Meme: Guess the Book
winhall posted a book meme, and so I felt like doing one, too. :]
But since my answers'd be pretty similar to hers, I went for this one I found somewhere on the web instead - it promised fun cause I'm quite fond of quoting books and like being nostalgic. :D
Choose 10 books that you like. [Or 12, or 7.]
List the first sentence or so of each of those books.
Let other people try to figure out what book that first line is from.
So here's a mix of books I loved since I was little.
Some should be pretty easy, others rather difficult, I guess?
Note: For those I know in German (i.e. those who aren't written by English authors), I gave the quote in German, too.
(For two I didn't find an English translation, so I suppose they are not very known in English speaking countries.)
1) "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."
~
2) "Im September 1828 verließ der größte Mathematiker des Landes zum erstenmal seit Jahren seine Heimatstadt, um am Deutschen Naturforscherkongreß in Berlin teilzunehmen. Selbstverständlich wollte er nicht dorthin."
In September 1828, the greatest mathematician in the country left his hometown for the first time in years, to attend the German Scientific Congress in Berlin. Naturally he had no desire to go.
~
3) "Ein Leben beginnt gewöhnlich mit der Geburt - meins nicht."
People usually start life by being born. Not me, though.
~
4) "The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn."
~
5) "Es war in der Zeit zwischen Neujahr und dem Dreikönigstag. [----], ein Junge von vierzehn Jahren damals, hatte sich mit zwei anderen wendischen Betteljungen zusammengetan und obgleich Seine allerdurchlauchtigste Gnaden, der Kurfürst von Sachsen, das Betteln und Vagabundieren in Höchstederoselben Landen bei Strafe verboten hatte (aber die Richter und sonstige Amtspersonen nahmen es glücklicherweise nicht übermäßig genau damit), zogen sie als Dreikönige in der Gegend von Hoyerswerda von Dorf zu Dorf: [...]"
...Germans and their ridiculously long sentences.
~
6) "Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room."
(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
~
7) "[1] spins. [2] studies coin.
[2]: Heads. (He picks it up and puts it in his money bag. The process is repeated.)
Heads. (Again.) Heads. (Again.) Heads. (Again.) Heads.
[1] (flipping a coin): There is an art to the building up of suspense."
~
8) "Der Reiter tauchte aus dem Nichts auf. Aus dem Nichts - denn er kam aus dem Norden, von dem jeder zu berichten wusste, dass dort nichts war, überhaupt nichts. Noch nicht einmal Gras wuchs dort."
~
9) "All children, except one, grow up."
~
10a) "Hat jemand im vorigen Jahr am fünfzehnten Oktober Radio gehört? Hat jemand gehört, dass man nach einem verschwundenen Jungen forschte? So etwa sagten sie: [...]"
Did you listen to the radio last year on October 15? Maybe someone heard the announcement about the boy who had disappeared? So, it was announced over the radio: [...]
Bonus quote: Light blue haze was covering the garden. The white birds had finally calmed down and got back to their nests. The silver poplars stopped ringing. Silence came into the garden. Only on the top of the highest poplar there was a big black bird and it was singing.
I chose this one because it was so very beautiful and sad to me as a child, but I assume this is extremely hard to guess, so here's a more widely-known book by the same author. This one used to scare me, and also made me cry a lot, but was still beautiful. ;)
10b) "In der Nacht, als [----] geboren wurde, rollte der Donner über die Berge, ja, es war eine Gewitternacht, dass sich selbst alle Unholde, die im Mattiswald hausten, erschrocken in ihre Höhlen und Schlupfwinkel verkrochen. Nur die wilden Druden liebten Gewitter mehr als jedes andere Wetter und flogen mit Geheul und Gekreisch um die Räuberburg auf dem Mattisberg."
The night [----] was born a thunder-storm raged through the mountains so violently that all the goblinfolk, the little people in Matt’s forest crept in terror into their holes and hiding places. Only the fierce death birds enjoyed this weather and they flew, shrieking and hooting, round the robbers’ stronghold on Matt’s mountain.
~
11) "This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history."
(The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring)
~
... More or less 12 books, that must be the first time in ages I actually did what a meme told me to do.
