Tag Archives: am reading

Great Opening Paragraph 119… ‘Peter Pan’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up. And the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, ‘Oh, why can’t you remain like this for ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.”
JM BarrieFrom ‘Peter Pan’ by JM Barrie

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Month in the Country’ by JL Carr 
‘These Foolish Things’ by Deborah Moggach 
‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara PETER PAN by JM Barrie https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Jw via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 118… ‘The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“In the middle of the lonesome town, at the back of John Street, in the third house from the end, there is a little room. For this small bracket in the long paragraph of the street’s history, it belongs to Eneas McNulty. All about him the century has just begun, a century some of which he will endure, but none of which will belong to him. There are all the broken continents of the earth, there is the town park named after Father Moran, with its forlorn roses – all equal to Eneas at five, and nothing his own, but that temporary little room. The dark linoleum curls at the edge where it meets the dark wall. There is a pewter jug on the bedside table that likes to hoard the sun and moon on its curve. There is a tall skinny wardrobe with an ancient hatbox on top, dusty, with or without a hat, he does not know. A room perfectly attuned to him, perfectly tempered, with the long spinning of time perfect and patterned in the bright windowframe, the sleeping of sunlight on the dirty leaves of the maple, the wars of the sparrows and the blue tits for the net of suet his mother ties in the tree, the angry rain that puts its narrow fingers in through the putty, the powerful sudden seaside snow that never sits, the lurch of the dark and the utter merriment of mornings.”
Sebastian BarryFrom ‘The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty’ by Sebastian Barry

Read my reviews of these novels by Sebastian Barry:-
A LONG LONG WAY
A THOUSAND MOONS
DAYS WITHOUT END
OLD GOD’S TIME
THE WHEREABOUTS OF ENEAS MCNULTY

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Slaves of Solitude’ by Patrick Hamilton
‘Such a Long Journey’ by Rohinton Mistry
‘Sea Glass’ by Anita Shreve

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE WHEREABOUTS OF ENEAS MCNULTY by Sebastian Barry  https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3Js via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 116… ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“London, the crouching monster, like every other monster has to breathe, and breathe it does in its own obscure, malignant way. Its vital oxygen is composed of suburban working men and women of all kinds, who every morning are sucked up through an infinitely complicated respiratory apparatus of trains and termini into the mighty congested lungs, held there for a number of hours, and then, in the evening, exhaled violently through the same channels.”
Patrick HamiltonFrom ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ by Patrick Hamilton

Read my reviews of THE SLAVES OF SOLITUDE and HANGOVER SQUARE, both by Patrick Hamilton.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Reading Turgenev’ by William Trevor
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘The Ghost Road’ by Pat Barker

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE SLAVES OF SOLITUDE by Patrick Hamilton via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2AD

Great Opening Paragraph 115… ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“On a mountain above the clouds once lived a man who had been the gardener of the Emperor of Japan. Not many people would have known of him before the war, but I did. He had left his home on the rim of the sunrise to come to the central highlands of Malaya. I was seventeen years old when my sister first told me about him. A decade would pass before I travelled up to the mountains to see him.”
Tan Twan EngFrom ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ by Tan Twan Eng

Read my reviews of these novels by Tan Twan Eng:-
THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS
THE GIFT OF RAIN
THE HOUSE OF DOORS

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Armadillo’ by William Boyd
‘To Have and Have Not’ by Ernest Hemingway
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #First Para THE GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS by Tan Twan Eng via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2AL

Great Opening Paragraph 114… ‘Agnes Grey’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge. I sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others; but the world may judge for itself. Shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years, and a few fictitious names, I do not fear to venture; and will candidly lay before the public what I would not disclose to the most intimate friend.”
Anne BrontëFrom ‘Agnes Grey’ by Anne Brontë

Here’s the #FirstPara of JANE EYRE by Anne’s sister, Charlotte Brontë.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote
‘Family Album’ by Penelope Lively

