange. The eyes stared at him occasionally as if the doctor - if that's what he was - were looking down the barrel of a gun, taking aim at him. He felt like a target."

ok on this one I throw in the towel.

david

I feel like I know this one. And I'm pretty sure it's not 1984, but the Doctor quote has a similar sort of creepy penetrating eyes behind the face everyone's supposed to trust vibe. (And anyway, it sounds American.)

I don't know where the quote's from but I'm eager to find out. Sounds good!

It's not 1984.

Here's a hint: it's a classic YA book. Frequently banned.

"Who am I? _____ ______. Two words, that's all. He was oozing perspiration, floating in his own body fluids, the pajamas soaked with sweat. Lie still. Lie still, lie still and the panic will pass. That's what they told him and sometimes the panic passed. But only with a pill and, some desperate nights, with a shot, the needle bringing peace at last."

Catcher in the Rye?

The Chocolate War?

Nope!

"Early in the evening on Thursdays she would disappear into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. ________ was cautioned not to use the telephone at that hour. "Your mother's special telephone hour," his father had explained a long time ago. ________ had accepted the explanation without question and telephone hour became part of the fabric of the household."

This book is frequently banned because of its bleak message, as well as its use of the word "breasts."

sollocks, you are extremely close.

Is it Evelyn Waugh? The Guy Crouchback trilogy?

I am the cheese by the same author as the Chocolate War

OH geez, now it's driving me nuts. I'm in a Cormier mindset at the moment. It's not We All Fall Down is it?

I don't think it is, but it's a try. I'm remembering these vaguely having read them a long time ago.

Heh, it actually is I am the Cheese. You almost had it, sollocks, but dperrings beat you to it.

It's a great book. You are never too old for YA lit that good.

i am taking a break, I am the Cheese wore me out. If someone else wants to post a passage go ahead.

I give in,

here is another

"So slurred was the accompanist's speech that it took even Gen a minute to recognize the language."

I will add a little more

"So slurred was the accompanist’s speech that it took even Gen a minute to recognize the language. The Swedish he knew was mostly from bergman films. He had learned it as a college student, matching the subtitles to the sounds. In Swedish, he could only converse on the darkest of subjects."

Bel Canto!

that was painless.

your up.

david

Only read it about a fortnight ago!

"He was so human, and a youth of all but monastic seclusion had prepared her to love the man who aimed with frank energy at the joys of her life. A taint of pedantry would have repelled her."

Madame Bovary?

Non. (I see what you mean though. Should be, shouldn't it.)

Middlemarch?

I'm sure there's a very similar statement somewhere near the beginning of Madame Bovary when Charles first meets Emma. Anyway, don't we get another clue when someone makes a wrong guess? (In other words, I'm determined to work this one out but the first passage is giving me nothing!) :)

New Grub Street by George Gissing

It is indeed New Grub Street!

"I was trying to remember what birds did before there were telephone wires."

The following is a line from a pulizer prize winning novel:

"I was trying to remember what birds did before there were telephone wires."

what is it?

The following is a line from a pulizer prize winning novel:

"I was trying to remember what birds did before there were telephone wires."

what is it?

This is kind of out there, but I need another clue so here's a guess:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon?

ok here is another passage from the book, so keep guessing.

"Those kind Boughton brothers and sisters would be ashamed
of the wealth of their lives beside the seeming poverty of Jack's life,
and he would utterly and bitterly prefer what he had lost to everything they had.
That is not a tolerable state of mind to be in, as I am well aware."

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence?

No not Sons and Lovers

But Lawrence?

no,
a recent pulizer prize novel

It's not The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is it?

nope

Gilead :)

March?

finally we have a winner, it is Gilead !!!!!!!!!!!!

Severn you are up.

Right then, here goes:

'Annawake has given up the pretense of fishing. Nothing down there is hungry, and to be honest, neither is she; it seems reasonable to call a truce. She swirls her legs in the water, watching the reflected stars tremble in each other's company...She tries not to think how long it has been since she was hugged by someone who wasn't a relative.'

Pigs in Heaven?

Yes indeedy! :)

"An excursion on horseback had been arranged for the next day, to two old groups of rocks, called the Angel's Chair and the Devil's Chair, which crowned the moor-like hills looking into Wales, ten miles away."

