First Line Game Chapter 10

New thread, new first line: should be an easy one to get us going again, I hope.

They put the behemoths in the hold along with the rhinos, the hippos and the elephants.

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes

Hm-m-m-m you thought it would be easy ?????? ;>)

I stepped out of the house, away from Kitty and into the late late morning.

Hi faceinbook, welcome to the game! Usually we wait for the OP (or another player) to confirm, then the person who guesses correctly gets to post the next quote.

You're right, aviddiva! Looks like I'll have to bump that one up my tbr list. It looks interesting!

Yes, well spotted, Aviddiva - your go - or should we take faceinbook's line?

I'm fine if we take faceinbook's line -- it's good to have new perspectives to guess from!

clue please.

Hey all :>)) New at this, as was obvious.

Clue : Published in 2007 this book's title repeats itself three times.

Well I don't know it but that's a great clue. It's got me wondering now what title repeats itself three times?

I'm driving myself mad trying to force Talk Talk and The Sea The Sea to fit.

maybe we need another clue

A debut novel by a young man who was born in New York and now resides in Berlin, Germany.

Sorry about the "delay"......summer has FINALLY arrived to the "frozen tundra" and I am playing catch up in my flowerbeds.

Tod Wodicka's All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well ?

I am almost sure these were not the first lines of the novel but I might be remembering wrongly and it fits all the clues... And there was a Kitty mentioned in the book.

Yes !!! You are correct and it was not the first line of the book. I misunderstood this game completely.......I thought one was to post the first line of Chapter 10 :>00000 SO, the line I typed in was the first line of Chapter 10. I am going to play along now, without puting my two cents worth in until I know what I'm doing.....for crying out loud.

Good job ! Not a very well known book. I liked it though.

You go right ahead and start a new line......I'm sure it will be a relief to one and all ;>)

Thought that something like this had happened :)) But did not have the book to verify (one more book that I am sure I have but I do not seem to be able to find it) -- something just clicked after the last clue.

OK... next first line (The _____ stays at the place of the name - it is one of those... almost unique ones :) ):

An hour before his world exploded like a ripe tomato under a stiletto heel, _____ bit into a fresh pastry that tasted suspiciously like a urinal cake.

____ obviously hadn't seen the sticker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Do_not_eat_urinal_cakes.jpg

That's a great opening line, and sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. Some sort of (spoof?) hardboiled detective, I suppose. I checked my Ian Rankins, but in vain: I don't think Rebus ever eats anything with the adjective "fresh" attached to it.

Darkest Fear?

>nannybebette

You got it :) Your turn.

thorold,

It is a Mystery series - worth a check if you had not seen it and if you like this type of books :)

>18 AnnieMod: - Harlan Coben is someone I've never tried: I'll give him a go.

You might want to try one of the non-series ones (so you can see the style and if it works for you).

Hi all, just had a message from nannybebette, her computer is causing her some trouble and she isn't able to get on very often and have it work properly. She has asked me to post a line on her behalf if nobody minds.

I don't mind - let's get a line rolling :)

Okay, thanks, new line is below:

1960

The house had outlived it's usefulness.

I think I will give a small clue.

This book is by a female author and I chose it because nannybebette also has this book in her library and she passed on her turn to me, so it possibly could have been the book she chose if she had been able to take her turn.

The Clock Winder by Anne Tyler ?

That's the one, well done.

OK... next one - should be easy

"Having placed in my mouth sufficient bread for three minutes' chewing, I withdrew my powers of sensual perception and retired into the privacy of my mind my eyes and face assuming a vacant and preoccupied expression."

A clue: Debut novel of an Irish author; the author wrote it under a pseudonym and used more than one pseudonym during his career;the novel is written and originally published before WWII.

That's a bit too much information! As you say, it should have been easy - the style is unmistakable. But I didn't get it without the heavy hint, so I'll shut up and wait for someone else to guess...

I guess I had to post just part of the clue - initially I did not plan to include the time period but then decided to add it... Sorry -- next time I will be better with the clues :)

Remembrance of Things Past?

Nope, that's not it. I've never read it but I thought I remembered something about bread... perhaps I should use my google-fu before posting.

>32 moneybeets: Bed, not bread! :-)

thorold,

If you want, post the answer and post the next line (from your message up at 29 seems like you know know which the book is). If noone can get it with all the clues, we might be actually stuck :( Up to you.

Sorry - I think my post 29 might have scared off others who can pick it up from the clues. In the interests of getting the game going again, it's At swim-two-birds - which I should have spotted without the clue, because I re-read The third policeman only a month or two ago.

