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One man's struggle against impermanence
John Wilkins is an eternal student, who thinks philosophy of biology is at least as interesting as politics or sport and twice as important. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne and worked at the University of Queensland, in Australia, before taking up a research fellowship at the University of Sydney. After a varied career, involving factories, gardening, civil service, publishing, graphics, public relations but not, unfortunately for the CV, driving a truck, John finally completed his thesis on species concepts in 2004, which he has worked into two books.
This blog is designed evolved to host any random thoughts that happen to be passing through my forebrain at a given moment. So there will be errors...
I also have an Australia-focussed blog: The Drought Resistant Philosopher
The previous instantiation of this blog is accessible here.
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Category: Administrative • Humor
Posted on: March 4, 2007 5:27 AM, by John S. Wilkins
Very very nice. You've got the basic classics down cold, and a few of the less mainstream ones as well. You get a gold star for brightness!
Famous First Lines Quiz
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz
So it's a while since I read any fiction (Pratchett and Neal Stephenson don't count)...
Did you like this post? If so, please click on the "Share this" link above and add it to your favourite social bookmarking service, or submit it to the Open Laboratory 2009 via the link on the left bottom of the page. Many thanks. John.
Comments
Hey, I got 79% too! And I was just guessing for a whole lot of them.
Posted by: Eamon Knight | March 4, 2007 10:16 PM
Shhh!
Posted by: John Wilkins | March 4, 2007 10:45 PM
Now I'm frustrated. I was doing a lot of guessing there, and they don't give the correct answers after you take the quiz, so now I'm going to have to actually read all those books to find out which ones I got right and which ones I got wrong.
Surely that's not what they intended, is it?
Posted by: Michael Burton | March 5, 2007 1:21 AM
No, Michael. You only have to read the first lines.
But then they suck you in...
Bob (93%)
Posted by: Bob O'H | March 5, 2007 1:58 AM
Can I strongly recommend you don't try to read the Bulwer-Lytton?
Posted by: John Wilkins | March 5, 2007 2:24 AM
Oh dear. I've just been reminded of something.
Bob
Posted by: Bob O'H | March 5, 2007 2:20 PM
I wonder how many books are famous primarily for their first lines, such that almost everyone knows the line, and relatively few have read the book.
Bulwer-Lytton, obviously. Possibly Moby Dick as well (yes, I've read it). Then there's Dickens' "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times..." (David Copperfield? Haven't read it anyways).
Posted by: Eamon Knight | March 5, 2007 5:55 PM
Google some more. There was a wonderful blog by a blogger now retired to his Professor job, which solicited favorite first lines from readers. The thread was well over 100 comments long, and probably included over 1,000 first lines.
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | March 5, 2007 10:57 PM
I've always been fond of
, the opening sentence of "The Number of the Beast --"
Posted by: arensb | April 1, 2007 7:46 PM