St. Mawr
by D.H. Lawrence

You got it, dperrings! Take it away!

This is an excerpt from a recent novel (a ten year span being recent)

"Inhabited desolate places posses certain vitality not found in lusher climates. Mountain people had always been the most spirited in every culture. Life was both given and taken away. Natural disasters were frequent providing a constant reminder that nothing in life is permanent."

It doesn't really sound right for style but could be for content - Saving Fish From Drowning?

another part of the world and a different author.

So, just about as wrong as it's possible to be then eh?

well i do not know about that, but there aren't any fish that need to be save from drowning.

I know there is still out there and it should not be that hard but i will add another. It is a two part problem.

The first part should be easy and the second part ????

he goes

the excerpt from the book is

I am born. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born, as I have been informed and believe on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry simultaneously.

Now for the second part

what movie was this line quoted in ?

David Copperfield! Can't help with the movie though.

David Copperfield and one of the 97 film adaptations of David Copperfield?

the movie was a non- dickens movie,

was made in the 60's

and the movie was a film adaptation of a book by a 20th cent. author.

I'm pretty certain it's quoted in Fahrenheit 451 - the book. Was it also in the film?

ETA - touchstones

it is in the movie, i donot remember if it is in the book.

Does that mean I got it right? I just checked my copy and you're right about it not being in the book (unless I missed it) - maybe I was confusing the book and the movie.

yes you got it right.

I liked the book Fahrenheit 451 better then the movie. However the movie had some interesting details in it. Like the comics with out words, the flat screen tv and the antiquated telephones. Also in the movie you saw numbers but no text.

Is that right? I never really watched it that closely. Now I want to see it again.

Okay - which game are we on?

Right - the quotation thing. Just a sec . . .having a look.

How about this - there's a BIG clue:

"It gets to be a question of counting steps. When you are a human you can count left right left right, but with four feet left hop right hop, it's not so straightforward."

I Am a Cat?

The Once and Future King?

I'm just thinking of that part where he gets turned into various animals...

#146 No

#147 Where were you when we needed you, Weener! (see 16 - 56)

No - neither of those.

Dang it! In my defense, it has been more than a decade since I read it.

Hmm... it's obviously not Metamorphosis, as there aren't enough legs. I am a sloth would be fitting, but I've never seen a sloth hopping. Could it be Watership Down?

I thought that rabbits could only count up to five anyway.

It sounds the sort of thing that Eeyore might have said, gloomily.

It's not Metamorphosis, Watership Down or any of the Pooh books. I'll give a few more clues as I've just checked out the numbers and found that far fewer people own this book than I would have expected. So . . . It's a fairly recent book - and it touches on a major man-made tragedy that took place in the eighties (unbelievably, for me - I would have sworn it was only about 10 years ago).

ETA - Thorold - are you talking about my autobiography there?

Animal's People by Indra Sinha?
Strangely enough I just started that book this morning. I haven't gotten to that quote yet, but it centainly fits. Particularly with the added clue of the major tragedy.

You got it, vegetrendian! Hope you enjoy the rest of the book. You're up!

Sorry for the delay folks.
Here's your quote:
"Down in the basement, at the eastern end of the Ping-Pong table, ______ was unpacking a Maker's Mark whiskey carton filled with Christmas-tree lights. He already had the prescription drugs and an enema kit on the table. He had a sugar cookie freshly baked by ____ in a shape suggestive of a terrier but mean to be a reindeer. He had a Log Cabin syrup carton containing the large colored lights that he'd formerly hung on the outdoor yews. He had a pump-action shotgun in a zippered canvas case, and a box of twenty-gauge shells. He had rare clarity and the will to use it while it lasted."
A long quote so I culled the names. Good luck!

The corrections by jonathan franzen, yes?

This is a bit random, but the books are fun. Probably either you'll know it right away or not at all..

"Outworldy I was worry-free, but inside I was more nervous. A chuck of burning Camembert on your doorstop meant only one thing: a warning from the Swindon Old Town Cheese Mafia - or, as they liked to be known, the Stiltonistas."

It has to be one of the Thursday Next books, but I'm not sure which one. Is it The Eyre Affair?

hahaha i knew the swindon would make it too obvious! no its not that one.. :)

First Among Sequels?

