# Identify the books from the opening lines **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2005, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695 "2005-01-20T08:17:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/121 "2005-01-22T03:48:49Z")
Assuming I’m right, I’ll post one. Sh1 - > [@](#): > > The naked man who lay splayed out on his face next to the swimming pool might have been dead. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/122 "2005-01-22T04:27:20Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > **B1** _Tancredi took his hands off the wheel again and waved them. “–so I envy you, Dr. Padway. Here in Rome we have still some work to do. But pah! It is all filling in little gaps. Nothing big, nothin new. And restoration work, Building contractor’s work. Again pah!”_ _Lest Darkness Fall_ by de Camp ? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/123 "2005-01-22T05:54:41Z")
That’s it! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/124 "2005-01-22T06:37:40Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Assuming I’m right, I’ll post one. > Sh1 - > > Regards, > Shodan **From Russia with Love** , by Ian Fleming? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/125 "2005-01-22T06:42:08Z")
Now one from me: _London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth . . ._ ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/126 "2005-01-22T06:48:42Z")
> [@Waenara](#): > > Wa3: On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the was wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. _Ridley Walker_, Russell Hoban. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/127 "2005-01-22T18:12:13Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > **From Russia with Love** , by Ian Fleming? Bingo. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/128 "2005-01-22T18:53:25Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Now one from me: > > _London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth . . ._ Dickens’ _Bleak House?_ ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/129 "2005-01-22T22:13:09Z")
_Brain Glutton_, _Little Nemo_ and _Marley23_ are all correct. How about a few more? Still not answered: Wa2: I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeword that Truth is a matter of the imagination. Wa5: A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys. Wa6: If a man walks in dressed like a hick and acting as if he owned the place, he’s a spaceman. Wa7: When I was quite small I would sometimes dream of a city - which was strange becaus it began before I even knew what a city was. Wa8: The year that \ was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/130 "2005-01-22T23:11:37Z")
> [@Waenara](#): > > How about a few more? > > Wa7: When I was quite small I would sometimes dream of a city - which was strange becaus it began before I even knew what a city was. **The Chrysalids** , by John Wyndham? ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/131 "2005-01-22T23:45:25Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > **The Chrysalids** , by John Wyndham? Yes! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/132 "2005-01-22T23:47:39Z")
Wa6: If a man walks in dressed like a hick and acting as if he owned the place, he’s a spaceman. Double Star - Robert Heinlein Wa8: The year that \ was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette. The Princess Bride - William Goldman ---
**Author:** ![ReuvenB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/133 "2005-01-23T00:33:42Z")
All the ones I’ve been able to figure out have already been answered, so I’ll just provide a few: XW1: He was struggling in every direction, he was the centre of the writhing and kicking knot of his own body. XW2: It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. XW3: A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right!” ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/134 "2005-01-23T00:52:40Z")
One of mine is still outstanding, but it’s pretty tough. Here are a few more: C2: We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. C3 [Non-fiction]: My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/135 "2005-01-23T01:33:13Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > C2: We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. _The Handmaids Tale_ - Margaret Atwood ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/136 "2005-01-23T02:57:09Z")
TL1: Little Mrs. Sommers one day found herself the unexpected possessor of fifteen dollars. TL2: On the first Monday of April, 1625, the market town of Meung, birthplace of the author of the _Roman de la Rose_, seemed to be in as great a turmoil as if the Huguenots had come to turn it into a second New Rochelle. TL3: [Character] inherited from his mother every trait, except for a stray inaccessible few, that made him worth while. TL4: It was a nice day. TL5: If this typewriter can’t do it, then fuck it, it can’t be done. TL6: We are at rest five miles behind the front. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/137 "2005-01-23T03:01:55Z")
> [@](#): > > XW3: A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: > “Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That’s all right!” _The Awakening_? FP7: “The Signorina had no business to do it,” said Miss Bartlett, “no business at all. She promised us south rooms, with a view close together, instead of which are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart.” FP8: The snow in the mountains was melting and [character] had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/138 "2005-01-23T03:04:43Z")
TL2–_The Three Musketeers?_ ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/139 "2005-01-23T03:24:49Z")
TL5 is _Still Life With Woodpecker_ by Tom Robbins. FP7 is _A Room With A View_ by E.M. Forster. ---
**Author:** ![look\_hergo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@look\_hergo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_hergo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695/140 "2005-01-23T04:26:40Z")
C3 is **Angela’s Ashes** , by Frank McCourt, and FP8 is **The Secret History** , by Donna Tartt (one of my favorites) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-the-books-from-the-opening-lines/285695.md?page=8)