Nobody's gonna get most of these... ^^;

[nendil]

Ganked from (and for) ctrl_a:
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.
4. Now everyone try and guess!

1. The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. [ID'd by summercomfort]
2. The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. [ID'd by kissmywombat]
3. [you know who!] was an unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. [ID'd by simhuman]
4. Louis, the yard teacher, frowned. [ID'd by theropicus]
5. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. [ID'd by kalquessa]
6. [EVIL! And not exactly the first line!] 盖闻天地之数，有十二万九千六百岁为一元。将一元分为十二会，乃子、丑、寅、卯、辰、巳、午、未、申、酉、戌、亥之十二支也。 [ID'd by summercomfort]
7. Two ELIZABETHANS passing the time in a place without any visible character. [ID'd by theropicus]
8. My name is Jake. That's my first name, obviously. [ID'd by warendfeld]
9. "Death," the proprietor said clearly, showing the stone. [ID'd by summercomfort]
10. For many days we had been tempest-tossed.

...But you know, books aren't actually where my passions lay. So here's the first lines from some of my all time favorite video games, where applicable. <eg> (Oh noes SSBM has no text!) Names are censored as to be not totally DUH.

1. I'd been assigned to watch over Biologic's research team, so I once again found myself on the surface of SR388. [ID'd by boggyb]
2. Game sales... are way up! Here's why! [ID'd by ajoreilly]
3. Long ago, the War of the Magi reduced the world to a scorched wasteland, and magic simply ceased to exist. [ID'd by ctrl_a]
4. In the vast, deep forest of *****... Long have I served as the guardian spirit... [ID'd by simhuman]
5. Welcome! This is Dinosaur Land. In this strange land we find that ***** is missing again! Looks like ***** is at it again! [ID'd by simhuman]
6. The Goodwill Ambassador from the Beanbean Kingdom has arrived. [ID'd by simhuman]
7. Truly, if there is evil in this world, it lies within the heart of mankind. [ID'd by ctrl_a]
8. [obscure] To all bold adventurers, past,present and future...
9. Hello. You are the one who is supposed to work at this ranch today. [ID'd by theropicus]
10. Dear *****: Please come to the castle. I've baked a cake for you. [ID'd by simhuman]

Comments

[ctrl-a.livejournal.com]

Dude, I suck. I don't know any of the books, though I suppose #3 is one of the HP books.

For games, #3 is FF6 and #7 is Tales of Phantasia.

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Tsk, I thought #9'd at least ring a bell for you. ;) And you've read #1 and #7.

But, I bet you could say the same about my pathetic turnout for your samples. =P

[simhuman.livejournal.com]

Since response is so much slower than expected I'll pick up the easy ones!

Books 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (But Voldemort doesn't hate the holidays, does he?)

Games 4: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Games 5: Super Mario World (and I tingle with joy just remembering turning on the game)
Games 6: Mario & Luigi
Games 10: Super Mario 64

[simhuman.livejournal.com]

And on consideration, I guess that this shows how much reading I've done, compared to gaming...

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Don't sweat, I think I'd have been able to identify maybe 3-4 of my own book lines if I'd come across them elsewhere.

It is kind of strange that I had so many Mario games yet only one Zelda game, isn't it? I tried to put Minish Cap in there, but it didn't really have good opening lines...

And I guess that's probably all the game lines that's going to be guessed, unless dreadite or maybe ziddar decides to hop in there... ^^;;

Is it that good?

[ajoreilly.livejournal.com]

How has nobody guessed Game 2?!

Wario Ware, fools.

[kissmywombat.livejournal.com]

I think #2 is The Last Unicorn!! I would have picked that book too!! :)

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Win! I so need to read that book more than once. =)

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

#5 of the book lines is Holes, and I see all the others I could have guessed have already been snapped up :)

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Yay! I wasn't sure if anybody would've picked up that one. Gotta love Louis Sachar.

[warendfeld.livejournal.com]

Book 8 is the first line to one of the Animorphs books. I think Animorphs #1, but I'm not sure.

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Right on, good call.

[warendfeld.livejournal.com]

Seemed a fair bet. I used to read those books constantly, but I lost interest once I entered high school. I might still have them.

[nendil.livejournal.com]

I read the whole series throughout high school, but never finished it because the library didn't have the third-to-last book. CURSES ::shakes fist::

I'll find that book and consume it some day...

[theropicus.livejournal.com]

Though I've only ever seen the movie and never read the play... would 7 by any chance be from Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead"? Because it seems like it should be :D

::looks at video game lines:: I know none of these! (Tho' when I look 9, I think Harvest Moon)

Hi, Lucy! ::waves:: :)

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Right on both counts! You're better than you thought!

[theropicus.livejournal.com]

Score! ::blames Harvest Moon on bluejeans07 - I've only played it for a half an hour!::

(...and 4 looks like it might be from one of the "Far Out Stories from Way-Side School" (or whatever those books were called), as I distinctly remember the yard teacher being named Louis in those, but it's been way too long since I read them for me to be sure...)

::is busy looking up her own quotes::

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Close 'nuff - it's "Sideways Stories from Wayside School". I loved the other two books in the series too (and I even had a Wayside School math/logic puzzle book! That was awesome.)

[ling84.livejournal.com]

Wow! So I wasn't the only one with that crazy math book as well! :)

I still catch myself quoting from Wayside School books once in a while. Gotta go back and re-read them someday. :P

[summercomfort]

#9 looks like On a Pale Horse,
#6 feels like JinYong, but lemme think on that a bit more...
#1 is Wild Swans? No wait... I haven't read Wild Swans, but I feel like I've read that line before...
#10, am guessing Twelfth Night, or As You Will

[summercomfort]

#6 doesn't feel Confucian, or very Daoist. Maybe Zhuang zi?

[nendil.livejournal.com]

#6 is not that obscure. You were closer with Jin Yong, but it's not.

You probably have read #1 before. The swan bit can be misleading. ;)

#10 is probably a little hard to guess. It's a classic, but not one of the more mentioned ones. I read it repeatedly in elementary school because it was the best book on the shelves during Sustained Silent Reading or whatever that time was called =P

[nendil.livejournal.com]

Identified by summercomfort over AIM:

#1 - Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
#6 - 西游记 (Journey to the West)

[torkell]

Game #1 is Metroid Fusion (and may I just add that spider/beetle *thing* you have to fight after the powercut to the Most Annoying Boss list)

Oh, and random +friend. Randomness is fun :P