Yes, I'm itching to join in with the others but I think this one has to be Cheese's - you've made it too easy for the rest of us. Go for it!

Well, I'll list the other 3, just so I know I got it.
Well of Lost Plots?
Lost in a Good Book?
Something Rotten?

It has to be one of the ones I mentioned. I'm just disappointed in myself that I can't narrow it down further!

I will return with a quote very soon...

"From time to time his mother asks him if he has a new girlfriend. In the past she broached the topic defensively, but now she is hopeful, quietly concerned. She even asks once whether it is possible to patch things up with Maxine.When he points out to her that she had disliked Maxine, his mother says that that isn't the point, the point is for him to move on with his life."

The Glass Menagerie?

Nope. Another quote for you.

"The baby, a boy, is born at five past five in the morning. He measures 20 inches long, weighs seven pounds nine ounces. ___'s initial glimpse, before the cord is clipped and they carry him away, is of a creature coated with a thick white paste, and streaks of blood, her blood, on the shoulders, feet, and head."

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri?

The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing?

twomoredays has it! The Namesake it is. Your turn.

oh cheese, it was your second choice :) I just finished it so I happen to have it on my lap when it was my turn. how very apt that you with your name guessed the quote!

Precisely. It was destiny.

I hope a little profanity won't offend..

"When I don't answer, she says, "Who was the last guy you felt like you could bring to a wedding?"

I know she's not asking a question so much as trying to broach the subject of my unsocial life. But I say, "That French guy I went out with."

"I forgot about him," she says. "What was his name again?"

"Fuckface," I say.

"That's right," she says.

In Her Shoes? by Jennifer Weiner?

Nope. Here's another quote:

My father was out playing tennis and without him present, I felt free to add a subversive, "We used to go to Nantucket."

"Nantucket is lovely," Julia said.

"It is lovely," my mother conceded, but went on to cite drab points in New Jersey's favor, based on its proximity to our house in Philadelphia.

In the last of our New Jersey versus Nantucket debates, I'd argued, forcefully I'd thought, that Camden was even closer. I'd almost added that the trash dump was practically in walking distance...

Girls guide to hunting and fishing ?

I can't believe that i have missed this thread for ages, and come back to a book that I just happen to be currently reading.

If i'm right. if not, boy is my face red.

That's it MrAndrew!

Your turn.

cool!
*scrambles for a random quote*

"The dead did not frighten her, nor crowds. Crowds of the dead did."

so, no guesses. I was afraid that this might be a little obscure. Here are some hints, and i'll continue the quote if no-one guesses it tonight.

* sci-fi
* author is not american
* written in the last 15 years
* in my library ( i don't mind people checking)
* less than 200 LT members (sorry again)

Okay, I can totally tell I'm bored at work when I've just spent the past 45 minutes checking out your library MrAndrew...I'll hope I'm guessing the right one since I've never actually read any of the potential books :)

Terminal Cafe by Ian McDonald.

bing! we have a winner. over to you lady_perrin!

Okay... here's my quote for the game:

"One day, perhaps, a woman might become president, and ______ thought that this would be even better, provided, of course, that the lady in question had the right qualities of modesty and caution."

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency?

Close...very close :)

Tears of the Giraffe?

we're definitely on the right series ;) but not quite at the right book...

Morality for Beautiful Girls?

I peeked. It's the only other book in your library from that series.

That's fine that you checked out my library but I should have warned you, I'm a bit of slacker when it comes to making sure my library online actually matches my physical library.... on the bright side we are getting closer the actual book :)

Okay now at least for the series my online bookshelf matches my physical library

Ah, well, given the gender related quote, I think I have slightly more than a 50/50 chance with The Kalahari Typing School for Men.

I'm going to hazard another guess in case abbottthomas isn't right... The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs?

Is it Morality for Beuatiful Girls? (Frickin' touchtones!)

sorry, none of those are right - so close, abbottthomas... so close...

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies?

The Full Cupboard of Life is the only one left in your library, isn't it? That's my guess. ;-)

Good guess, weener but abbottthomas is the winner.

Abbottthomas, you're up next!

Whoopee!

How about -

"No, I'm a romantic - a sentimental person thinks things will last - a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't."

