Man, I hope it is not as abysmally bad as the movie.
Because the first sentence is so short, I added the second as well.
Her name was Melanie. It means “the black girl,” from an ancient Greek word, but her skin is actually very fair so she thinks maybe it not such a good name for her.
From The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey. This is the second book in a series about a world in which most people have become zombified by a fungus and are driven to eat other people in order to spread that fungus. Scientists in England are trying to find a way to save the rest of humanity but they’re having a hard time of it.
I am constantly amazed at how this author’s writing so completely draws me in. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so absorbed, especially in the post-apocalyptic genre. The main characters are so well thought out that I can’t think of a single one who’s a cliche. There’s a constant tension between how the different characters interact and how they cope with their dire situation that keeps me wondering what could possibly happen next.
The Hydronauts, by Carl L. Biemiller
An old favorite from the 70s, on its umpteenth reread.
“Sigmund Freud, grunting, prepares to go out upon the dark surface of Venus, effortfully puts on the equipment.”
- The Remaking of Sigmund Freud, by Barry N. Malzberg
“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma.”
- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
“We slept in what once had been the gymnasium.”
The Handmaid’s Tale. I admit that I am struggling a bit reading this - I understand its cultural significance and I’m up to chapter 18, but it feels kind of dry and I’m having issues getting into it.
“Shakespeare was right.”
How the Finch Stole Christmas, by Donna Andrews.
“It was a ‘come as you are’ party, and ‘all y’all come’.”
Gather Together in My Name, by Maya Angelou.
From The Friends We Keep: Unleashing Christianity’s Compassion for Animals by Laura Hobgood-Oster.
“The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.”
Two sentences, because the first one is kind of short:
From Kemlo and the Space Lanes by E. C. Eliott.
There’s just so much…wrong with those two sentences. I used to love the Kemlo series when I was a kid, but on re-reading now, they’re…kind of bad.
“When I was a toddler, Father tied me to the seat of our rented rowboat.“ from Trash Fish, by Greg Keeler.
“This book begins with a situation where a politician caused a war that changed the world.”
101 Stumbles in the March of History: WhatIf the Great Mistakes in War, Government, Industry, and Economics Were Not Made? by Bill Fawcett et al.
“If Zoey Ashe had known she was being stalked by a man who intended to kill her and then slowly eat her bones, she would have worried more about that and less about getting her cat off the roof.”
- Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, by David Wong
“The breeding grounds were called Pen Y Fan, after the hard, jagged slash of the mountain at their heart…”
Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
(The actual first sentence is 58 words long, so I stopped at the first comma.)
On Monday, March 23, 1992 at 10:30 a.m. I walked into what I thought was a routine meeting of the Board of Directors of WordPerfect Corporation.
Almost Perfect by W. E. Pete Peterson
The horse and mule live thirty years
And nothing know of wines and beers
This is actually from the top of page 51 of “The Pocket Book of Jokes”, c. 1945, edited by Bennett Cerf. The book is very crumbly though, so that is the first page still connected to the main body.
“He rode into the dark of the woods and dismounted.”
– The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Civil War battle of Gettysburg.
(I could have used the first sentence in his Foreword, as it’s sort of the start of the novel, but it’s still in Roman numerals, so I decided against it.)
“I was born inside the movie of my life.”
Life Itself: My Autobiography, by Roger Ebert.
“Before we proceed any further, hear me speak.” - Coriolanus by William Shakespear