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Stolen from a bunch of people. First line of top ten favourite books. These were the ones I could find - Chris has a couple of the Murakami books that would usually be here. I have a thing for Japanese writers. So this is the top ten of the books I can find at the moment. Which, since I am without a bookcase at the moment, was not an easy thing to do. Oh, and I apologize for how long the last couple are. Especially Ellis's first line. It's a paragraph.
1. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984
2. The woman pushed on the baby's stomach and sucked its penis into her mouth; it was thinner than the American menthols she smoked and a bit slimy, like raw fish. Ryu Murakami, Coin Locker Babies
3. The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent. Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Universe
4. 'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heaven, 'first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Ta-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you won't cry? How to win the darling's love, mister, without a sigh? Baba, if you want to get born again...' Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses *I took some liberties with this one. Since he's singing a song, I put the whole thing in since it's really just one line in my opinion.
5. There are just two kind of people in the world: those who will help you and those who won't. Allan Gurganus, Plays Well With Others The title of this chapter happens to be Thirty Dildos. God, I love this book.
6. Deborah Sweet is balanced on the little chair by my desk, leaning forward and looking deep into my eyes. Abigail Zuger, MD. Strong Shadows: Scenes from an Inner City AIDS Clinic - This one is here because my copy of And The Band Played On has disappeared. This is #2 of the medical books I own.
7. On February, 24, 1815, the lookout at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
8. The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. William Golding, Lord of the Flies
9. Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a garden, chatting and sipping at our cups of green tea while we talked about something that had happened a long while ago, and I said to you, "That afternoon when I met so-and-so...was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon." Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
10. Abandon all hope ye who enter here is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisment for Les Miserables on its side blocking his view, but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so. Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho
1. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. George Orwell, 1984
2. The woman pushed on the baby's stomach and sucked its penis into her mouth; it was thinner than the American menthols she smoked and a bit slimy, like raw fish. Ryu Murakami, Coin Locker Babies
3. The elevator continued its impossibly slow ascent. Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Universe
4. 'To be born again,' sang Gibreel Farishta tumbling from the heaven, 'first you have to die. Ho ji! Ho ji! To land upon the bosomy earth, first one needs to fly. Ta-taa! Taka-thun! How to ever smile again, if first you won't cry? How to win the darling's love, mister, without a sigh? Baba, if you want to get born again...' Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses *I took some liberties with this one. Since he's singing a song, I put the whole thing in since it's really just one line in my opinion.
5. There are just two kind of people in the world: those who will help you and those who won't. Allan Gurganus, Plays Well With Others The title of this chapter happens to be Thirty Dildos. God, I love this book.
6. Deborah Sweet is balanced on the little chair by my desk, leaning forward and looking deep into my eyes. Abigail Zuger, MD. Strong Shadows: Scenes from an Inner City AIDS Clinic - This one is here because my copy of And The Band Played On has disappeared. This is #2 of the medical books I own.
7. On February, 24, 1815, the lookout at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the arrival of the three-master Pharaon, coming from Smyrna, Trieste and Naples. Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
8. The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. William Golding, Lord of the Flies
9. Suppose that you and I were sitting in a quiet room overlooking a garden, chatting and sipping at our cups of green tea while we talked about something that had happened a long while ago, and I said to you, "That afternoon when I met so-and-so...was the very best afternoon of my life, and also the very worst afternoon." Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
10. Abandon all hope ye who enter here is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisment for Les Miserables on its side blocking his view, but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not American, does so. Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho