(first one stolen from Mechaieh and others; second one I just made up myself)
the opening sentences of ten favorite books
1 It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. -- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
2 The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. -- The Gunslinger, Stephen King
3 We mutinied when we reached the ocean. -- Island of Ghosts, Gillian Bradshaw
4 There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. -- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
5 People disappear all the time. -- Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
6 It was fur that made our lives what they were. -- The Loon Feather, Iola Fuller
7 My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead. -- We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson (ok, it's the whole first paragraph, and it's my favorite opening paragraph, though the book never makes it into my top-ten-favorite.)
8 The Wizard Heald coupled witha poor woman once, in the king's city of Mondor, and she bore a sone with one green eye and one black eye. -- The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, Patricia McKillip
9 Westerly came down the path at a long lope, sliding over the short moorland grass. -- Seaward, Susan Cooper
10 She could not remember the time she had not known the story: she had grown up knowing it. -- The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
the closing paragraphs of five favorite books
1 "I'll tell you," I said, "Tomorrow." -- Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey
2 It is not the end. It never can be. The tree, stripped barren in last autumn's storm, stands green-gold with new leaves, and by some special miracle, some unexpected magic, life returns from the dead. -- In Winter's Shadow, Gillian Bradshaw
3 "Poor Grendel's had an accident," I whisper. "So may you all." -- Grendel, John Gardner
4 "I won't forget the time," Gwyn told him. But even as she said that, she could hear in her imagination how she would tell the tales to Burl, and how they would change in the telling. -- Jackaroo, Cynthia Voigt
5 Miles grinned sleepily, puddled down in his uniform. "Welcome to the beginning." -- Mirror Dance, Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm going to try my hand at lyrics, soon. I'm planning to write an A is for Arson song (the promised "Hate Meaning Hate") and see if I can't come up with something... lyrical.
Non-A is for Arson and uninspiring lyrics were floating in my head yesterday; this is a brief sketch, and they need work (but that goes without saying, you know?).
the light stays longer
but the days grow colder
and all I've really gotten
is to get a little older
I think my silence conveys
the truth quite well
though nothing to hear
isn't nothing to tell
or to be told--
it's still cold
and winter takes time to get over
the wolves are hungry and growing bolder
the light stays longer
but the days grow colder
and all I've really gotten
is to get a little older...
I even sort of have a tune. Fortunately, I'm not going to inflict it on anyone.
Her Worship statistically analyzed what she read in the year 2002, and I thought that sounded darn fun. So, here I go.
Fiction
Science-fiction: 9
Fantasy: 16
Young Adult: 6
Romance: 9
Mainstream: 7
Mystery: 6
"Classic" (ie, more than 400 years old): 4
Non-Fiction
Philosophy: 3
Literary Criticism: 1
Biography: 2
Writing books: 1
Alas, I can't compare this to 2001, because most of my 2001 list was eaten by blogger. I think the only other year I have complete records for is 1988, and you know what? We aren't going to compare that. Plus, it's not on-line.
2002 was an a-typical year. I'm sure I read 6 times as many mysteries as I usually do. I read half of what I usually would read (maybe even less than half). I think the only thing that was accurate was the Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Young Adult ratio. Many of the YA books would be classified as Fantasy, anyway, but we all have to make choices.
I think the number I read from mainstream fiction was pretty high, too, but that did include things as widely ranging as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Possession, Animal Husbandry and A Thousand Acres. From mid-century classic, to high-brow mainstream, to mainstream that became an Ashley Judd movie, to a post-modern deconstruction of King Lear.
Duel of Hearts by Diane Farr (1)
Not sure why I opened the year with this book (doesn't bode well, does it? And here it is, already the 13th), but there was one of those strange Bermuda Triangle collusions of events where I started and finished this book in the same day and didn't finish any of the other three I'm currently reading.
I feel compelled-- compelled, I tell ya, to list the other books I'm reading...
With Kayla, I'm reading Anne of Green Gables.
I'm still trying to read Can You Forgive Her?, Shirley (maybe I'll wait until Lisa has to read it, too), and Lolita.
And An Anthropologist on Mars, and The Writing Life.
As for Duel of Hearts, well, I had high hopes because of the name. And while it was certainly better than your-average-romance, you could clearly see the largeness of the bubbles, which told you right off the bat that this book wasn't real champagne.
If you get my metaphor, I have a catflake for you. Send me an SASE.