SA Book & Challenge Lovers discussion

List the book you're reading at the moment, and its first line(s).

Or if you think the first line is boring, give your favourite quote so far.

Fury by Salman Rushdie

"Professor Malik Solanka, retired historian of ideas, irascible dollmaker, and since his recent fifty-fifth birthday celibate and solitary by his own (much criticized choice), in his silvered years found himself living in a golden age."

I also like the line "The city boiled with money."

I love Rushdie's writing, I don't know why I've waited so long to read another of his books.

I finished the book this morning so it might be cheating a bit.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

"Kip crawled toward the battlefield in the darkness, the mist pressing down, blotting out sound, scattering starlight. Though the adults shunned it, he’d played on the open field a hundred times—during the day. Tonight, his purpose was grimmer."

Thanks for the introduction Crusader! My boyfriend will be interested in this book and he was just asking me what he should read next :)

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver



"They say that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that's not how it happened for me."

Crusader wrote: "I finished the book this morning so it might be cheating a bit.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

"Kip crawled toward the battlefield in the darkness, the mist pressi..."

Well, he might want to give The Night Angel trilogy a try before The Black Prism. At least if he gets hooked he wouldn't have to wait for the rest of the books in the series to be written!

True! I'll tell him :)

Ghosts by Paul Auster

"First of all there is Blue. Later there is White, and then there is Black, and before the beginning there is Brown. Brown broke him in, Brown taught his the ropes, and when Brown grew old, Blue took over. That is how it begins. The place is New York, the time is the present, and neither one will ever change. Blue goes to his office every day and sits at his desk, waiting for something to happen. For a long time nothing does, and then a man named White walks through the door, and that is how it begins."

Everyone in this book so far has a colour for a name. Not sure why yet, but I suspect it might be a reference to Cluedo.

Very interesting!

Hex Hall

"Felicia Miller was crying in the bathroom. Again."

Yip that's all :P

MR. JONES, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the popholes.

Animal Farm

lol

Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow

To sleep is to die.
So he clung to the driftwood as the raging seas hurled him high, then plunged him deep into the storm-dark valleys between the waves.

MY EARLIEST MEMORIES INVOLVE FIRE.
I watched Watts, Detroit, and Atlanta burn on the evening news, I saw oceans of
mangroves and palm fronds smolder in napalm as Cronkite spoke of unilateral
disarmament and a war that had lost its reason.

A Drink before the War By Dennis Lehane

I still have to read that one, and the second one, to complete my strange back-to-front reading of the series :)

Lu, I liked Hex Hall. Not for a brainsurgeon but a nice and easy quick read!

Yea a very nice and easy fun read :)

In a pew on the right, a couple of rows ahead of mine, sat a tiny chocolate girl.

Coconut by Kopano Matlwa

Wow that line sounds interesting Tracy! A chocolate girl hehe

What afrikaans books are you reading?

You should ALL read Donatello en Volksie by Marion Erskine! Now that we're talking about Afrikaans! Chick-Lit, written by a straight Afrikaans guy! Hehe! It was funny!

Tracy wrote: "In a pew on the right, a couple of rows ahead of mine, sat a tiny chocolate girl.

Coconut by Kopano Matlwa"

What did you think of Coconut Tracy?
I kind of liked it, but I thought could have used some serious editing in terms of story construction. At times I didn't know which character's story I was listening to.

Lauren wrote: "
What did you think of Coconut Tracy?
I kind of liked it, but I thou..."

It frustrated me so much! The jumping around between times. It felt like she handed in the draft to be published. But once overcoming that hurdle,I loved the eventual stories though. it gave insight to lives I cannot relate to. And it doesn't have any solutions; but I think it works for this book.
Ag, I dunno. I was frowning a lot; won't give it 5 stars though

Niecole wrote: "Wow that line sounds interesting Tracy! A chocolate girl hehe

What afrikaans books are you reading?"

Rooiluiperd by Francois Bloemhof and Op die toneel by Dana Snyman

Tracy wrote: It frustrated me so much! The jumping around between times. It felt like she handed in the draft to be published. "

She won a prize for the book, and I think the conditions for entry were that you had to be an unpublished writer and the book shouldn't need editing... Something like that. A pity, it could have been a much better book. She's written another one now, but I forget the title.

Okay here goes:

"Eva walked betwee the few parked cars at the London Gateway service station off the M1 motorway."

Just finished it but here goes:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"i am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have."

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

The book starts out with New Year's Resolutions, so I'll just pick some I thought were funny:

I WILL NOT:
Behave sluttishly around the house, but instead imagine others are watching.
Get upset over men, but instead be poised and cool ice-queen.
Obsess about Daniel Cleaver as pathetic to have crush on boss in manner of Miss Moneypenny or similar.

I WILL
Purge flat of all extraneous matter.
Go to gym three times a week not merely to buy sandwich.

I also love the term, "emotional fuckwit". Must find an opportunity to use it.

Love it :)

"The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry"

I'm never sure what people want to know when they ask me: "Where are you from?"

The Hindi-Bindi Club

Cracked up to be By Courtney Summers

"Imagine four years.
Four years, two suicides, one death, one rape, two pregnancies (one abortion), three overdoses, countless drunken antics, pantsings, spilled food, theft, fights, broken limbs, turf wars—every day, a turf war—six months until graduation and noone gets a medalwhen they get out. But everything you do here counts.
High school."



Im glad Im not still at school!! :-)

lol yea that sounds a bit hectic

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

"You now have one choice."

A dreadfully boring first line, I much prefer the first line of the novel within the novel, The End of Mr Y:
"By the end I would be nobody, but in the beginning I was known as Mr Y."

"Miss Alexia Tarabotti was not enjoying her evening."

A bit boring, but a few sentences on:

"For Miss Alexia had been born without a soul, which, as any decent vampire of good blooding knew, made her a lady to avoid most assiduously."

"Lousy idea, us sitting like that on the railroad tracks."

"Sometimes the fire that licks the skin fro his bones dies down"

The secret is how to die - The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket

That was kind of him... Can't say he didn't warn anyone.

Great opening :) I love the way they interpreted it for the movie (which was awesome).

Sometimes, I worry I'm not the hero everyone thinks I am.


(I had to use the pretty UK edition!)

"When I was small I never wanted to step in any puddles"

Ooooh I've been wanting to read those, Emma!

NovelYear wrote: "Sometimes, I worry I'm not the hero everyone thinks I am.


(I had to use the pretty UK edition!)"

Are you enjoying it? I've been meaning to read that book for months now but just never seem get to it.

NovelYear wrote: "Ooooh I've been wanting to read those, Emma!"

They are excellent books and although they are 800 pages long they keep you guessing all the way through. There are 8 books altogether upto now another one on the way soon and Anna has said that they get better and better. I am reading them for my epic challenge. Why not give them a try?

Naz: Just finished the first one. It is amazingly good. I highly reccomend it!

Emma: I might just do that. :)

"The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was."

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

"This is the story of a man who went far away for a long time, just to play a Game"

Gosh, is that the first line? I don't remember that.

How are you finding it so far Emma?

I am only on page 32 and found the first few pages quite interesting, stil trying to get into it, and waiting for something to happen. I will let you know how it goes.So far its ok.

"One of the many things I loved about my students - one of the few things I envied - was the way they had it all lying ahead of them: a regatta of possibilities. Even Lyndall, who'd had more lovers than most girls her age, had asked me with such eagerness: 'Violet, what do you think I'll be?'"

Flyleaf by Finuala Dowling

This book is boring, but I guess it was obvious from the first lines the it would be.

I don't believe in ghosts.



I started off disliking this, but it's grown on me.