I think that’s Malleus Maleficarum by Kramer and Sprenger.
But where were the Spiders?
Damn-nation!!! I went and scoured my library for good opening lines, and come back only to find that half of them were used while I was gone. Oh, well. Here’s what’s left. If any of these have been used already, tell me, then run.
NTG2: The year 1866 was marked by a strange event, an unexplainabe occurence which is undoubtedly still fresh in everyone’s memory.
NTG3: We are at rest five miles beyond the front.
NTG4: In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve beem turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
NTG5: One minute, it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiinf on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.
NTG6: The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.
NTG7: “To be born again” sang (one of the main characters) tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die”.
An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille.
Here’s one:
“The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called ‘Keep to-morrow dark,’ and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) ‘Cheat the Prophet.’ The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait till all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.”
But where were the Spiders?
Da Ace - Ubik it is. Took me so long to find my copy, so I could do that one. Neat book. Dick was an … interesting fella.
Eschew Obfuscation
here are a few of my favourites.
aa) Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.
bb) What’s it going to be then, eh?
cc) This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.
dd) The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
ee) To the as-of-yet unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life.
ff) A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees.
and who knows where my sig line is from?
what is essential is invisible to the eye -the fox
bb) A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
sig) The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint Exubery
NTG5: Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles.
– Sylence
If a bird doesn’t sing, I’ll wait until it sings.
- Tokugawa Ieyasu
Right. And agreed, the best in that series.
“You can observe a lot just by watching.” – Yogi Berra
All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by neuro-trash grrrl:
NTG4: In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve beem turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
“The idea of a walk-in closet sounds frightening. If I’m ever sittin’ at home and a closet walks in, I’m gettin’ outta there.” ~George Carlin
neuro-trash grrrl
NTG7: “To be born again” sang (one of the main characters) tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die”.
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (main character = Gibreel Farishta)
Kilgore Trout
aa), bb) and dd) from your list were already posted.
aa) = MTS3 (on page 1), Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle.
bb) = posted by Mad Poet on p.1, William Gibson, Neuromancer.
cher3, You’re right on AW6 being Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.neuro-trash grrrl
NTG7: “To be born again” sang (one of the main characters) tumbling from the heavens, “first you have to die”.
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (main character = Gibreel Farishta)
Kilgore Trout
aa), bb) and dd) from your list were already posted.
aa) = MTS3 (on page 1), Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle.
bb) = posted by Mad Poet on p.1, William Gibson, Neuromancer.
cher3, You’re right on AW6 being Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
::Yawn:: More from me. 
T8 (kind of a gimme): ‘All children, except one, grow up.’
T9:
T10: ‘One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.’
T11: ‘An hour before sunset, on the evening of a day in the beginning of October, 1815, a man travelling afoot entered the little town of D----.’
T12: ‘Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.’
T13: ‘On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the bourg, of Meung, in which the author of the ‘Romance of the Rose’ was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it.’
T14 (I’m in an evil mood):
Eschew Obfuscation
T8 (kind of a gimme): ‘All children, except one, grow up.’
Peter Pan, Barrie
T9:
quote:
“Just the place for a S[Deleted]!” the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.
Hunting of the Snark, Carroll
T14 (I’m in an evil mood):
quote:
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the
roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer
But where were the Spiders?
Congrats, zystardist.
100% correct on all 3.
Eschew Obfuscation
Congratulations zgystardst, too. Blah. Need sleep.
Tengu :
T13: 'On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the bourg, of Meung, in which the author of the ‘Romance of the Rose’ was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it.
- The Three Muskateers, Alexandre Dumas père
I can’t work out what has and hasn’t been answered now, so I’ll confine my self to this page:
T10: “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.”
Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll.
T11: “An hour before sunset, on the evening of a day in the beginning of October, 1815, a man travelling afoot entered the little town of D----.”
My first instinct was to say Germinal, as it starts (and ends) with the stranger approaching the town at sunset or sunrise, but I’m 99% sure that Zola gives the name of the town (which eludes me for the moment).
So if the “D----“ is part of the quote and not the editing out of a giveaway clue, I’ll guess that it’s from Les Miserables again, but it’s not the opening line of the book, is it?
T12: “Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.”
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D H Lawrence.
I don’t look for a little bit, and this thing’s exploded! Well, nobody’s answered my opener, so I’ll flesh it out a bit:
Pix1.a: “I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one. Or at least as close as we’re going to get.”
You’ve got to be proud when you can’t even think of a category to nominate yourself in…
OK, I didn’t really expect anyone to get this, so we’re into big hint time. It’s a science fiction novel published in 1992 by J___ V___ and the title is S____ B____. Anyone care to take a stab now?
…but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans!
Wow! I’m impressed with the quality and diversity of the clues and the (typical) agility with which they are deciphered. I’m not having much luck lately but I do know this one:
Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers. (Although I probably would have missed it without the personal note!) It’s the first of the Peter Wimsey books that includes Harriet Vane. Busman’s Honeymoon, already cited above, is the last. (Although there was a later short story involving Lord and Lady Peter and their children.)