Tag Archives: first pages

Great Opening Paragraph 142… ‘The Crow Road’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.”
Iain BanksFrom ‘The Crow Road’ by Iain Banks

Here’s my review of THE QUARRY by Iain Banks.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Middlesex’ by Jeffery Eugenides 
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard 
American Psycho’ by Brett Easton Ellis 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara THE CROW ROAD by Iain Banks #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gH via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 141… ‘David Copperfield’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.”
Charles DickensFrom ‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens

Here’s the #FirstPara of another novel by Charles Dickens:-
A TALE OF TWO CITIES 

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters 
‘Death in Summer’ by William Trevor 
‘1984’ by George Orwell 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#FirstPara DAVID COPPERFIELD by Charles Dickens #books #amreading https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7gC via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 136… ‘High-Rise’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Now that everything had returned to normal, he was surprised that there had been no obvious beginning, no point beyond which their lives had moved into a clearly more sinister dimension. With its forty floors and thousand apartments, its supermarket and swimming-pools, bank and junior school – all in effect abandoned in the sky – the high-rise offered more than enough opportunities for violence and confrontation.” JG BallardFrom ‘High-Rise’ by JG Ballard

And try the first paragraph of SUPER-CANNES, another novel by JG Ballard.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Affinity’ by Sarah Waters 
‘Divisadero’ by Michael Ondaatje 
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara HIGH-RISE by JG Ballard https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79L via @SandraDanby

Great Opening Paragraph 133… ‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“The first time I met Lillian Pentecost, I nearly caved her skull in with a piece of lead pipe.”
Stephen SpotswoodFrom ‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood #1Pentecost&Parker

Click the title to read my review of FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt 
‘Jack Maggs’ by Peter Carey 
‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ by Thomas Hardy 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-79u via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 10… ‘Sacred Hearts’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“Before the screaming starts, the night silence of the convent is alive with its own particular sounds.”
Sarah DunantFrom ‘Sacred Hearts’ by Sarah Dunant

Try one of these #FirstPara & discover a new author:-
‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Ernest Hemingway
‘Time Will Darken It’ by William Maxwell
‘Nineteen Minutes’ by Jodi Picoult

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara SACRED HEARTS by Sarah Dunant http://wp.me/p5gEM4-f0 via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 9… ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn’t his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I’ve changed all the names.”
Kurt Vonnegut JrFrom ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Spies’ by Michael Frayn
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami
‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr http://wp.me/p5gEM4-eX via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 2… ‘Middlesex’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. Specialized readers may have come across me in Dr Peter Luce’s study, ‘Gender Identity in 5-Alpha-Reductase Pseudohermaphrodites,’ published in the Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology in 1975. Or maybe you’ve seen my photograph in chapter sixteen of the now sadly outdated ‘Genetics and Heredity.’ That’s me on page 578, standing naked beside a height chart with a black box covering my eyes.” Jeffrey Eugenides From ‘Middlesex’ by Jeffrey Eugenides 

Read my review of THE MARRIAGE PLOT, also by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘American Psycho’ by Brett Easton Ellis
‘Astonishing Splashes of Colour’ by Clare Morrall
‘Queen Camilla’ by Sue Townsend

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