Deb D. did this over at her blog–we’d played it recently over at Sounis and had a lot of fun. If you decide to join in, please leave me a link! I’d love to see your favorites.

1. Pick 5 of your favorite books.

2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!) [I also cut any very obvious indicators, such as place or character names.]

3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

First lines:

1. On a clear August evening, bourne upon the light breath of a fair wind, the fleet was entering Torbay. The sight was so lovely that the men and women in the fishing villages grouped around the bay gazed in wonder and stilled the busyness of their lives for a moment to stand and watch, shielding their eyes with their hands, trying in their own way, consciously or unconsciously, to imprint this picture upon their memory so deeply that it should be for them a treasure while life should last.
2. She scowled at her glass of orange juice. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (points to Emera).
3. The queen waited. Sitting at the window, she watched the lights of the town glow in the last of the long twilight. (This is the first sentence of the Prologue. The first sentence of the first chapter is: “_______ sat in his room.” Second sentence: On the table in front of him was a piece of paper meant to hold a report on the squad of men he directed.) The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (points to Jess)
4. In the land of _____, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the oldest of three. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (points to Emera again).
5. ________ ____ sat at her writing-table and stared out into Mecklenburg Square. The late tulips made a brave show in the Square garden, and a quartet of early tennis-players were energetically calling the score of rather erratic and unpracticed game.

Just for fun I decided to throw in a twist and do the last lines of five other books:

1. His profession was all that could ever make her friends wish that tenderness less; the dread of a future war all that could dim her sunshine. She gloried in being a sailor’s wife, but she must pay the tax of quick alarm for belonging to that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance. Persuasion by Jane Austen (points to Becca!)
2. The weight of this sad time we must obey;/Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say./The oldest hath borne most; we that are young/Shall never see so much nor live so long.
3. “I love you.” And she believed him. (Okay, this one is kind of cheating because a book from the same series appears in the first lines above. But it really and truly is one of my favorite last lines ever.) The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (points to Becca again)
4. I went with him into the night. Sunshine by Robin McKinley (points to Emera)
5. His own words are a pledge of this: –”My Master,” he says, “has forewarned me. Daily He announces more distinctly, — ‘Surely I come quickly!’ and hourly I more eagerly respond,– ‘Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!’” (Be careful on this one.) I did this one a little more accurately–it’s difficult to figure out exactly where to break it up.