New line, then (the whole 1st para, with one name blanked out):

‘The cow is there,’ said A__, lighting a match and holding it out over the carpet. No-one spoke. He waited till the end of the match fell off. Then he said again, ‘She is there, the cow. There now.’

(edited for typo)

The Longest Journey by Forster ?

Yes. Well spotted - your go again!

OK. This should be easy:

"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 kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

That's The Catcher in the Rye, isn't it?

Of course it is :)
Your turn.

OK: where does this come from?

"I get the willies when I see closed doors."

Heller's Something Happened ?

Gah. I had thought that one might last for a while....

Yes, you're quite right!

Sorry - just could not resist :)

Next one:
"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo."

A Portrait of the artist as a young man (that one was marginally harder - I had to think for a couple of minutes which of the famous Joyce first lines that was...)

Going right on (probably just as easy for those of a certain age):

There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan Am flight to Vienna and I'd been treated by at least six of them.

"And married a seventh." - I always loved this start of a book :)
A Fear of Flying by Erica Jong

PS: And what age that would be? :)

Going to find something that can stay at least 12 hours... :)

Let's see if this will turn out to be easy:
"I have never begun a novel with more misgiving"

I'm sure I ought to know this (I think I've seen it somewhere quite recently - I hope it wasn't in this thread!), but pennies are not dropping. Can we have a very small clue, please?

Ooh! The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. One of my favorites. :-)

Well done, kabrahamson! - I knew I knew it, but I didn't have Somerset Maugham in mind at all...

New line:

"They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days."

Aha!

That's My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne Du Maurier. We had a big argument about it at my book club....

Yup! Du Maurier produced some of my favorite opening lines in her novels.

Yes, it's a cracker.

How about this one?

"Say a man catches a bullet through his skull in somebody's war, so where's the beginning of that?"

English Passengers by Matthew Kneale?

Yep, that's the one.

Way cool!~!
My turn?

"A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

Belva -

Wild guess here ... but you gotta take risks every once in a while ... East of Eden?

This is a great idea for a thread BTW, whoever came up with the idea and has kept it going for everyone to enjoy.

womansheart aka Ruth

Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

Ruth, you were so close!
AnnieMod; spot on!~! Good for you.
Now it's your turn. Good job ladies!~!
belva

P.S. Ruth; you knew I would do Steinbeck, didn't you? (little sneak)

:) All the English classes back in high school finally pay off (just kidding). Next one:

"The memory of the public is short."

Belva - You could call it sneaky if you so desire, I prefer, "Wow, she has a good memory for what her LT friends have been reading recently". tee hee

AnnieMod - have to ponder that one, though it sounds very familiar to me. Hhhmmmmm?

WH

Ruth;
Wow, you have a good memory for what your friends have been reading recently!~! tee hee right back atcha. Good job anyway! This is such fun!~!
hugs girl,
belva

>#61:
AnnieMod;
Is it an Agatha Christie?
belva

>64 rainpebble:
Yes. Now find out which one :)

I own 20+ Christie books and I can't remember that one. Boo!

Argggggggggggggggg!~!~!~!~! Can't think, can't think.

Some clues: a Poirot novel; had different names in UK and US; relatively early one.

Thirteen at Dinner?

Yes (with the other name being Lord Edgware Dies :)

Your turn.

Yay guessing correctly. Boo working the entire weekend and losing my turn.

I believe that the way the game is played is that the person who gets it right gets to post the next line.

Sanja, I think it's your turn if you want to take it. Ivekilledpeople, perhaps you could graciously concede, or there's really no reason we can't have two games going at once.

The answer to 71 is Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth I believe :)

sanja, go ahead and post a line.

Y'all are sweet. I didn't really mean to cause a scene. I was just overworked for a while. Here goes:

'The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.'

You're right. Your turn.

Tarzan of the Apes?

"My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born."

I am almost sure I had not read a novel starting like this but it sounds very familiar from some of my non-fiction reading awhile back.
Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes?

Yes, yes, yes you are right AnnieMod. Sorry, got busy there.
Your turn.

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."

The graveyard book by Neil Gaiman, isn't it? Haven't actually read that one yet, but seem to recall it from flipping pages at the bookstore.

Yes. Your turn :)

And if you have the chance, read the book.

I will, for sure! I've liked Gaiman ever since I discovered the Sandman books at my local library.

Ok, here goes:

"I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped."

