Guess the book from the opening line

[look_ninjas]

*Originally posted by fishcheer15 *
**Now mine:

The sentence doesn’t stop there, but quoting it in full would surely spoil the whole thing. **

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger.

Here’s an easy one

When that Aprill with his shoures soote
the droghte of March has perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;…

Mine also continues, of course, but it’s already too easy as it is.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

*Originally posted by asterion *
**“The last drops of the thundershower had hardly ceased falling when the Pedestrian stuffed his map into his pocket, settled his pack more comfortably on his tired shoulders, and stepped out from the shelter of a large chestnut-tree into the middle of the road.”
**

That one is CS Lewis. I’ve drunk beer in the same pub as him and JRR Tolkien.
Out of the Silent Planet BTW

[Fish_Cheer]

Correct, spoonbender (and look!ninjas).

[Jabba]

The Canterbury Tales for look!ninjas, and Tapioca Dextrin was right about Blood Meridian.

Some replacements, in what I think is increasing order of difficulty:

1. riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

2. London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.

3. Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

*Originally posted by DeVena *

OK Here’s mine…
“This is a book about what happens to people when they are overwhelmed by change.” **

Our first non-fiction book. Future Shock, Alvin Toffler

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

*Originally posted by Jabba *
**
Some replacements, in what I think is increasing order of difficulty:

1. riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

2. London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.

3. Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. **

1 How the bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk am Isupposed to know that one ?

2 Bleak House. If you’d just given the first sentence as “London.” it would have taken me a lot longer

3 The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner

[Jabba]

Well done. I’ll even give you the first one of behalf of the six of us on the boards who got the joke.

[Jabba]

Since Tapioca Dextrin is so clever, I’ll have to put in some more.

1. Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to afternoon tea.

2. Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun, one day.

3. When she was home from boarding-school I used to see her almost every day sometimes, because their house was right opposite the Town Hall Annexe.

[Emilio_Lizardo]

“Roscommon came and laid waste to the garden an hour after dawn, about the time I usually get out of bed and he usually passes out on the shoulder of some freeway.”

Zodiac, by Neal Stephenson

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning

Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerny

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

“News item from the Westover (Me.) weekly Enterprise, August 19, 1968:”

Carrie?

[asterion]

*Originally posted by Steve Wright *
**That’s E. E. “Doc” Smith, First Lensman. **

That’s also the one I haven’t been able to keep interest through.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

“His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before.”

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

Originally posted by Shodan
It was not long after dawn, when the captain of HMS frigate Lydia came up on deck.

Horatio Hornblower

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

*Originally posted by Ranchoth *
**
Here’s a couple that should be a bit more…challenging.

“Apart from the one in the church tower, there were five clocks in the village that kept reasonable time, and my father owned one of them.”

and…

“Gene Cernan was having the time of his life.” **

These are the only two to reamin unsloved from further up the page. I have no idea what they are

[mcms_cricket]

“Gene Cernan was having the time of his life.”

I think this is
Back to the Moon …?

This one is pretty easy, but it’s one of my favorites:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

Here’s a harder one (from one of my favorite childhood books):
“It was Mrs. May who first told me about them.”
Cricket

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

*Originally posted by Jabba *
**riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.
**

Already identified by Tapioca Dextrin (How Cleverly Explained!), but not by name: Finnegans Wake.

Here’s another:

“A screaming comes across the sky.”

[Emilio_Lizardo]

A screaming comes across the sky

Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon.

[Steve_Wright]

*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic *
**“His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before.” **

Isaac Asimov, Foundation.

Must come up with a couple more myself, mustn’t I?

(Aside to Tapioca Dextrin: are you talking about the Lamb & Flag, or the Eagle & Child?)

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

Bird and Babe it is Steve

[koeeoaddi]

Diogenes, Yes, that was Carrie.

This one is pretty easy, but it’s one of my favorites:
“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 My favorite book, mcms_cricket

Here’s an easy one:

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”