Novel: Then We Came to the End
Author: Joshua Ferris
Opening Lines:
We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen.
Closing Lines:
But for the moment, it was nice just to sit there together. We were the only two left. Just the two of us, you and me.
Novel: The Devil Wears Prada
Author: Lauren Weisberger
Opening Line:
The light hadn’t even officially turned green at the intersection of 17th and Broadway before an army of overconfident yellow cabs roared past the tiny deathtrap I was attempting to navigate around the city streets.
Closing Line:
And then, while the pretty brunette girl finished singing her verse, he buzzed me through like I was someone who mattered.
Novel: Peter Pan
Author: J.M. Barrie
Opening Line:
All children, except one, grow up.
Closing Line:
When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter’s mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.
Novel: The Rules of Attraction
Author: Bret Easton Ellis
Opening Line:
and it’s a story that might bore you but you don’t have to listen, she told me, because she always knew it was going to be like that, and it was, she thinks, her first year, or, actually weekend, really a Friday, in September, at Camden, and this was three or four years ago, and she got so drunk that she ended up in bed, lost her virginity (late, she was eighteen) in Lorna Slavin’s room, she remembers, a Senior or a Junior and usually sometimes at her boyfriend’s place off-campus, to who she thought was Sophomore Ceramics major but who was actually either some guy from N.Y.U., a film student, and up in New Hampshire just for The Dressed To Get Screwed party, or a townie.
Closing Line:
She started telling me her life story, which wasn’t very interesting, and when Rockpile came on singing ‘Heart’ I had to turn it up, drowning out her voice, but still I turned to her, my eyes interested, a serious smile, nodding, my hand squeezed her knee, and she
Note: The opening and closing lines really do begin and end mid-sentence!!
Novel: Elsewhere
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Opening Line:
‘The end came quickly, and there wasn’t any pain.’
Closing Line:
And in response, this baby, who is Liz and not Liz at the same time, laughs.
Novel: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Opening Line:
When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.
Closing Line:
I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.
Novel: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Authors: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Opening Line:
The day begins in the middle of the night.
Closing Line:
I grab hold of his warm hand. Deep breath.
Ready.
Set.
Jump.
Note: I really do recommend this book for anyone looking for a really quick read. And for lovers and haters of the film, it is very different!
Novel: Starter For Ten
Author: David Nicholls
Opening Line:
All young people worry about things, it’s a natural and inevitable part of growing up, and at the age of sixteen my greatest anxiety in life was that I’d never again achieve anything as good, or pure, or noble, or true, as my O-Level results.
Closing Line:
I’m nineteen now, and I like to think I’m a lot wiser and cooler about these things.
Novel: Love in the Present Tense
Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Opening Line:
One night when I was seven I watched a man die.
Closing Line:
I think he hears and understands most of what I don’t say to him.
I think he always has.
Novel: Swallows and Amazons
Author: Arthur Ransome
Opening Line:
Roger, aged seven, and no longer the youngest of the family, ran in wide zigzags, to and fro, across the steep field that sloped up from the lake to Holly Howe, the farm where they were staying for part of the summer holidays.
Closing Lines:
“Who was Johnny?” said Roger. “Hullo, there’s mother and Vicky coming down the field.”
Swallows-and-Amazons-For-Ever!