That's one of the Iain Banks's novels. The Wasp Factory maybe?

Wow, you're fast! Back to you then :)

The Sacrifice Poles gave it away :)

"Tell me again why you killed them."

:)) Of course Rankin's Black and Blue - you got the wrong touchstone but the second line was something like this. All yours.

It does seem quite appropriate that ivekilledpeople was the one getting that :)

I'm thinking Joyce Carol Oates under one of her aliases. But that's just a wild guess. Could we have a clue?

just to let you know that ivekilledpeople has been kicked off librarything for offensive behaviour on a number of threads.

I had no idea whatsoever what that line was anyway :)

No idea for this line either :( And with his account no more active, we'll never know. I'll just post a new line so we get the game running...

"I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual."

Noone around or noone with an idea?

It's a first novel in a fantasy series

Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files, 1)

Yep. All yours :)

"In my time I have been called many things: sister, lover, priestess, wise - woman, queen."

gotta be MZB. I'll guess Mists of Avalon.

you gotcha! I had a feeling it would be easy, but I couldn't resist its my favorite book.

I like it a lot too. How about this one: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

That's one of the Narnia books, isn't it? But which one? Hmm. To go rummaging boxes in the basement or not to go rummaging boxes in the basement...

WE crosswrote those posts. I think jnwelch is probably right :)

yes, indeedy. Well done. You're up, jnwelch.

OK, great - I remember Eustace well. Here we go:

One minute before the explosion, the square at Sainte-Cecile was at peace.

That's one of the Ken Follett novels. Jackdaws ?

Bingo, AnnieMod! Nicely done. Your turn.

It was Sainte-Cecile that triggered a memory and then I just had to place it in the proper novel. Got lucky.:)

Next one:

"It was that curious time, neither day nor night, not even properly dusk, the light beginning to shorten and fade, the headlights of a few overcautious drivers raising a quick, pale reflection from the slick surface of the road, the main route back into the city."

I somehow lost this thread a while ago. Just giving it a bump so's it shows up in my list again.

A clue: It is the latest novel in a long running series; written 10 years after the previous one in the series.

(Cold in Hand) by ((John Harvey))

Hmm..sorry wrong brackets for Touchstones!

Cold in Hand by John Harvey

Yep, that's the one.
Your turn.

I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.

Sounds like Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner although I've never read it in English so might be wrong.

That's the one!

OK, something easy:

"The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended."

That's 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke. Finally something I know!

I said it's easy!
Your turn :)

Some clues woven into this one:

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold"

Sounds like Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

Barstow, desert, drugs...What else could it be? You're up!

Hah! Thought I remembered that one right. What a ride! Here's the new one:

When I was a kid, I was afraid of spiders and vegetables.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich ?

On the money, AnnieMod! Your turn.

It's a memorable line :) The next one:

"At half-past six on a Friday evening in January, Lincoln International Airport, Illinois, was functioning, though with difficulty."

No ideas?

Wild guess: Airport?

:) Correct
Arthur Hailey's Airport - one of my favourite books.
Your turn.

Well, I've only got a couple of books at work, besides the ones I keep here, and I don't know how many folks would recognize the first line from Building Web Services with Java. This is from one of the funniest books I've ever read:

"The visiting Scottish folksinger peered out of the elevator into the hotel lobby."

I would... unfortunately :)

Bimbos of the Death Sun by any chance? Have some memories for a first sentence not matching the title but being at least as hilarious as the title (and yeah - Scottish and elevator in the first sentence sends me to this book).

yes indeedy. A must read for anyone who's ever been to as F/SF convention.

:)
Next one:

"Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience, or feeling an old emotion?"

Wild guess here: Is this leading to cookies and tea? Is it Swann's way by Marcel Proust?

Nope. :) Something like a clue: It is an unusual start for this type of book :)

A clue: a detective novel from a popular author and with a popular detective.

Is it an Agatha Christie book?

yes.

I'll take a guess at Death on the Nile

It's the correct detective but the wrong novel.

Oh, I wonder if it might be Curtain?

Hastings meeting Poirot again, after many years...

Yes, Macon, it's the Curtain: The Last Poirot Case :)
Your turn.

I've blocked out a family name in the first line: I'll reinstate it, if this one is proving difficult.

"Tragedy had struck the W____s twice before, but never on such a terrible scale."

The missing word was 'Winshaws', if that helps.

Well, that would be The Winshaw Legacy, by Jonathan Coe, wouldn't it?

