audience participation: bibliomeme

[johncomic]

Step 1: Pick out 10 books you love.
Step 2: Write down the first line (or two, if you feel it necessary)--and try to avoid using specific terms, character or place names if possible.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess where the quote is from. (No fair Googling!)
Step 4: When someone guesses correctly, italicize the quote and put the title and author after it, with credit to the first correct guesser.


1) "Hey, Mouse! Play us something," one of the mechanics called from the bar.

2) Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, Watchmen -- nailed 2005-09-12 by scoreboard

3) Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith. -- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land -- nailed 2005-09-11 by angelamermaid

4) The apartments of Joaz Banbeck, carved deep from the heart of a limestone crag, consisted of five principal chambers, on five different levels.

5) A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

6) Story, place and time -- these are the essentials. The story is simple. There was a boy who bought the planet Earth.

7) That golden shape on the golden steps shook and fluttered like a bird gone mad --

8) Right in the middle of my life, I realized that I wasn't where I wanted to be.

9) Warning! You think about 60,000 thoughts a day.

10) In the year 1901, it was the custom at Harvard for seniors to entertain the incoming freshmen at "beer night", where crackers and cheese and beer, to those who drank, and ginger ale, to those who did not drink, were served.

Finally, an extra gimme -- I love it too much to leave out, but it won't remain a puzzle for more than about two nanoseconds:
11) 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. -- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings/The Fellowship of the Ring -- nailed 2005-09-11 by viridescence

Comments

[viridescence13]

Gee, I think #11 just might be Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkein. :)

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

You win the Itchy Trigger Finger Award® ! ;)

[viridescence13]

Heh. Thanks.

[angelamermaid.livejournal.com]

Is #3 A Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein?

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Got it in one, Red-Hot... :)

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

1) [Warning: I can't put my hands on this book for the time being, so this first one is quoted from memory -- if my inaccuracy throws you, I crave your forgiveness]: "Hey, Mouse! Play us something!"

No idea.

However, given your interests and background I'm going to extrapolate that this is the opening of the comic novel Maus, which I have never read.

[jb-27.livejournal.com]

I don't think that any of the characters in Maus are actually named "Mouse." I'm thinking of Ladyhawk, myself.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Also nope. :)

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Nice try, and I follow your reasoning... but nope. :)

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

#2 - the correct answer is Watchmen, by Alan Moore; the quote attributable to Rohrschach's journal from (I think) October 1, 1985.

The above referenced entirely from memory ;]

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

October 12... close enough [along with nailing everything else bang on] to entitle you to this:

Damb yer good! :)

[scoreboard.livejournal.com]

Rohrschach was the role model for my tech support work ;]

[sboyko.livejournal.com]

I'm going to guess #4 is "Caves of Steel", by Isaac Asimov. I could go downstairs and pull it out of the box, but I'm too lazy.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Interesting guess, but nope. Wrong book and wrong author. [Some of you playing at home may have detected an extremely subtle clue there...]