Wait, I think I know this one --

Fitzgerald -- This Side of Paradise?

Well done, Ceinwyn79. Right first time. Your turn.

Thanks! I do love my Fitzgerald.

This is one of my favorites:

"You called me a creature of civilization, or something, didn't you?" she said, breaking a silence. "It was very odd you should have done that… because it is provokingly wrong. I am a sort of negation of it."

J G Ballard's The Drowned World?

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy?

Moibibliomaniac, you got it -- Jude the Obscure it is!

Your turn!

I hope this one isn't too hard. First hint: it's nonfiction.

"I watch as my mother is born at the army base where Gramps is stationed; my grandmother is Rosie the Riveter, working on a bomber assembly line; my grandfather sloshes around in the mud of France, part of Patton's army."

Dreams From My Father

Edit to get the touchstone.

You got it. Your turn TadAD!

OK, here's one:

"For it is the dawn that has come, as it has come for a thousand centuries, never failing. But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret."

hmm, a few days without so much as a nibble. Here's a random guess so we can get more hints/quotes:

Of Human Bondage

That writing style is so familiar! I don't know if I have read this particular book, but I am sure I have read something by this author. I will wait for the next hint.

Sorry, I was away for the weekend.

Nope, not Of Human Bondage.

Hints...hmmm...the quote above is the last line of the book. The work was somewhat novel (no pun intended) in that it did not use quotation marks.

No quotation marks, eh? Sounds like Jose Saramago.

Was it Blindness?

Nope, not Blindness.

Think about 50 years earlier, both publicly and critically successful.

If it was 50 years earlier, it must not have been Saramago, hm. Hmmmmmmmm....

4: Had the distinction of being banned in some places.
3: Not obscure...it was very successful with both the reading public and critics.
2: Published mid-20th century.
1: Did not use quotation marks.

Cry, the Beloved Country

You got it!

Your turn.

"Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw, clawing or biting it from the living animal, just as they do in Abyssinia to this day."

Hmmm, is it Secret Ingredients? I'm not near my copy to check if this was one of the essays in it, but I'm fairly certain that passage is in something I own.

You're on the right track, but it is not from Secret Ingredients. The quotation is from a piece about a particular kind of food. The manuscript of this piece is in the Morgan Library and Museum. I will accept the name of the piece or the name of the book which contains the piece.

Bah, the Morgan Library hint cuts out what would have been my next guess (The Man Who Ate Everything). I shall be home from work in an hour or so and can see I'm going to be poking around my shelves. :-)

#217 TadAd
You do not have the book listed on Library Thing.
Another clue: the author died from a fall.

I just recently joined LT and only have about 50% of my books entered so far. I was naive enough to think, "Oh, I'll just enter everything quickly and then go back to reading." Foolish, foolish boy....

The clue about the fall doesn't help offhand as the only author that immediately invokes is Octavia Butler.

However, I'm not pessimistic about getting this one. The fact that it struck a chord...and on the right type of topic, too...makes me hopeful. Of course, someone else will probably get there first. :-)

More clues:

This particular piece first appeared in print in September 1822.

All 28 pieces of ..um..."the author" were first published in book form in 1823.

Ah, now I am home.

And, sitting among the un-LibraryThinged trade paperbacks, I find The Essays of Elia and the Last Essays of Elia, by Charles Lamb, containing "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig."

You have good taste! Your turn. I'm sitting this one out.

After my next is guessed, I think I shall sit some out, too. Though it is fun, it is also distracting. I could not concentrate today for thinking, "where have I read that line?!?"

Here's my offering:

"The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steam ferry-boat with youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling up some obscure creek to disembark upon a grassy lawn and wear themselves out with along summer day's laborious frolicking under the impression that it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flags flying and cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean, in many a strange clime and in many a land renowned in history!"

As a clue, I shall offer up a quote from the author's preface: "This is a record of a pleasure trip. If it were a record of a solemn scientific expedition, it would have about it that gravity, that profundity, and that impressive incomprehensibility which are so proper to works of that kind..."

The innocents abroad?

Wonderful! Your turn.

Sorry for holding the thread up! Mark Twain must be the only writer who could bring together youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts in one sentence.

