Book meme

[gridlore]

Found scribbled in the margins of collie13

1. Choose five to ten of your all time favorite books.
2. Take the first sentence of the first chapter and make a list in your journal.
3. Don't reveal the author or the title of the book.

Y'all get to guess the book. When someone gets it, I'll post why it is one of my favorites.

1. They moved swiftly, silently, with purpose under a crystalline, star-filled night in western Siberia. Tom Clancey - Red Storm Rising. Another good epic tale, a bit dated now, but still a good read. (Patrik Holmström, who doesn't have a journal, got this one.)

2. The blue Mercedes turned into the big circular drive of the Beverly Hills mansion at precisely five after six.

3. I always get the shakes before a drop. Robert A Heinlein - Starship Troopers. Far and away my favorite Heinlein, this book more than anything else affected my views towards military service. (Target ID by arib)

4. Once there was a dead man. Larry Niven - A World Out of Time. My favorite Niven story of all time. The epic scope of the tale, the changed Earth, everything just grabbed me as a kid and still hasn't let go. (cmdr_zoom got this one.)

5. George Enos was gutting haddock on the noisome deck of the steam trawler Ripple when Fred Butcher, the first mate, sang out, "Smoke off the starboard bow!" Harry Turtledove - The Great War: American Front. I'm a sucker for alternate history, and the Great War/American Empire/Return Engagement series has to be one of the all-time greatest efforts in that genre. You really believe in the Confederacy of these books. (That fine Southern gentleman aurictech kindly identified this book.)

6. In the nighttime heart of Beirut, in one of a row of general-address transfer booths, Louis Wu flicked into reality. Larry Niven - Ringworld. Again, Niven's epic scale and vision blew me away. (valkyrwench and smdr_zoom have simutanious timestamps getting this one.)

7. Two tanks, American, which showed signs of hard use, moved slowly down a path.

8. On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below. Thorton Wilder - The Bridge at San Luis Rey. This book, more than any other, affected how I view history... not merely as dates and events, but as the people who were part of those events. The Canterbury Tales do the same thing, but I read those later on. (ID by an anonymous poster.)

9. Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. Dashiell Hammett - The Maltese Falcon The best hard-boiled detective story ever, and set in my hometown! (pauldrye got this one.)

10. The anchorman looked earnestly into the cameras, seemingly wide-awake despite the early morning hour.

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

3. I always get the shakes before a drop.

Heinlein's Starship Troopers?

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Damn, beat me to it.

I think #1 is Walter Jon Williams, Hardwired.
The setting of #6 is obvious, but I'm not sure which one exactly. "Flatlander"?

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Oh! Just remembered #4. That's the opening for A World Out of Time, or the short story that spawned it; the dead man in question is Jerome Corbell.

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

The title to the short story was... I was going to say "Tourist," but I'm not so certain, now.

[10binary-cats.livejournal.com]

The Original was "Rammer"

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

I thought "Rammer" was the one about the guy who was stranded in deep space and saved by some golden robot thing, talking to a dedicated amateur people-watcher.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Wait. #6 is Ringworld.

Actually...

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

...I think #4 is from Hardwired, but I'm too tired to look it up.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I think I know what #6 and #10 are, but I'm not going to guess until I can find my books at home (I'm at work).

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

#6 - Ringworld. I love the Ringworld series.

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

#5: Harry Turtledove's The American Front (from the Great War series)

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

WRT #3, I don't recall getting the shakes before a drop (although, I must admit that I didn't have any combat jumps). I was too busy building up to a big ol' grin, greeting the green light with a hearty call of "It's showtime!" Once the green light came on, and I had sounded off with my ritual call, I was always too busy attending to business to worry about the shakes. Besides, I always had my Airborne Gumby in my pocket to reassure me....

[collie13.livejournal.com]

Hey, no fair -- you didn't comment on any of my book choices, and the ones of yours I recognized have already been identified! ;)

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I looked at yours, and the only one I recognized had already been hit.

[collie13.livejournal.com]

S'okay, I'm just teasing you. ;)

[claire.livejournal.com]

I have seen this meme it quite a few places, and #3 on yours is the only one I've gotten straight away. It'd also probably appear at #1 on my list.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

#1 is a Tom Clancy book, though I couldn't begin to tell you which one as the few I've read all kind of blur together. I'm figuring The Hunt for Red October does not begin on the Russian steppes....

#8 is that Thorton Wilder book about the monk who sees the bridge collapse and goes off the theological deep-end about why the people had to die. Uh...The Bridge?

#9 is The Maltese Falcon, of course.

[(Anonymous)]

>>#1 is a Tom Clancy book, though I couldn't begin to tell you which one as the few I've read all kind of blur together. I'm figuring The Hunt for Red October does not begin on the Russian steppes....<<

It's from his first book "Red Storm Rising".

Patrik Holmström

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

If you're right about #1, it's probably Red Storm Rising, since Cardinal of the Kremlin opens in Afghanistan. (IIRC. It's been years since I read that one.)

#9 is obviously Hammett, but when it's not one of the Continental Op stories, I must bow to someone else's knowledge.

-M

[(Anonymous)]

8 is Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder, I think, which has been a nightmare scenario for a really long time. 9 is of course The Maltese Falcon , Hammett.

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Anonymous