(difficult for a flea to be and not to flea, for to flea is to be, or to be is to flea, albeit spelled wrong(ly)*. cat: hopefully he’s just being, without the flea-ing. he doesn’t seem te be fleeing, just being, so probably not a lot of flea-ing.)
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The power of opening lines. Here are five of them from five recently acquired books. Can you guess which belongs to which?
The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.
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It was a pleasure to burn.
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The small boys came early to the hanging.
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Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father.
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A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.
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It’s almost as if a new story wants to show itself…
Chapter one - it was a pleasure to burn.
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct, so, to be sure, the small boys came early to the hanging. Everyone had always said that John, the one to be hanged, would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father. The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.
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…
Probably best to read the actual books.
Here then, the opening lines and their books re-aligned:
The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.
The wheel of time
It was a pleasure to burn.
Fahrenheit 451
The small boys came early to the hanging.
The Pillars of the Earth
Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father.
Go Tell it on the Mountain
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.
Dune
And that’s 5.
More?
More.
Here are ‘18 of the best first lines in fiction’, curated by penguin itself.
It is the best of times,
it is the worst of times.
Ciao.
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i made something
i like it and now i don’t know what to do with it.
so i’ll just leave it here.
and without stone
‘and without’ is a strange combination
here you can witness that combination
