And yet more first lines - 31st May 2018

Here are today's three opening lines. Answers are at the end. One of these is my own favourite.
'Take my camel, dear,' said my Aunt Dot as she climbed down from this animal on her return from high mass.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.

And if you checked out our Facebook opening line challenge, you will see that the book was Faces in the Water by Janet Frame. All the books mentioned here are available in our shop or on line. If you haven't read them, you should give them a go.

1 Rose Macaulay The Towers of Trebizone 2 Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
3 Margaret Atwood Handmaid's Tale

Some more opening lines - 30th May 2018

If you took the Facebook challenge yesterday, you may have struggled a little to identify the book. It was Noel Virtue's The Redemption of Elsden Bird (see attached picture). If you haven't read it, pop into the shop and get a copy - it's a great book.

Also check out the new challenge of opening lines now on our Facebook page (much more difficult than the ones here).

For today, here are three more really famous opening lines - answers below but no peeking.
All children, except one, grow up.
Marley was dead, to begin with.
It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. Its eyes were closed.


JM Barrie Peter Pan, Charles Dickens Christmas Carol,  Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog .....

Name the book from the first line - 29th May 2018

For anyone who checked out our Facebook page, the opening line was from Robin Hyde's The Godwits Fly. With the missing words put in, the opening line reads "Until the year after the war, life for the Hannays always meant other people's houses, and they wore out a long line of cats, invariably and irrespective of sex, named Tam."

Test yourself with the next three famous opening lines (answers below but don't peek)
"It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen."
"I was born in the city of Bombay... once upon a time."
"Call me Ishmael."

(George Orwell 1984 / Salman Rushdie Midnight's CHildren / Herman Melville Moby Dick)

Opening lines - 28th May 2018

Just in case you've spent the weekend worrying over Friday's mystery dust jacket, it belonged to a Norman Mailer book called Ancient Evenings. Quite an unusual book which is not for the faint-hearted. 

This week we're abandoning dust wrappers and moving on to opening lines. There are many really famous opening lines. For example, see if you can get these three. You might get this first one "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man...." without my even having to finish it. Or this one, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  And last for today, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Answers: Jane Austen/Pride and Prejudice, Tolstoy/Anna Karenina, Dickens/A Tale of Two Cities.

Those were the easy ones. Try the challenge on our Facebook page if you are interested in testing your recall of memorable opening lines.

Last day of dust jackets - 25th May 2018

Yesterday's dust jackets came from two very different authors. One is a famous New Zealand children's writer Margaret Mahy. The book was called The Magician of Hoad. If you haven't read any of her stories to your children, get started now. They are really enjoyable and generations of kiwi kids have grown up addicted to her books.

The second wrapper was from a book called The Comedians by Graham Greene, a very good read, as are all his books. I would say they are must-reads if you haven't already done so.

Try and see if you recognise the dust jacket of today's picture. Only one today as it is quite difficult (I think). A small hint: it is not the Lonely Planet Guide to Egypt.

More dust wrappers - 24th May 2018

You no doubt worked out what yesterday's two books were: one was The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger and the other was Isaac Asimov's I, Robot.  I don't think that version of dust jacket shown yesterday for Asimov's book is as good as some of the earlier ones but that won't affect the content. Both of the above books are definitely worth reading if you haven't already done so. You will find the Salinger in the literature section and the Asimov, unsurprisingly, in the sci fi room.

See how you go with today's two dust wrappers. Name of author and title of book needed.

 

More dust jackets - 23rd May 2018

We've been running a little competition on our Facebook page - name the author and book title from looking at the dust jacket.

You probably saw Monday's two and correctly identified them. One was Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson on the cover in the title role of Randal McMurphy from the film version of the book (and remember the wonderful Nurse Ratched - which actress played her in the film?) The other was A Clockwork Orange by Anthony BUrgess. The cover had Malcolm McDowell in the lead role of the film version.

So can you name book title and author of today's two dust wrappers.

Book covers - 21st May 2018

This week we are having a look at a few book covers, usually known as dust jackets or dust wrappers. They haven't been around as long as you might imagine. They really came into their own after 1900 when the decoration moved from the book itself to the dust jacket. I think around the 1920s the habit of putting the publisher's blurb and critical praise on the back also became quite common.

There are some very collectible dust jackets, the presence of which can make the price of the book skyrocket. There have been several books written on the history of the dust jacket (more interesting than you might think) and there is an entire field of art and artists of the dust wrapper. 

Most of us would recognise a few of the more memorable dust jackets we've seen and I expect we've all got our favourites. Can you identify today's two?