Classic Novels

First Lines Fridays: October 25, 2019

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

There was once a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself — not just sometimes, but always.
When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he’d bothered. Nothing really interested him — least of all the things that should have.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

Mini-Review: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

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A bored young boy finds a way to travel to a mysterious land which teaches him the importance of words and numbers and most everything else in life.

Rating:  ★★★★★ – loved it

Pros:  puns, word play, beautiful descriptive language, hilarious, clever
Cons:  literally none

This book is absolutely timeless (despite Tock the Watchdog) and everyone regardless of age should read it at least once.

It’s punny and clever, and trusts the reader’s intelligence. It’s even fun to read aloud, so if you have kids read it with them.

Seriously. Just read this book. You’ll be glad you did.

Teaser Tuesday: April 10, 2018

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During all the months that had elapsed since Mrs Hamley’s death, Molly had wondered many a time about the secret she had so unwittingly become possessed of that last day in the Hall library.

– Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, page 334

Version:
Paperback, Oxford World’s Classics, 688 pages
Published March 1st 2009 by Oxford University Press (first published 1866)

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

First Lines Fridays: September 22, 2017

LeeLeave a comment

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park encompasses not only Jane Austen’s great comedic gifts and her genius as a historian of the human animal, but her personal credo as well—her faith in a social order that combats chaos through civil grace, decency, and wit.

At the novel’s center is Fanny Price, the classic “poor cousin,” brought as a child to Mansfield Park by the rich Sir Thomas Bertram and his wife as an act of charity. Over time, Fanny comes to demonstrate forcibly those virtues Austen most admired: modesty, firm principles, and a loving heart. As Fanny watches her cousins Maria and Julia cast aside their scruples in dangerous flirtations (and worse), and as she herself resolutely resists the advantages of marriage to the fascinating but morally unsteady Henry Crawford, her seeming austerity grows in appeal and makes clear to us why she was Austen’s own favorite among her heroines.

Teaser Tuesday:  August 8, 2017

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Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly anybody to love . . . .

– Jane Austen, Persuasion, page 40

Version:
Hardcover, 260 pages
Published June 1995 by Everyman’s Library

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

Completed: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I just want to briefly comment on my lowering Sense and Sensibility from a 4 star novel to a 3 star:

It isn’t that I found the writing less interesting or of lower quality, and I enjoyed the overall story just as much as I remembered. The only real change is that I’m older than I was the first time I read it. An entire decade older, in fact.

When I first read Sense and Sensibility I was aware that Elinor’s behavior was the better of the two, but I didn’t actually see anything all that wrong in Marianne’s. A little dramatic occasionally, but I did always feel everything she did and said was justified and logical.

Now reading it as an adult(ish), I found myself constantly rolling my eyes at Marianne’s melodramatics! And more than once I had to stop and take a break from reading because she was being so completely ridiculous…

Again, I don’t think this is anything against the book. In fact, if you think about it, my changing maturity level changing my view of an immature character’s behavior can only be a testament to the quality of the writing. Austen portrays both an immature teenager and a more mature (but no less emotional) young adult perfectly!

I only rated it lower than before because my enjoyment of the reading experience was less than before. I still think everything about the book to be of the same quality and I still recommend it just as highly as always.

View all my ratings on Goodreads

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Week 1

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Lee is on page 25 of 260

Chapter I – III

I met and surpassed my minimum goal of 1 chapter this week, yay! I actually managed to slog through the first 3 chapters. Though, I think it might have been made easier by the fact that I have read those three chapters several times before. I am officially at the point of the book where I usually give up on Persuasion and go on to reading something less irritating.

I deeply hate Anne’s father… I was literally groaning aloud to myself as he ranted about navy men!

In this post I explained my plan to finally work my way through Jane Austen’s Persuasion (the only book of hers I don’t like at all).

At the end of each week, either Friday or Saturday, I will post an update of my progress and any thoughts, should I have them.