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| Books & Authors Recommended and not so recommended reading. |
08-12-2007, 03:48 PM
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#76
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Scribe
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: The Onyx Prep School for Crappy Writers
Gender: Male
Posts: 67
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Here's one of my favourites:
'If the reader will excuse me, I will say nothing of my antecedents, nor of the circumstances which led me to leave my native country; the narrative would be tedious to him and painful to myself.'
EREWHON by Samuel Butler
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08-12-2007, 03:55 PM
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#77
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 18
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"Screams in the dark". Bec by Darren Shan. Simple and to the point.
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08-13-2007, 08:53 AM
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#78
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Writer
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: online
Gender: Female
Posts: 39
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"Congrts, the fact that you are redng this shows that you've taken 1 gint step closr to survng 'till your next birth day." ~ Maximem Ride, The Angel Exprmnt by James Pattrsen.
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08-13-2007, 09:48 AM
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#79
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Scribe
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: West Midlands, UK
Gender: Male
Posts: 61
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"It was a dark and stormy night"...
Just kidding.
The one that I always seem to remember is "The sky was the colour of a TV tuned to a dead channel," from Neuromancer. It's not one of the best, but it's just stuck.
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08-13-2007, 11:25 AM
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#80
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Addict
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Brattleboro, Vermont
Gender: Male
Posts: 174
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"It was a pleasure to burn."
"The sellar of lightning rods arrived just before the storm."
Both Bradbury.
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08-13-2007, 01:04 PM
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#81
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Mentor
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Location, Location
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,833
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"The fact that Henry Armstrong was buried did not seem to him to prove that he was dead: he had always been a hard man to convince." -- Ambrose Bierce.
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Born naked, helpless, unable to care for himself and completely open-minded, Non Serviam has subsequently surmounted all these difficulties and gone on to become a decently-clothed, self-sufficient, close-minded sod.
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08-13-2007, 04:14 PM
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#82
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Profound Writer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,255
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"I was stealing salt shakers again."
-Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
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08-13-2007, 10:27 PM
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#83
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Scribe
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Laurel, MD
Gender: Private
Posts: 65
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Quote:
Originally Posted by virtugirl333
"Congrts, the fact that you are redng this shows that you've taken 1 gint step closr to survng 'till your next birth day." ~ Maximem Ride, The Angel Exprmnt by James Pattrsen.
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Is that really how James Patterson writes?
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"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible." Anonymous
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08-14-2007, 01:28 AM
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#84
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Scribe
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: San Pedro, California
Gender: Male
Posts: 54
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As long as it is, I've always loved the way Dickens opened A tale of two cities.
"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."
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08-14-2007, 03:06 AM
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#85
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Fernando Poo
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,433
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Banzai
"Sing, O goddess, the rage of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans." - Homer's Iliad (translation by Samuel Butler)
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Oh hey, I we can list those.
祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響有り。沙羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理を顕す。奢れる人も久しからず、只春 の夜の夢の如し
The sound of the Gion Shôja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.
-- The Tale of the Heike
天下大势，合久必分，分久必合
An empire long united, must divide; an empire long divided, must unite.
-- Romance of the Three Kingdoms
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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.
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08-14-2007, 04:39 AM
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#86
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Addict
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: AZ, USA
Gender: Female
Posts: 118
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CircusFolk
"In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisbility actually exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three."
Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones
"Not wanting to arouse Vishnu in case he hadn't died yet, Mrs. Asrani tiptoed down to the third step above the landing on which he lived, teakettle in hand."
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
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I love both those books, and their first sentences. 
The only one I can think of comes from my favorite book. Not sure if it's my favorite opening sentence, though, but here goes:
"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone."
- The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
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08-14-2007, 03:08 PM
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#87
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Nowhere special...just...bird watching...yeah, sure...bird watching...
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,532
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"I'm not drunkk....! I can stoopp beeing drunkk whenever.... i waaant to..." - Mort by Terry Pratchet
"The sparrows are flying" - The Dark Half
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08-18-2007, 08:04 PM
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#88
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Michigan, United States
Gender: Female
Posts: 8
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I may very well be alone on this, but I love the first line of Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, not necessarily because it's entirely riveting prose, but because it does such a great job of setting the tone and introducing the reader to the main character:
"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."
__________________
You may find it bold
But I'm afraid I must ask:
My word, are those real?!
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08-18-2007, 08:21 PM
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#89
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Addict
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Brattleboro, Vermont
Gender: Male
Posts: 174
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\
Last edited by enron1982 : 08-18-2007 at 08:23 PM.
Reason: blah
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08-18-2007, 08:22 PM
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#90
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Addict
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Brattleboro, Vermont
Gender: Male
Posts: 174
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mandax
"I was stealing salt shakers again."
-Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan
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Hell yeah, that book f'ing rules. (although we may have discussed this in another thread, i may be mistaken) |
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