# Guess the book from the opening lines....again! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493 "2003-12-22T19:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/41 "2003-12-23T18:07:07Z")
An easy one, but my favorite. [quote] All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/42 "2003-12-23T18:08:25Z")
I love this game… "I wore white gloves. I lived with my mother and father. I was not a child. I was thirty-seven years old. My bottom lip was swollen. " ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Haniver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Jenny\_Haniver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Haniver)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/43 "2003-12-23T18:25:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by In Conceivable \* > \*\*An easy one, but my favorite. > > All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way \*\* _Anna Karenina_. Hey, softballs need hitting, too. And it is arguably the best beginning ever. Here’s mine: > [@](#): > > On a certain day in June, 19–, a young man was making his way on foot northward from the great City to a town or place called Edgewood. His name was [character name deleted to make it interesting], and he was going to Edgewood to get married; the fact that he walked and didn’t ride was one of the conditions placed on his coming there at all. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/44 "2003-12-23T20:58:27Z")
I’m athinkin that I’m too much of a science geek in here. Although I did know the _AnnaKarenina_ first lines. Okay how about: > [@](#): > > The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. ---
**Author:** ![ouisey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/45 "2003-12-23T21:15:25Z")
Joy Luck Club! ---
**Author:** ![ouisey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/46 "2003-12-23T21:17:42Z")
oh, and here’s my quote: > [@](#): > > I am going to pack my two shirts with my other socks and my best suit in the little blue cloth my mother used to tie round her hair when she did the house, and I am going from the Valley. ---
**Author:** ![chicksdigscars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@chicksdigscars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicksdigscars)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/47 "2003-12-23T21:46:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Loneraven \* > > * * * The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Mine: > [@](#): > > No doubt about it, I’ve been hitting the basil hard tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/48 "2003-12-23T22:03:11Z")
NUTZ **ouisey!** Well that’s it BACK to the science books! - had a long post here but the evil hamsters ate it I hope they get heartburn!\* > [@](#): > > Pirates have always been elusive figures. They came out of the blue. They attacked, they looted, and they vanished. Well okay its a history book… ---
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/49 "2003-12-24T04:17:50Z")
The one about the basil: _]Anonymous Rex_ Where did this come from? > [@](#): > > It is not a heart: light, heavy, kind or broken. Dear, hard, bleeding or transparent; it is not a heart. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/50 "2003-12-24T04:35:56Z")
> [@](#): > > “Rocky, would you take a look at this?” ---
**Author:** ![MaggietheCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@MaggietheCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaggietheCat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/51 "2003-12-24T18:12:36Z")
MarieMarie, that’s Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/52 "2003-12-24T18:24:27Z")
**Maggie** from one cat to another: WELCOME TO THE BOARDS! > [@](#): > > Hushed were the streets of many-peopled Thebes. Those few who passed through them moved with the shadowy fleetness of bats near dawn… Its a short story. I apologize for that but…maybe you know it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/53 "2003-12-24T18:48:03Z")
> [@](#): > > On a certain day in June, 19–, a young man was making his way on foot northward from the great City to a town or place called Edgewood. His name was [character name deleted to make it interesting], and he was going to Edgewood to get married; the fact that he walked and didn’t ride was one of the conditions placed on his coming there at all. Am I the first? That would have to be _Little, Big_ by John Crowley. Here’s another softball (and quoting from memory, so forgive me if it’s inexact): > [@](#): > > He was born with a gift for laughter and a sense that the world was mad. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/54 "2003-12-24T19:55:57Z")
_Scaramouche_, by Raphael Sabatini. I haven’t read it in years, but I recognized the opening line immediately. > [@](#): > > I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred, possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men, nor do I remember any childhood. So far as I can recollect I have always been a man, a man of about thirty. ---
**Author:** ![eli\_the\_fanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ccd318/32.png) [@eli\_the\_fanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eli_the_fanatic)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/55 "2003-12-24T20:07:44Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs, _A Princess of Mars_ > [@](#): > > Marley was dead: to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/56 "2003-12-24T20:38:09Z")
A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/57 "2003-12-24T20:39:38Z")
_A Christmas Carol_. > [@](#): > > All the way to the horizon in the last light, the sea was just degrees of gray, rolling a frothy on the surface. From the cockpit of a small white sloop – she was thirty-five feet long – the waves looked like hills coming up from behind, and most of the crew preferred not to glance at them. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/58 "2003-12-24T23:18:06Z")
Woah. I guess I win.:o ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/59 "2003-12-25T04:08:53Z")
Hint: Pulitzer. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493/60 "2003-12-25T14:33:34Z")
> [@](#): > > All the way to the horizon in the last light, the sea was just degrees of gray, rolling a frothy on the surface. From the cockpit of a small white sloop – she was thirty-five feet long – the waves looked like hills coming up from behind, and most of the crew preferred not to glance at them. _The Soul of a New Machine_ by Tracy Kidder Here’s one: > [@](#): > > The small boys came to the hanging. It was still dark when the first three or four of them sidled out of the hovels, quiet as cats in their felt boots. A thin layer of fresh snow covered the little town like a new coat of paint, and theirs were the first footprints to blemish its perfect surface. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guess-the-book-from-the-opening-lines-again/220493.md?page=4)