Tag Archives: first paragraphs

Great Opening Paragraph 34… ‘Lolita’ #amreading #FirstPara

Leave a reply

“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.”
Vladimir NabokovFrom ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Inheritance of Loss’ by Kiran Desai
‘Notes on a Scandal’ by Zoe Heller
‘Bel Canto’ by Ann Patchett

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov https://wp.me/p5gEM4-kO via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 33… ‘The Sense of an Ending’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“I remember, in no particular order:
– a shiny inner wrist;
– steam rising from a wet sink as a hot frying pan is laughingly tossed into it;
– gouts of sperm circling a plughole before being sluiced own the full length of a tall house;
– a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams;
– another river, broad and grey, the direction of its flow disguised by a stiff wind exciting the surface;
– bathwater long gone cold behind a locked door.
This last isn’t something I actually saw, but what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.”
Julian BarnesFrom ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes

Read my reviews of these other novels by Julian Barnes:-
THE NOISE OF TIME
THE ONLY STORY

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard
‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ by Helen Fielding
‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes https://wp.me/p5gEM4-nE via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 32… ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake. There was also a great stillness. When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.”
John McGahernFrom ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Crying of Lot 49’ by Thomas Pynchon
‘The Fortunes of War’ by Olivia Manning
‘The Impressionist’ by Hari Kunzru

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN by John McGahern https://wp.me/p5gEM4-mo  via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 20… ‘Notes on a Scandal’ #amreading #FirstPara

4 Replies

“1 March 1998. The other night at dinner, Sheba talked about the first time that she and the Connolly boy kissed. I had heard most of it before, of course, there being few aspects of the Connolly business that Sheba has not described to me several times over. But this time round, something new came up. I happened to ask her if anything about the first embrace had surprised her. She laughed. Yes, the smell of the whole thing had been surprising, she said. She hadn’t anticipated his personal odour and if she had, she would probably have guessed at something teenagey: bubble gum, cola, feet.”
Zoe Heller From ‘Notes on a Scandal’ by Zoe Heller 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
‘I’ll Take You There’ by Joyce Carol Oates
‘Death in Summer’ by William Trevor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara NOTES ON A SCANDAL by Zoe Heller http://wp.me/p5gEM4-84 via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 19… ‘Catch-22’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“It was love at first sight.
The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.”
Joseph Heller From ‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami
‘The Philosopher’s Pupil’ by Iris Murdoch
‘The Bell Jar’ by Sylvia Plath

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller http://wp.me/p5gEM4-fc via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 18… ‘The Ghost Road’ #amreading #FirstPara

Leave a reply

“In deck-chairs all along the front the bald pink knees of Bradford businessmen nuzzled the sun.”
Pat BarkerFrom ‘The Ghost Road’ by Pat Barker #1RegenerationTrilogy

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier
‘The Murder Room’ by PD James
‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’ by John McGahern

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE GHOST ROAD by Pat Barker http://wp.me/p5gEM4-ev via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 17… ‘The Hobbit’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.”
JRR Tolkien From ‘The Hobbit’ by JRR Tolkien 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘A Bouquet of Barbed Wire’ by Andrea Newman
‘The Guest Cat’ by Takashi Hiraide
‘Before I Go to Sleep’ by SJ Watson

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE HOBBIT by JRR Tolkien http://wp.me/p5gEM4-gZ via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 16… ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ #amreading #FirstPara

2 Replies

“Spring 1521. I could hear a roll of muffled drums. But I could see nothing but the lacing on the bodice of the lady standing in front of me, blocking my view of the scaffold. I had been at this court for more than a year and attended hundreds of festivities; but never before one like this.”
Philippa GregoryFrom ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ by Philippa Gregory

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘The Cement Garden’ by Ian McEwan
‘Midnight’s Children’ by Salman Rushdie
‘Herzog’ by Saul Bellow

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by @PhilippaGBooks http://wp.me/p5gEM4-eI via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 15 ‘Spies’ #amreading #FirstPara

1 Reply

“The third week of June, and there it is again: the same almost embarrassingly familiar breath of sweetness that comes every year about this time. I catch it on the warm evening air as I walk past the well-ordered gardens in my quiet street, and for a moment I’m a child again and everything’s before me – all the frightening, half-understood promise of life.”
Michael FraynFrom ‘Spies’ by Michael Frayn 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene
‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote
‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’ by Haruki Murakami

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara SPIES by Michael Frayn https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-4a4 via @SandraDanby

Great opening paragraph 14… ‘Rebecca’ #amreading #FirstPara

Leave a reply

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.”
Daphne du Maurier From ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier 

Try one of these #FirstParas & discover a new author:-
‘Sacred Hearts’ by Sarah Dunant
‘The Sea The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch
‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books #FirstPara REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier http://wp.me/p5gEM4-8c via @SandraDanby