This one is from a book I haven't heard mentioned for a long time, but I think there are so many clues in the quotation that you'll be able to guess it even if if you've forgotten all about the book.

"In my opinion, ____ said, raising his voice a little like a monitor in a noisy classroom, "he may well be the greatest thing to happen in Africa since Schweitzer, and Schweitzer after all is a protestant."

The Power of One?

>228 weener:

No, but I can see where you're going with that. The public school simile in the quotation is maybe a bit of a red herring - it could be a clue to the author, but it's not so relevant to the book itself.

Disgrace by JM Coetzee?

No. Another quotation:

"My name is Q____," he introduced himself, speaking in an accent which C_____ could not quite place as French or Flemish any more than he could identify the nationality of the name.
"Doctor C___," he said. "Are you stopping here?"
"The boat goes no further," the man answered, as if that were indeed the only explanation.

Cry, the beloved country?

If I'd remembered that it was Nelson Mandela's birthday, I probably would have picked a South African book. But I didn't! :-)

A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene?

Yes - well done: I was thinking I'd have to include a reference to leprosy before anyone got it. Your go, hemlok.

Here we go:

"It seemed as though there were before him a solid wall of darkness that impeded him and suffocated him and made him mad."

Sounds a bit Poe-ish - The Pit and the Pendulum?

Nope.

A new quote would rock, but I have a guess. Is it by H.P. Lovecraft?

Nope, but here is another quote.......

"They were fresh, blond, slow-speaking people, revealing themselves plainly, but slowly, so that one could watch the change in their eyes from laughter to anger, blue, lit-up laughter, to a hard blue-staring anger; through all the irresolute stages of the sky when the weather is changing."

Oh dear, it does sound like something I ought to recognise. I'd have gone for Poe as well, I think, but the second quote makes it look a little bit more modern - maybe H.G. Wells? Could it be from The time machine?

No.................Here's another with a little more hint in it.

"Whenever one of the B_________s in the fields lifted his head from his work, he saw the church-tower at Ilkeston in the empty sky."

The Rainbow?

Bingo, TadaD! Take it away!

>244 hemlokgang:
Aaagrgh! - it was something I ought to recognise :-(

"I tried to tell myself how stupid all this was, a banal story of an adultery which was among the cheapest commonplaces of the city"

You won't find it in my library as I haven't gotten to the books in the study, yet.

Ooo, I think I might know this... Is it The Alexandria Quartet?

Yes, it is...from Justine. All yours.

Can't believe I actually got one (after reading this thread for absolutely ages!)

"B_____ was raised on the Westside, where fear was a dirty word and blood ...... was a thing to celebrate"

It's in my library somewhere ;)

More clues as I'm off home for the night!

Here's another quote:
"Owls and worms, two words you should get into your head , my boy. Owls is dangerous up there and worms is scarce."

Part one of a series.

Duncton Wood by William Horwood?

Spot on sandragon! Over to you .....

This is the first time I've gotten one as well. Thanks klarusu :o)
I'll be back soon with a quote.

Hoping this book hasn't come up already:

"I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary - bones, white lead, madder, massicot - to see how bright and pure I could get the colors."

Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Girl with A Pearl Earring?

Oops, you beat me to it Tad. Must mean we are both right.

I'm pretty sure we are. If sandragon confirms it, you go ahead and do the next one—2 minutes is nothing. I've already had a couple chances.

Yup. You're up shinyone.

I'm at work and bookless for the next 8 hours so if anyone else wants to jump in with a quote in the meantime, feel free!

All right, I'll go then after all.

"The Leader and I entered on that hidden road to return into the bright world..."

shinyone...if no one's guessing by the time you get home from work, then go ahead and just put a new quote in and we'll ignore mine. As I said, I've already done a couple and prefer to guess anyway. *smile*

We've killed the thread!

OK, I'll try one then:

"Take an old man's word; there's nothing worse than a muddle in all the world. It is easy to face Death and Fate, and the things that sound so dreadful. It is on my muddles that I look back with horror - on the things that I might have avoided."

Is it A room with a View by E.M. Forster?

It sure is! Your turn.

Yippee!!

"Anyone who is going to die is already dead and does not know it. That we are going to die is something that we know for the moment we are born. That's why, in some way, we are born dead."

