Guess the Novel By Its First Line: A Game

How about these:

50: 129 lbs. (but post-Christmas), alcohol units 14 (but effectively covers 2 days as 4 hours of party was on New Year’s Day), cigarettes 22, calories 5424.

51: The best remedy for a bruised heart is not, as so many people seem to think, repose upon a manly bosom.

52: Jeff Winston was on the phone with his wife when he died.

Without ever having read it, I’m gonna guess Bridget Jone’s Diary.

Yeah, knew that was easy.

Watership Down.

I Claudius?

And I’m going to guess at Gadarene’s #10: * A Soldier of the Great War*?

Here’s my entry:

“On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor.”

Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman.

The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison?

Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser?

No, I remember that I, Claudius starts off, essentially, with “I, Claudius…”.

I looked it up, and actually it’s “I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other…”

ivylass’s line is from one of Colleen McCullough’s books, I’d guess.

Yes. I thought that with all the Pterry fans around here that one would be easy, despite its brevity.

Yep, the first one.

Have His Carcase, Dorothy Sayers

Here’s mine:

  1. It started when David came in from the lawn, absolutely furious.
  1. Michael Crichton,* Sphere.*

  1. I’m sitting on the porch of a bungalow on the Yucatan Peninsula with lit cigarettes sticking out of both my ears.

Yes. I wanted to do Gaudy Night, but the first sentence has Harriet’s name in it. And I like that first line of Carcase, anyway.

All children, except one, grow up.

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

There was a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself - not just sometimes, but always.

These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket.

The sun did not shine.

Dog.

It was a dark and stormy night.

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

Buck did not read the newspapers or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego.

Chug, chug, chug.

This is George.

I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early in the month of June, the year of grace 1751, when I took the key for the last time out of the door of my father’s house.

“TOM!”

This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis

Very good. :slight_smile:

Voyage of the Dawntreader, C.S Lewis

The Phantom Tollbooth, I’m guessing.

Charlie and the Chocolate-factory, Roald Dahl.

Right on all counts!

Eleanor:

Replay, by Ken Grimwood.
Hilarity:

This is by Charlie Huston, it’s the second in the series, and for the love of Pete I can’t think of the name of the book.

Sal:

Nope!

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. To Kill A MockingBird.

Buck did not read the newspapers or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego. Call of the Wild

“TOM!” Tom Sawyer?

This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it. The Princess Bride?
Knew the Dawn Treader one too…

Phantom Tollbooth?

To Kill a Mockingbird

Tom Sawyer

The Princess Bride?

Finagle and Hilarity N. Suze: all correct.