The Winner is Announced

Remember the Open Sesame Challenge?  Yes.  Well.  It obviously didn't turn out quite as I'd hoped.  Partially because only one person besides myself contributed an entry, and partially because only one person voted.  But thankyou extremely to those two people for your contribution because otherwise it would have been just me...  which would have been kind of lame...

Anyway.  The Open Sesame Challenge has been closed for entries for a while, and the voting closed a couple of days ago.  I am very pleased to announce that (because there was only one vote), Changesofheart's entry was the inanimous winner!  Her entry was the introduction to Love Poems from God.  Here it is again for you to read:

'I hope a few of these poems will reach in deep enough to cure what separates us from each other, and from the beautiful. I hope you fall into this wine barrel and crawl out legally drunk, and get arrested for doing something that makes God proud of you, like being too happy.'

There you go.  Changesofheart's entry was voted as the most 'interesting' opening to a book, and I agree that it is very sweet and funny, isn't it.  It's a worthy winner.  

I just hope, though, that next time I hold a challenge like the Open Sesame Challenge that more of you will participate, because it ends up a tad flat otherwise.  What sort of challenges would you like to participate in?  I have plenty of ideas for challenges, but I don't feel that it's worthwhile unless more people get up and add to it.  I don't suppose you would be more interested if there was a prize...?  Take care, and thankyou very much to Changesofheart and Themanycoloursofhappiness for your contribution! 

Tolkien Gets Personal

Well, I'm a bit disappointed to have to draw a close to the Open Sesame Challenge, but nobody has added anything, so perhaps it's time to get onto the voting. Which of the three entries do you think is the most interesting opening to a book? Make sure you read all three, and vote on the poll. You can find links to the entries and the poll on the right hand side of the screen. Please do.

My dad and I have made fantastic progress on The Lord of the Rings today. We spent hours reading this morning and even after lunch, and managed to nibble steadily into the final chapters. Three left to go! But there is something I've noticed in it, that I can't explain all to clearly but has given me such a warm and homey affections for the book that it just cannot go unmentioned. I wholeheartedly adore the love and totally real relationships that connect all the characters. It has popped up and out like the most flamboyant of pop-up books in the last couple of chapters. The One Ring has been destroyed and everyone has been reunited, and the things they say and give to each other is so gorgeous. It is terribly cute. It is healthy and ruddy and fresh and beautiful. And it makes me sigh and smile longingly at how healthy it all is. It's not something that I can point to, or read you - it's just the whole. It's unlike everything else. J. R. R. Tolkien just really understood something very important about relationships and it is beautiful to read.  It is very personal. 

Sadly, Frankenstein is becoming increasingly disappointing.  It's a clever concept, but the execution of it as a whole is so slow that it has failed to keep taut any thread of suspense for me whatsoever.  It might just get better - I don't know - but I don't have much left to read now.  I might get it finished tomorrow morning, if I read in bed for a hour or so.  I'm sorry I haven't had much to share from it.  It hasn't been terribly quotable.   

Ah well, The Lord of the Rings has been plenty sustainance for me these last few days.  I am going to be such a mess when we finally finish it.  Would you believe if I told you we'd been reading it since this time last year?  I have formed very strong relationships with every single character, Sam especially, and I have laughed out loud and cried painfully with them.  I will probably have to hold a funeral.  Wow.  OK.  I'm going to start crying prematurely if I dwell on this too much longer. 

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The Final Polish of the Shoe

In 1913, when Anthony Patch was twenty-five, two years were already gone since irony, the Holy Ghost of this later day, had, theoretically at leastm descended upon him.  Irony was the final polish of the shoe, the ultimate dab of the clothes-brush, a sort of intellectual 'There!' - yetat the brink of this story he has as yet gone no further than the conscious stage.  As you first see him he wonders frequently whether he is not without honour and slightly mad, a shamrful and obscene thiness glistening on the surface of the world like oil on a clean pool, these occasions being varied, of course, with those in which he thinks himself rather an exceptional young man, thoroughly sophisticated, well adjusted to his environment, and somewhat more significant than any one else he knows.

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, (published 1922). 

This is my new entry to the Open Sesame Challenge.  It is the opening paragraph to The Beautiful and Damned, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Isn't it so completely full of imagery?  It is bluntly but very brilliantly put, and I can see it all in my head, laid out like a domestic scene in a mouse's doll's house that represents the play of humanity.  Hmmm.  Where did that line come from? 