That's kind of morbid... sorry

The Enchantress of Florence?

Fight Club?

The Brief History of the Dead?

Oooooh, good gueses, but they are all worng :-\

"He wrapped the handkerchief round the injured finger once more, this time tightly to stop the bleeding, and, weak and exhausted, he leaned back on the sofa. A minute later, because of one of those all too common abdications of the body, that chooses to give up in certain moments of anguish or despair, when, if it were guided by logic alone, all its nerves should be tense and alert, a kind of weariness crept over him, more drowsiness than real fatigue.”

Hint: none of the characters in this book are identified by name.

Is it Blindness by Jose Saramago?

Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster? But I don't think the poor devil in that book had a sofa to lean back on.

Yes, twomoredays you are absolutely correct!

Have at it!

"Our first week we ate Beef Wellington while Mrs. _____ knelt at every doorknob and tried to pick the lock with a palette knife borrowed from the Duke of ______."

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle

Ha!

No, most definitely not A Wrinkle in Time.

No time to post another quote at the moment, but I will as soon as I return.

"Let's start with the end," Mr. ______ would say.
He'd say, "Let's start with a plot spoiler."
The meaning of life. A unified field theory. The big reason why."

I think that one will narrow it down to the author, at least.

I know I guessed Fight Club for the last book, but this too sounds a lot like Chuck Palahniuk. Not a book of his I've read, if it is, though.

Well, you've got the author, but no it's not Fight Club.

Well, it must be one of the ones I haven't read. Haunted, maybe?

I'm pretty sure you're right weener.

Haunted it is. Your turn.

Woo!

"Sometimes you see a kite so high, so wise it almost knows the wind. It travels, then chooses to land in one spot and no other and no matter how you yank, run this way or that, it will simply break its cord, seek its resting place and bring you, blood-mouthed, running."

this is just a guess but The Kite Runner?

Not the Kite Runner.

"Okay, where's the burgler? Hiding inside an old man's skin? Who'd believe that? Who'd believe and old old man was ever a boy of twelve?"

Something Wicked This Way Comes?

You got it, d2vge! Your turn.

Great! I was pretty sure on that one...I'd recognise that wistfulness anywhere. :)

"In the end, all I could remember is that while my lawyer went on talking, I could hear through the expanse of chambers and courtrooms an ice cream vendor blowing his tin trumpet out in the street. I was assailed by memories of a life that wasn't mine anymore, but one in which I'd found the simplest and most lasting joys: the smells of summer, the part of town I'd loved, a certain evening sky, ----'s dresses, and the way she laughed."

No guesses at all?

Okay, well, I'm leaving town tomorrow and won't be online, so I'll have to give up my turn to someone else....

I'm 99.9% certain that is L'Etranger by Camus. I don't want to google it in case I'm wrong but if nobody's confirmed that within the next couple of hours I'll go ahead and check. Or I could probably reread the book in that time anyway. Maybe I'll do that instead.

I'm not playing this round so I'll confirm Booksloth's guess. You're up!

Booksloth, you're right.

Thanks! I just skimmed my copy and confirmed it too! Okay then, how about this -

"He did not entirely reject the idea of going to consult a doctor at the first opportunity, in any case he had made up his mind - and there he could consult himself - to spend all his Sunday mornings in future to better purpose."

I doubt this is right, but that sort of reminds me of part of Strange Cargo by Jeffrey Barlough.

I want to say Kafka........

Don't let me stop you.

Kafka.....Kafka.............Can't get it!

Well, there really aren't that many to choose from (assuming you've got the right author, of course. Maybe I'm just playing with you!)

If you aren't teasing....

I'm sure Gregor Samsa might have considered consulting his doctor (who probably would have blamed a virus and said that there was a lot of it about).

Good try! I used to have that doctor too!

Did I dead it? Or are we still waiting for someone to guess the next most obvious Kafka? Or should I give a clue? Or should I just volunteer another book? Or have you all sneaked away to play in another room without telling me?

Ok. I'll bite. For another Kafka, I give you The Trial. Am I right or still way off?

Hooray, cheese! (Graciously hands over baton.)

Thanks Booksloth! As we seem to be getting a little long here, I'll start a new thread. I'll be back in a moment with a link...

Here's the new thread to keep the game going.