In the Beginning...

First lines are always the hardest. They're what most people remember. There are, of course, memorable non-first lines, but I can't think of any right now, so they must not be important. Anyway, since I seem to have gotten past that particular problem, let me tell you what this blog is all about.

A few days ago, while chatting with some friends from another set of blogs that started in a creative writing class, I started thinking about all the excellent books I've read and how much I have to say about them. Then some of the people to whom I was speaking (that's how you avoid ending sentences with prepositions) suggested that someone start a blog. So I did. I'm sure other people will have more to say about that later.

For now, let me leave you with the way in which a few awesome stories arrived. I hope you recognize them...

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

"You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter."

"Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing."

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."