It was a dark and stormy night.

[ciroccoj]

Yeah, so, this is supposed to be a meme where you put the first lines of your five favourite books and other people guess what they are, but I had a tough time just limiting myself to ten, so... yeah.

1. Stavia saw herself as in a picture, from the outside, a darkly cloaked figure moving along a cobbled street, the stone sheened with a soft, early spring rain.
   
   
2. The reading woman sits by the window, lamplight falling over her shoulder onto the book.
   
   
3. On a morning in the springtime of the year, when the snows of the mountains were melting and the rivers swift in their running, Aelis de Miraval watched her hsuband ride out at dawn to hunt in the forest west of the their castle, and shortly after that she took horse herself, travelling north and east along the shores of the lake towards the begetting of her son. A Song For Arbonne, Guy Gavriel Kay, guessed by ninja_kat.
   
   
4. The small boys came early to the hanging. Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett, guessed by daf9.
   
   
5. When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, guessed by leaper182.
   
   
6. Mars was empty before we came. Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson, guessed by shellmidwife
   
   
7. Both moons were high, dimming the light of all but the brightest stars.
   
   
8. It was a dark and stormy night.
   
   
9. To be honest, I haven't been able to remember clearly everything that happened to me before and during Trial, so where necessary I've filled in with possiblities - lies, if you want.
   
   
10. If, standing alone on the back doorstep, Tom allowed himself tears, they were tears of anger.

And in other news, the G8 sucks. But friends who will take your child for a few hours so that you can work on a paper explaining why the G8 sucks, do not. Suck, that is.

Also, my English skills are rapidly deteriorating.

Comments

[leaper182.livejournal.com]

Dude, I so know that #5 is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

Is #3 a Robin McKinley book?

Is #7 DragonLance?

#8 sounds like it might be part of that anthology of the Worst Mystery Stories Ever.

...squee.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

#5 is TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
Yup!

#8 sounds like it might be part of that anthology of the Worst Mystery Stories Ever.
I'm sure it's that too, but it's also the opening line of a real book ;)

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I knew #5, but someone beat me to it. #6 is one of the Mars books, I'm pretty sure Red Mars. #3 sounds really familiar--I'm guessing it's Guy Gavrial Kay.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yes, to all :)

[ninja-kat.livejournal.com]

#3 Song for Arbonne-Guy Gavriel Kay - hard to mistake him, innit?
#6 must be from one of the color-coded Mars books, right?

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yes to both!

[daf9.livejournal.com]

#4 sounds like it might be "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Ding!

[bast2.livejournal.com]

8. good omens

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Nope - finally found it to look it up, and the first line of Good Omens is actually "It was a nice day" :) :)

Good guess, though ;)

[bast2.livejournal.com]

i know that sentence is the first line in one of the chapters. guess it wasn't the first line, though. =)