daliamonra
78361
1064
22
It was going to either be educational or NSFW when you go back to my early favs. Glad it was one I could repost.
Feb 24, 2024 2:58 AM
daliamonra
78361
1064
22
It was going to either be educational or NSFW when you go back to my early favs. Glad it was one I could repost.
rbdj
"It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size."
bikergeek6249
"Mother died today. Or, maybe yesterday; I can't be sure." The Stranger by Albert Camus (in English translation obvs.)
CatchySensibleName
"All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn't his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I've changed all the names."
- Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five
intaglioguy
Books are such dangerous weapons the GOP fears them being held in the hands of children far more than they fear those hands holding guns.
Muunk
........and then the murders began.
pxlphile
...and then the dragon arrived.
SpaceCoyote300
Mr. And Mrs. Durdsley, of number 7 Privet drive, were very pleased to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much, and then the murders began...
ProfessorMatt
“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
EatPieLander
I wonder how many of these are banned in The Free State of Florida?
daliamonra
They banned educating people there. So any of them that make you think.
erinaceus
call me ishmael
ErniesWidow
"As often, most gracious ladies, as, taking thought in myself, I mind me how very pitiful [= merciful] you are all by nature, so often do I recognize that this present work will, to your thinking, have a grievous and a weariful beginning, inasmuch as the dolorous remembrance of the late pestiferous mortality, which it beareth on its forefront, is universally irksome to all who saw or otherwise knew it." The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
supervillin
MektaSatakOz
"I will die on this world." Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
KingXizor
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing.
mward1984
No War of the Worlds?
"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water..."
mward1984
With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable.
mward1984
It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
VoxVocisVerum
Verbosity, thy name is Well(e)s.
💕 Beautiful.
mward1984
I like War of the Worlds... but I kind of wish we followed the narrators brother some more, as he has a MUCH more interesting adventure: Fist fighting ruffians to save a pair of ladies, escorting them to the coast, seeing the last battle of the Thunderchild...
GroovyCrowley
“Tosser!” Cried the raven.
There’s always a bloody raven.
"Foolish teachin’ him to talk, if you ask me,” said the sentry.
Christopher Moore - fool
astrangehop
Almost as good as blue (:
daliamonra
Great book! Love his stuff.
BronzeLantern
"Someone knocked on my door. Actually, knocking is too polite of a term for what that bastard was doing. So I’ll rephrase: some shitheel, pompous, incredibly loud asshat was hammering on my door, keeping me from my well deserved rest and waking me up at the crack of dawn. "
nlmaya
What book?
BronzeLantern
Mine, actually. I'm writing one, but still have a way to finish it.
nlmaya
Way to go! Good luck to you!
JokenPo0079
"They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged." Going Postal, DiscWorld, by Sir Terry Prachett.
daliamonra
Finally someone mentioned Pratchett.
VoxVocisVerum
"The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive." - The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.
Blastergv9
"I'm pretty much fucked" - the martian
MollyNapQueen
"That's my considered opinion. Fucked." I like the full quote
eiger3970
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? - STC
petepac25
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Neuromancer by William Gibson
blwoodcock
"And then the murders started."
IUsedToHaveUsernameOnce
Beat me to it :D! Back when I first read Neurmomancer after the first paragraph I was hooked.
BenderRodriguezz
Honorable mention from the same book:
"Sirens dopplered in the distance."
ContentMoose
Such an influential book. One of my favourites!
KilliK69
obligatory: https://youtu.be/RScZrvTebeA
devolutionary
I used to fall asleep to my CD of the Blade Runner Soundtrack.
neoswhiterabbitt
The most important first lines of cyberpunk culture.
BronzeLantern
"When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there's either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world. And there's nothing wrong with my skills." - Patient Zero, Jonathan Maberry
daliamonra
Great series.
knightoftempest
"Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it."
daliamonra
Pratchett knew how to write a great and amazing novel. He is missed
Geistbar
"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."
The Wheel of Time, # 1 The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Geistbar
Also a nice one from a book I'm reading right now:
"It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men."
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence.
mrose50
WoT is still my fav fantasy series, there are better series out there but none are better for getting into epic scale fantasy (the 5+ length series that you really have to commit to reading).
Geistbar
It's my favorite book series bar none. The world building is incredible, the character growth is real and earned. It's also the most re-readable books I've yet encountered. The only book series I've enjoyed more on a re-read than the original read, actually. So much little foreshadowing included to appreciate on re-reads.
MelfsAcidArrow
“… and then the dragons came.”
Iaimtomisbehave
"California, Labor Day weekend ... early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur ...The Menace is loose again, the Hell's Angels, . . ."("The Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga", Hunter S. Thompson)
titoitoi
Nonfiction! Well, most of it, but HST was a master of his craft.
tzahtman
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times
hopeski
"It was the day my grandmother exploded." is the finest opening line to a novel ever!
Selekta
This! Just posted that before seeing this. The Wasp Factory open lines are also great.
GendouLovesDucklings
RIP Iain Banks.
Selekta
He is my most re-read author. Such a huge talent and a huge loss to the world.
