Answers to book quiz - first lines

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As promised here are the answers to the quiz I posted at the beginning of the week, plus a little about why I chose some of them. 1. It was love at first sight: CATCH 22 JOSEPH HELLER - I know this was a real stinker and I don't think anyone guessed it, this is my absolute fave book so I had to include it - even though it was quite hard. (PS if anyone who's read it is thinking "eh?" - he is talking about the Chaplain) 2. Jack Torrance thought: officious little bleep - THE SHINING STEPHEN KING - I like this coz it pretty much sums up the character, I also really enjoy the book (much better than the film) 3. When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD HARPER LEE. I think nearly everyone got this right. I love how the start of the book seems so innocuous and starts with a common childhood tribulation, it doesn't give a hint to what the book is really about. 4. I will not drink more than 14 alcohol units a week. BRIDGET JONES' DIARY HELEN FIELDING. I wouldn't say this was one of my fave books, but I like the writing style and does hit a little close to home sometimes (doesn't help we've got the same surname) 5. It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when father wolf woke up from his day's rest..... JUNGLE BOOK RUDYARD KIPLING - I really like the image this line conjures up, of a wolf stretching his toes - I can really see it in my mind. 6. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ. This is my fave opening line of any book I have ever read. I just love it. How can anyone who reads this sentance not want to know who Colonel Aureliano is and why he is facing the firing squad. I also like the notion of discovering ice, and why it would be on his mind when facing death. I already know the answers to these but sitting here writing this, reading over that first line..oh I want to read it again - I just think it's great!! 7. On an exceptionally hot evening in July a young man came out of the garrett in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, toward K Bridge. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT FYODER DOSTOEVSKY I think I've only read this once, but I remember enjoying it, and for some reason the beginning always stuck in my mind. 8. I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support. DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL ANNE FRANK. It just makes me sad - she was probably thinking she would be confiding normal school girl tribulations and secrets, unaware of what would lie ahead. It almost feels instrusive reading this book, especially as we already know happens to her. 9. Idle reader, you can believe without any oath of mine that I would wish this book, as the child of my brain, to be the most beautiful, the liveliest and the cleverest imaginable. DON QUIXOTE CERVANTES. I have never actually read this book, although I have started it several times. I've been amused by the first part though. 10. In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. FAREWELL TO ARMS ERNEST HEMINGWAY. I didn't think this opening really stood out - and is quite simplistic, doesn't really tell you anything so I was quite surprised that many people got it. It's the only one of his I've read so I don't know much about his style but a couple noted that it was Hemingwayesque. I would be interested to know in what way this sounds like a Hemingway. So, how did you do? Hopefully this has inspired you to read some of these titles!!