This week we had to pick ten novels and write down the beginning and ending lines of each. These are a few of the novels that I have enjoyed reading the most over the past few years, though there are so many more that are worth mentioning.
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Book 1: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – by J. R. R. Tolkien
CHAPTER I: A Long Expected Party
Opening Line: When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.
CHAPTER XXII: The Breaking of the Fellowship
Closing Line: Then shouldering their burdens, they set off, seeking a path that would bring them over the grey hills of the Emyn Muil, and down into the Land of the Shadows.
Book 2: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – by C. S. Lewis
CHAPTER I: Lucy Looks into a Wardrobe.
Opening Line: Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.
CHAPTER XVI: The Hunting of the White Stag
Closing Line: “Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia. But don’t go trying to use the same route twice.”
Book 3: Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
CHAPTER I: The Scandal in Bohemia
Opening Line: To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.
CHAPTER XII: The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
Closing Line: As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success.
Book 4: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – by Jules Verne
PART I – CHAPTER I: A SHIFTING REEF
Opening line: The year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten.
PART I – CHAPTER XXIII: THE CORAL KINGDOM
Closing Line: “Yes, Sir, of sharks and men,” gravely replied the captain.
PART 2 – CHAPTER I: THE INDIAN OCEAN
Opening Line: We now come to the second part of our journey under the sea. The first ended with the moving scene in the coral cemetery, which left such a deep impression on my mind.
PART 2 – CHAPTER XXIII: CONCLUSION
Closing Line: And to the question asked by Ecclesiastes 3,000 years ago, “That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can find it out?” two men alone of all now living have the right to give an answer- CAPTAIN NEMO AND MYSELF.
The End.
Book 5: Her Daughters Dream – by Francine Rivers
CHAPTER I: Hildemara Rose
Opening Line: Hildemara lay in the darkness, her nightgown damp with perspiration.
CHAPTER XLI:
Closing Line: The End
Book 6: The Swiss Family Robinson – by Johann David Wyss
CHAPTER I: Shipwreck
Opening Line: For many days we had been tempest-tossed.
CHAPTER XVIII: An English Ship
Closing Line: I finish these few lines whilst the ship’s boat is waiting. My sons will thus receive my last blessing. May God ever be with them. Adieu I
Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – by J. K. Rowling
CHAPTER I: The Dark Lord Ascending
Opening Line: The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.
CHAPTER XXXVI: The Flaw in the Plan
Closing Line: “That wand’s more trouble than it’s worth,” said Harry. “And quite honestly,” he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the four poster bed lying waiting for him in Griffindor Tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, “I’ve had enough trouble for a lifetime.”
EPILOUGE: Nineteen years later
The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.
Book 8: Black Beauty – by Anna Sewell
CHAPTER I: My Early Home
Opening Line: The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it.
CHAPTER XLIX: My Last Home
Closing Line: My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple-trees.
THE END
Book 9: The Secret Garden – by Frances Hodgson Burnett
CHAPTER I: There’s No One Left
Opening Line: When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody thought she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.
CHAPTER XXVII: In the Garden
Closing Line: And by his, side with his head up in the air and his eyes full of laughter walked as strongly and steadily as any boy in Yorkshire–Master Colin.
Book 10: Star Trek Academy: Collision Course – by William Shatner (with Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Judith Reeves-Stevens)
CHAPTER I:
Opening Line: That first night in San Francisco when it all began was cool and gray and thick with fog. Soft billows of it drifted over the Academy, causing its tall locked gates to phase in and out of visibility for the teenager dressed in black, lost in the shadows across Pacific Street.
CHAPTER LVI:
Closing Line: He was seventeen years old and this should have been the best day of his life. But it wasn’t. There was no one he could share his news with. Jim Kirk was alone and he didn’t like it.
Leahstps 