Ah yes, it would. I hadn't realised quite how big a clue that was: it was published in the UK as What a Carve Up!.

Over to you, Scratch...

Yeah, I think that was the subtitle in the US edition. Anyway, here's mine:

"In the spring of 1931, on a lawn in Glendale, California, a man was bracing trees."

Mildred Pierce by James Cain?

Dang, I thought it would be harder :-) You're it, AnnieMod...

I searched Grendale on a map... and then a tone of words from the second sentence in a dictionary when I read the book :)) Kinda got the book stuck in my mind.

Next one:
"The angel gleamed in the light of Hethor's reading candle bright as any brasswork automaton".

Interesting. Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is the only novel in which I've encountered a character named Hethor, and it has beings whom some view as angels. But that sentence is not from it. Oh well.

Nope, it's not Wolfe :)

That's Mainspring by Jay Lake. Have it, but haven't read it. (Was pretty disappointed in A trial of flowers which made it sink down deeper into my TBR bog.

That's it. I will be reading it as part of my alphabet challenge :) Last time I tried, I read ~100 pages -it started great but then lost it or my mood changed so I will be trying again - hate to leave books unfinished.

Your turn

Hope to offer something a little harder than my last time....

"Chukka-chukka-chukka-chukka."

Just checking in. It's been a while and I feel like following this thread again. I rarely can make a guess, but I always learn a lot!

Clue:

Kind of sounds like an Arthur Hailey novel, but isn't.

Hospital by Toby Litt

Ding ding ding!

You're up. Yet AGAIN! :)

Let me see if I have any novels still unpacked. :) OK - next:

"Are you going to stay in bed all morning?"

Clue: The novel is first published in 1985 and has two authors.

Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Struab?

No. But both authors had been working together on other projects also.

Don't know this one but it sure reminds me of getting my boys up and out when they were in high school!

OK... another clue (or 2): 3 parts of the novel had been published as short stories before this and then had been heavily edited before becoming part of the novel. And the last names of both authors start with the same letter.

Kessel and Kelly? Freedom Beach?

And we have a winner ;) Your turn.

My goodness. Wouldn't have gotten it without that last clue. Here's (I think) a much easier one:

"On the Ides of March, in his forty-fifth year, the neutral if not cooperative world turned on Mr. Raleigh W. Hayes as sharply as if it had stabbed him with a knife."

Handling Sin by Michael Malone? (I do not remember the sentence but the name rings a bell)

PS: And yeah - I though that if the last clues did not help, I had to post a cover with a hidden title or something.

That's the one.

"Two minutes before he disappeared forever from the face of the Earth he knew, ____ strolled along the pleasant streets of suburban Chicago quoting Browning to himself."

The name I skipped above is "Joseph Schwartz"

Just bumping this ... do we need a clue?

Classic SF novel, published in 1950 and part of a long series of novel.

I don't know it, but it sounds like Asimov.

That's probably because it is really Asimov :) Someone wants to guess which the novel is?

Pebble in the Sky?

(purely from the clues)

Great first line, anyway.

Yep - that's it :) Not as popular as some of his other works but it's one of my favourite novels. Your turn.

"It must have been late autumn of that year, and probably it was towards dusk for the sake of being less conspicuous."

This sounds familiar and for some reason I think it's from one of those huge books (800+ pages) but I just cannot pin it.

Yes, you are absolutely right so far....

Only the smallest of clues, because AnnieMod is very close already, I think.

Not a nineteenth century novel.
A nineteenth century novel.

"A few months later I saw her again, in the company of Pedro Vidal, at the table that was always reserved for him at La Maison Doree."

19 century -> Victorian most likely. A long new Victorian novel that I had seen...
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser

silke86,

There is an active one going on and you are supposed to post new lines after you guess the old one correctly. And maybe whoever starts the next thread should put it in the first post :)

PS: the names lead me to The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón but I am almost sure it did not start like this :(

The Quincunx is correct. You're up, AnnieMod.

wops, Im sorry. I am new to this site, so things are a bit new to me for the moment. Just forget my post. hehe

No problem, silke86. Welcome to the thread. Stay and guess - particularly if you are good at science fiction and crime novels...

Macon,

Once I thought new Victorian and the fact that I had seen it and is a big book and I kinda remembered it.

silke86,
Nah - it's ok - we need to start writing it in the first post. Which is about time to be done anyway so I will start a new thread shortly and post back here with the link. Anyway - I am curious which book it is from :)

And the new thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/74116

Someone?