labellementeuse | (no subject)

A bastard child of the lyrics meme, so of course I'm guaranteed to love this one: first lines of 20 books (or, you know, however many you can cope with), friendslist guesses titles and authors. I grabbed the 17 books closest (restricting to books that I've actually read, because I still have a pile on my floor from the second hand bookstore) plus the three books whose first lines I actually know off by heart, whether because they're distinctive or because I've re-read the books a million times. Some of these are pretty much gimmes, but hey. I considered deleting names from #1 and #12, but #1 would just be sad and couldn't be bothered for #12.

1. There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis

aim_toothpaste

2. Part of the problem, Nita thought as she tore desperately down Rose Avenue, is that I can't keep my mouth shut.
So You Want To Be A Wizard, Diane Duane

kitsunerei88

3. When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the cinema, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.
The Outsiders, SE Hinton

gabbysun

4. The woman put her sad moon-face in at the window of the car.
Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt

sennical

5. Ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity, baripity - Good. His dad had the pick-up going.
Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson

lady_larla

6. In a noisy, rattling aeroplane with four propellors and two stewardesses who speak with New Zealand accents and serve dinky little meals of New Zealand lamb chops and Watties' peas and Anchor best creamery butter: going east, going south, going cold, going home.
Songs for Alex, Tessa Duder

lady_larla (after some vocal deliberation)

7. "Too many!" James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.
The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper

sennical

8. Mr. Salteena was an elderly man of 42 and was fond of asking peaple to stay with him.
Ed: Typo from text, and if that's not a hint I'm sure I don't know what is.

9. The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory.
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson

kphoebe

10. For the first fifteen years of our lives, Danny and I lived within five blocks of each other and neither of us knew of the other's existence.
The Chosen, Chaim Potok

sennical

11. There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

manic_subbie

12. When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle, everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

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13. Any Christmas visitor looking for Carnival's Hide dropped down from the hilltops by a shingle road that elbowed its way across the farmland already scrawled over by sheep tracks.
The Tricksters, Margaret Mahy

kphoebe

14. It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport".
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, Douglas Adams

mandor700

15. Women on their own run in Alice's family.
Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver

sennical

16. When she was studying in the Silent Precincts, the Rodmistresses had warned her: If you're going to look for meaning in a dream, first make sure it's your own.
Door into Shadow, Diane Duane

chattycheese

17. Caroline stood in the summer rain with her head thrown back and her arms wide.
The World Around the Corner, Maurice Gee

shoeless_girl

18. One sunny morning in the spring of 1878, the steamship Ingrid Linde, the pride of the Anglo-Baltic shipping line, vanished in the Baltic Sea.
Shadow in the North, Philip Pullman

angry_in_pink

19. It was nearing midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office, reading a long memo that was slipping through his brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind.
Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, JK Rowling

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20. We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

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