You Got 79% Right!
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)...
More like this
I have been preoccupied with other things recently, so I did not post an online quiz over the weekend, as I usually do. I hope that you can forgive me, especially since I found this quiz that you might enjoy.
The latest quiz to sweep blogspace is this quiz, which tests your ability to distinguish between quotes from comments at Little Green Footballs and quotes from Late German Fascists.
Hey, I got 79% too! And I was just guessing for a whole lot of them.
Shhh!
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?
No, Michael. You only have to read the first lines.
But then they suck you in...
Bob (93%)
Can I strongly recommend you don't try to read the Bulwer-Lytton?
Oh dear. I've just been reminded of something.
Bob
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).
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.
I've always been fond of
, the opening sentence of "The Number of the Beast --"