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara AGNES GREY by Anne Brontë http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2xM via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 113… ‘A Good Man in Africa’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“‘Good man,’ said Dalmire, gratefully accepting the gin Morgan Leafy offered him. ‘Oh good man.’ He presents his eager male friendship like a gift, thought Morgan; he’s like a dog who wants me to throw him a stick for him to chase. If he had a tail he’d be wagging it.”
William BoydFrom ‘A Good Man in Africa’ by William Boyd

Try this #FirstPara from ARMADILLO … and read my reviews of these other books by William Boyd:-
ANY HUMAN HEART
LOVE IS BLIND
NAT TATE: AN AMERICAN ARTIST 1928-1960
ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS
SWEET CARESS
THE BLUE AFTERNOON
THE DREAMS OF BETHANY MELLMOTH
TRIO
WAITING FOR SUNRISE

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ by Helen Fielding
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard
‘Middlesex’ by Jeffrey Eugenides

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara A GOOD MAN IN AFRICA by William Boyd http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2si via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 112… ‘Affinity’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“3 August 1873. I was never so frightened as I am now. They have left me sitting in the dark, with only the light from the window to write by. They have put me in my own room, they have locked the door on me. They wanted Ruth to do it, but she would not. She said ‘What, do you want me to lock up my own mistress, who has done nothing?’ In the end the doctor took the key from her & locked the door himself, then made her leave me. Now the house is full of voices, all saying my name. If I close my eyes & listen it might be any ordinary night. I might be waiting for Mrs Brink to come & take me down to a dark circle, & Madeleine or any girl might be there, blushing, thinking of Peter, of Peter’s great dark whiskers & shining hands.’
Sarah WatersFrom ‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters

Here are two more #FirstParas by Sarah Waters:-
THE PAYING GUESTS
TIPPING THE VELVET

Read my review of THE PAYING GUESTS.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Illywhacker’ by Peter Carey
‘Sophie’s World’ by Jostein Gaarder
‘Goldfinger’ by Ian Fleming

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara AFFINITY by Sarah Waters http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2qR via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 111… ‘Reading Turgenev’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“A woman, not yet fifty-seven, slight and seeming frail, eats carefully at a table in a corner. Her slices of buttered bread have been halved for her, her fried egg mashed, her bacon cut. ‘Well, this is happiness!’ she murmurs aloud, but none of the other women in the dining room replies because none of them is near enough to hear. She’s privileged, the others say, being permitted to occupy on her own the bare-topped table in the corner. She has her own salt and pepper.”
William TrevorFrom ‘Reading Turgenev’ by William Trevor

Here’s another #FirstPara by William Trevor:-
DEATH IN SUMMER

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Children Act’ by Ian McEwan
‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen
‘Dance Dance Dance’ by Haruki Murakami

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara READING TURGENEV by William Trevor http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2qN via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 110… ‘Jane Eyre’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.”
Charlotte BrontëFrom ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë

Here’s the #FirstPara of AGNES GREY by Charlotte’s sister, Anne Brontë.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Last Juror’ by John Grisham
‘A Change of Climate’ by Hilary Mantel
‘Astonishing Splashes of Colour’ by Clare Morrall

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2xH

Great Opening Paragraph 109… ‘Sea Glass’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Honora sets the cardboard suitcase on the slab of granite. The door is mackereled, paint-chipped – green or black, it is hard to tell. Above the knocker, there are panes of glass, some broken and others opaque with age. Overhead is a portico of weathered shingles and beyond that a milk-and-water sky. Honora pinches the lapels of her suit together and holds her hat against the wind. She peers at the letter B carved into the knocker and thinks, This is the place where it all begins.”
Anita ShreveFrom ‘Sea Glass’ by Anita Shreve

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Camomile Lawn’ by Mary Wesley
‘Lucky You’ by Carl Hiasson
‘I Capture the Castle’ by Dodie Smith

Read my review of THE STARS ARE FIRE, also by Anita Shreve.

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara SEA GLASS by Anita Shreve http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2xC via @SandraDanby