Read it or Weep

First and Last Lines July 28, 2009

   I am a last page person. I will admit…. I will read the last page of a novel before I read the first page to decide if I want to read that particular book. Yes, I’m the one standing either in the bookstore or library reading the last page first before I make my selection. How could you not want to read the book that ended like this:     “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! –Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843)
     I do like first lines too. Obviously, I am a lover of Charles Dickens and his works. This line has stayed with me since the first time I read it when I was in the sixth grade:  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
     The American Book Review has a link to their 100 favorite first and last lines of novels. Check it out…perhaps one of your favorite lines will be listed there:      http://americanbookreview.org/
      I also love that Peanuts cartoon with Snoopy on his doghouse typing, “It was a dark and stormy night…”  Would you believe that line is a basis of a writing contest? I’m not sure I would want to be a winner of that contest but here’s the information about the contest and this year’s winner:   http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_odd_worst_writing 

 Of course, I always like my last line…Happy Reading!         ~Donna