Please, my dears, enter your favourite opening line, paragraph or page from a book, and have a read of all the entries so far, (the list on the right hand side has links to all entries so far).  Let's hear what you like about the entries and what you value about your own. 

Legally Drunk on Happiness

Eh bein, we have an entry to the Open Sesame Challenge!  This entry is from Changesofheart, and it is the opening paragraph (and introduction) to the book she is currrently reading, Love Poems from God, which is a compilation of poems (some of which are from good old, jolly Hafiz, whom I love to death!).  This is the opening paragraph that she has entered:

'I hope a few of these poems will reach in deep enough to cure what separates us from each other, and from the beautiful. I hope you fall into this wine barrel and crawl out legally drunk, and get arrested for doing something that makes God proud of you, like being too happy.'

It's lovely isn't it, and paints such a jolly, jolly, merry old picture of joy, don't you think?  So please, everyone, don't forget to enter you favourite opening line, paragraph and page from a book, and feel free even to enter several, if you have enough in mind.  I encourage, though, to mention what the author and title of the book, for the sake of being able to find it. 

Thankyou, and take care. 

I Open the Sesame

OK.  So we now have a new challenge.  It is called the Open Sesame Challenge.  I have whipped up a few guidelines on the spot so we can begin it!

So I'm thinking that it's going to last a couple of weeks or maybe longer depending. 

What it is is that you think of your favourite opening line, paragraph or page of a book. 

It needs to be of a book, and not a poem.  We can do something separate for poems some other time I guess. 

You can enter your favourite opening line, paragraph or page of a book by leaving a comment.  So I can display your entry on Bouquets, you will need to have copied and pasted that line, paragraph or page in, or have told me exactly what section it is so I can find it myself. 

I will post all entries on Bouquets, and the title of your entry will be listed as a link on the right hand side. 

Now, for the interesting part.  Once we have finished the challenge, we shall read through all of the entries and vote on which we think is the Most Interesting.  'Interesting' could entail intriguing and attention-grapping or even just beautifully written.  But I think that seeing what you all think is a 'Interesting' beginning to a book will be hugely fascinating.  So don't be shy!  Enter as many as you like and let the games begin! 

The Open Sesame Challenge

Hello my dears! Firstly, I would like to apologize for not commenting on any of your blogs recently. It’s entirely Blogger’s fault. It is failing to recognize me, and keeps redirecting me to the Google account login in an aggravating loop.


ME: Gmail, password, enter. Oo!

BLOGGER: Redirecting.

ME: OK then. Gmail, password, enter. Oo!

BLOGGER: Redirecting.

ME: Hmm. Gmail, password, enter.  Oo!

Etcetera etcetera. It just isn’t getting any less repetitive.

Now, today Themanycoloursofhappiness mentioned Charles Dickens in her comment and that got my mind in a complete buzz about him, even though every orifice in my face seems to be clogged with mucous.

I’ve read just two of his books, and they are Oliver Twist and Hard Times. I think that probably the main thing I adore about Charles Dickens is his characters. He has an intensely stimulating style of describing his creations in the perfect light with the perfect words that they stand out stark and strong and amazingly believable. And he has the tendency to stun you right out of the middle of his solemn narrative with a bubbling twinkle of humour. This little trick of his has often made me suddenly laugh aloud in a full classroom. I really respect him for having the goodness to do this.

Hard Times is a brilliant, little book that I would certainly recommend. It is very short in comparison to his other works, but it packs just the same punch. All in itself, without any context, without any pretext, the very first page builds a little scene out of thin air. It is just an exceptional little story all of itself, requiring nothing at all to make it work. I have often read the first page all by itself, and each time it succeeds in sending thrills into me.

This is the first page, and (how so unbelievably convienient), the first chapter too. Take a good, long, hearty swig of this!

'NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!'

The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, - nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, - all helped the emphasis.

'In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!'

The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.

Chapter 1, Hard Times by Charles Dickens (published 1854)

Isn’t it wonderful? For me, it is like in just these few paragraphs, the whole scene, the whole person, is etched out for me with a dark, scratchy pencil. It is such a brilliant little experience, don’t you think?

You know what? I think what would be great would be to have a challenge. How about, for the next couple of weeks, you share all your favourite opening lines, paragraphs, pages or chapters? I have a couple I can whip out, and you do too, I bet, because already, your mind is probably bursting with little snatches of beautifully strung words.  And I would like to call it the Open Sesame Challenge.