Honorable mention goes to Michael Ende, who's books I adored very much, too. But I couldn't decide between Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver and The Night of Wishes: or The Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion)... ><
But since my answers'd be pretty similar to hers, I went for this one I found somewhere on the web instead - it promised fun cause I'm quite fond of quoting books and like being nostalgic. :D
Choose 10 books that you like. [Or 12, or 7.]
List the first sentence or so of each of those books.
Let other people try to figure out what book that first line is from.
So here's a mix of books I loved since I was little.
Some should be pretty easy, others rather difficult, I guess?
Note: For those I know in German (i.e. those who aren't written by English authors), I gave the quote in German, too.
(For two I didn't find an English translation, so I suppose they are not very known in English speaking countries.)
1) "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."
~
2) "Im September 1828 verließ der größte Mathematiker des Landes zum erstenmal seit Jahren seine Heimatstadt, um am Deutschen Naturforscherkongreß in Berlin teilzunehmen. Selbstverständlich wollte er nicht dorthin."
In September 1828, the greatest mathematician in the country left his hometown for the first time in years, to attend the German Scientific Congress in Berlin. Naturally he had no desire to go.
~
3) "Ein Leben beginnt gewöhnlich mit der Geburt - meins nicht."
People usually start life by being born. Not me, though.
~
4) "The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn."
~
5) "Es war in der Zeit zwischen Neujahr und dem Dreikönigstag. [----], ein Junge von vierzehn Jahren damals, hatte sich mit zwei anderen wendischen Betteljungen zusammengetan und obgleich Seine allerdurchlauchtigste Gnaden, der Kurfürst von Sachsen, das Betteln und Vagabundieren in Höchstederoselben Landen bei Strafe verboten hatte (aber die Richter und sonstige Amtspersonen nahmen es glücklicherweise nicht übermäßig genau damit), zogen sie als Dreikönige in der Gegend von Hoyerswerda von Dorf zu Dorf: [...]"
...Germans and their ridiculously long sentences.
~
6) "Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room."
(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
~
7) "[1] spins. [2] studies coin.
[2]: Heads. (He picks it up and puts it in his money bag. The process is repeated.)
Heads. (Again.) Heads. (Again.) Heads. (Again.) Heads.
[1] (flipping a coin): There is an art to the building up of suspense."
~
8) "Der Reiter tauchte aus dem Nichts auf. Aus dem Nichts - denn er kam aus dem Norden, von dem jeder zu berichten wusste, dass dort nichts war, überhaupt nichts. Noch nicht einmal Gras wuchs dort."
~
9) "All children, except one, grow up."
~
10a) "Hat jemand im vorigen Jahr am fünfzehnten Oktober Radio gehört? Hat jemand gehört, dass man nach einem verschwundenen Jungen forschte? So etwa sagten sie: [...]"
Did you listen to the radio last year on October 15? Maybe someone heard the announcement about the boy who had disappeared? So, it was announced over the radio: [...]
Bonus quote: Light blue haze was covering the garden. The white birds had finally calmed down and got back to their nests. The silver poplars stopped ringing. Silence came into the garden. Only on the top of the highest poplar there was a big black bird and it was singing.
I chose this one because it was so very beautiful and sad to me as a child, but I assume this is extremely hard to guess, so here's a more widely-known book by the same author. This one used to scare me, and also made me cry a lot, but was still beautiful. ;)
10b) "In der Nacht, als [----] geboren wurde, rollte der Donner über die Berge, ja, es war eine Gewitternacht, dass sich selbst alle Unholde, die im Mattiswald hausten, erschrocken in ihre Höhlen und Schlupfwinkel verkrochen. Nur die wilden Druden liebten Gewitter mehr als jedes andere Wetter und flogen mit Geheul und Gekreisch um die Räuberburg auf dem Mattisberg."
The night [----] was born a thunder-storm raged through the mountains so violently that all the goblinfolk, the little people in Matt’s forest crept in terror into their holes and hiding places. Only the fierce death birds enjoyed this weather and they flew, shrieking and hooting, round the robbers’ stronghold on Matt’s mountain.
~
11) "This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history."
(The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring)
~
... More or less 12 books, that must be the first time in ages I actually did what a meme told me to do.
Honorable mention goes to Michael Ende, who's books I adored very much, too. But I couldn't decide between Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver and The Night of Wishes: or The Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion)... ><