And That's Just The First Line!

"The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there."

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."


In order to get interested in a book, it needs to have a good first line to capture your interest. These are first lines from some books you may or may not have read.  The first is from a book titled "The Go Between," and was written by L.P. Hartley in 1953. The second was from "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Hurston, and that was written in 1937.  Don't those sound interesting? Do the opening lines make you wonder what the book is about?

Which of these books have you read? Look them up in your library for some great escapes!

     1. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of Number 4 Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

      2. I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair........

     3. The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him "Wild Thing!"

      4. Once there was a tree, and she loved a little boy.

      5.  Call me Ishmael.

      6.  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 season of Light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

        7. The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.

       8. You better not never tell nobody but God. 

       9. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 

      10. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. 

      11. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

      12. When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.

      13. All children, except one, grow up.

      14. My suffering left me sad and gloomy.

      15. My high school friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life.

Here are the titles of the books they are from, the years written, and authors.
1-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997, J.K. Rowling
2-Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad, Day, 1972, Judith Viorst
3-Where the Wild Things Are, 1988, Maurice Sendak
4-The Giving Tree, 1963, Shel Silverstein
5-Moby Dick, 1851, Herman Melville
6-A Tale of Two Cities, 1859, Charles Dickens
7-The Red Badge of Courage, 1895, Stephen Crane
8-The Color Purple, 1982, Alice Walker
9-The Great Gatsby, 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald*
10-The Old Man and the Sea, 1952, Ernest Hemingway
11-1984, written in 1949, George Orwell
12-To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960, Harper Lee
13-Peter Pan, 1911, J.M. Barrie
14-The Life of Pi, 2001, Yann Martel
15-A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, 2007

*Fitzgerald was from Minnesota

Here are web sites to give you some ideas for great reading:
Young Adult books:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/01/10-of-the-best-young-adult-books-of-january-2018.html

Adult books: http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/10-of-the-most-exciting-book-releases-for-2018.html



Ask your friends to recommend books they have read. If you like an author, try another book by the same author. The library website can suggest books based on your interests. And don't be shy about asking your local librarian to suggest books you would enjoy. You can re-visit books you loved when you were little (and share them!). Try a genre (type) of book you don't normally read: Science Fiction, History, Biography, Self-Help (Life advice), books about animals, Religion....categories are almost limitless...
Here's how to find different non-fiction (facts) books by their numbers:

You and your friends might have interesting books you can swap, or some titles may be available for free download. Try taking a book outside and reading there on a nice summer's day. It's way better than texting. Honest.