Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Goodbye, farewell, but not quite adieu

Now that all the basketball tournaments and camps are over, I'm looking forward to some family time, so that means a break from the blogging world for a couple of weeks.

Please try to go on without me, I know it will be difficult.

To tied you over I give you Entertainment Weekly's top 6 Opening Lines in Classic Books.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813), Jane Austen
''It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.''

MOBY-DICK (1851), Herman Melville
''Call me Ishmael.''

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1859), Charles Dickens
''It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.''

ANNA KARENINA (1877), Leo Tolstoy
''All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.''

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1885), by Mark Twain
''You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain't no matter.'

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (1951), J.D. Salinger
''If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.''

How many have you read? Do you have your own favorite opening line?

Hope you have a great rest of the summer.

10 comments:

Aubrie said...

Some great first lines in there! My favorite is from Pride and Prejudice.

Have fun with your family :)

Candice said...

Have a good hiatus. I really enjoyed mine, all 3 months of it!

patti said...

Blessings during your hiatus! Though I'd read most if not all of these books, the only first liner that I recognized was Dickens and of course "Ishmael"

P

Stephanie said...

Great post! Enjoy your break! I'm taking this week to relax...but I'm still blog hopping! :)

Unknown said...

Love this list!!! It's awesome!!! The Catcher in the Rye along with To Kill a Mockingbird are the two novels that changed my life in High School!

Heidi Willis said...

So fun to go back and read these. I think with an opening line like that, it's amazing Tale of Two Cities ever got published!

I hated Catcher in the Rye, but from that first line you can definitely feel the voice!!

Have a great break. We'll miss you!

K. M. Walton said...

Catcher in the Rye = my favorite.

Enjoy your break and your family!

kah said...

Enjoy the time away. We all need a break no and then.

Kasie West said...

Have fun with the family. Love the quotes.

lotusgirl said...

Hope you're having fun with the fam. I enjoyed these first lines. There's nothing quite like a great first line.