Exyr
Catcher in the rye is the most over rated book in history. Also no a brave new world
Tenzil
My HS English teacher told us that Catcher is a book that we might relate to. Even as an angsty, directionless teen myself, I saw Holden Caulfield as a blight upon society.
daliamonra
Catcher in the Rye isn't great but not terrible. Brave New World is the ultimate sex drugs and rock n roll book. Just imagine if someone would go into a Starbucks in the morning rush and trash the place while telling the people he was freeing them from their addictions. It is incredibly astute on many aspects of the modern world.
ivymantled69
Every book sooner or later loses its importance, relevance, or hook in the reader's mind and soul - because the audience changes as time passes.
KuldFyt
I dunno, I feel like Nanni's complaint tablet has stood the test of time...
ElroydIsGone
I never read Catcher in the Rye, but read about it, that it is one uniterrupted string of whiny arrogant rants of an angsty teenager, and BOY does the first sentence already catch that spirit perfectly...
CatchySensibleName
A Brave New World explored some interesting concepts, but I agree that it wasn't a very enjoyable read.
ElroydIsGone
I did very much like it, but it really disturbed me, that while it has always been called a dystopia for obvious reasons, I couldn't find any reason, why the members of that society (from Alphas to Epsilons) would find see it also that way.
Exyr
Much more relevant than 1984
SoberAndBored
Catcher in the Rye is a weird book for me, even though I've never read it. I read 3 different books in a row, different authors, different genres, which all said everyone should read Catcher in the Rye. I considered ordering it, didn't. The next time I bought a load of books off Amazon (when they only sold books), there was an extra book in there: Catcher. OK, that's weird. I moved house not long after, and when I unpacked all my books: no Catcher. The only book that was missing.
mynameisminerva
It's truly not that great of a read. To me, it was a study in an unlikable and unreliable narrator, and I'd never pick it up again. There are too many good books to bother with mediocre ones.
wanjeonhanwalwal
It died and reincarnated as a Goosebump book in poor condition
ps238principal
You forgot one: 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." - Stephen King, 'The Dark Tower.'
daliamonra
Stephen King is pure pulp. They will never really go down as classics, but that doesn't mean they aren't popular. Plus he can't write endings.
BriefcaseTacos
Oh you poor thing
autodidacticcortex
But that opener is a grand slam.
Waxworks
I got to the end of The Dark Tower and I was INSULTED. Rest of the books were a pretty great time, though.
RobBobertyYT
Same. Such a disappointment after such a long and great series. It would have been fine for a single book ending but that story deserved better.
BriefcaseTacos
Sorry, you're wrong, it's the only way that story should have ended
Klaxun
I wanted to throw the book across the room when I got to the end of that series, but some time has passed since then, and I've come to terms with it. That was a great series.
jdregius92
But did you read to the end or did you read the chapter after the end and the warning not to read the last chapter that was at least in the edition I had?
Waxworks
I read the whole thing and the warning. Like, I get it, but Stephen King hating his own ending says a lot.
jdregius92
same and I get why he hates it. I wish i had listened to him
arewenotkingsandqueenstogether
His character development is beautiful, but he relies heavily on the supernatural. My favorites are the believable ones: The Long Walk, Misery, Holly..
SoberAndBored
I LOVE the first half of The Stand, but I hate all the "good v evil" crap: it could have been just as good without the supernatural stuff. Everyone's dead, there's huge amounts of stuff just lying around waiting to be picked up, and people will still fight would have been a better story, in my opinion
Nostradamuswaswrong
You’ve got Harry Potter and Hunger Games in there. I think Dark Tower ranks a bit higher than either, personally.
astrangehop
The Stand, Night Shift, and Pet Semetary certainly are, I personally don't think the dark tower series is.
Khagaan
Plus that Harry Potter Opening Line is not even 1% as compelling as the Dark Tower Opener...
passwordissteve
And Hunger Games is just a Battle Royale clone. I don't know how it makes the list yet The Dark Tower is too "pulpy".
MelfsAcidArrow
Is battle royale a book?
passwordissteve
Yes. Published in 1999. Author is Koushun Takami. Collins claims she had no knowledge of it.
daliamonra
Not my list just my 15th fav. Had it been my list Pratchett would have made the list.
NCPilot
"The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault." ~ The Dresden Files: Blood Rites
Jasani
"Hey, Thomas, Why'd You Get the Large Breed Puppy Chow?"
daliamonra
Not the best book in the series, but a great opening line.
HarryBlackstoneCopperfieldDresdenIsMyPatronus
Damn straight. Best opening in the series. The best BOOK in the series is obviously Ghost Story. Also worth pointing out that when Harry first lays eyes on Murphy in Ghost Story, he's outside a particularly full house, looking in through the window. Just...seemed important, in a hindsight sorta way.
daliamonra
Ghost Story? Hell no Changes is the best!
SupernaturalReactions
As I consider Peace Talks/Battle Ground a singular book in two parts, that's the best book.
Though Skin Game is definitely the must fun.... I like heists.
HarryBlackstoneCopperfieldDresdenIsMyPatronus
I love a good heist, and had never hoped to get a Dresden heist book, but there it is, and I do love it so. But no...Ghost Story just hits different than the whole rest of the series in a way that I cannot properly articulate, but which I love. I apologize for the feels. I have them, too. I was rooting for Harry/Murphy, and that was abrupt and ruthless. Damn you, Jim. Keep 'em coming.