Beginnings and Endings!

Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Favorite beginnings and favorite strong endings
Beginnings and Endings!...

Beginnings and Endings!

 

 

So what are some good beginnings and endings of books... that you've read, or are reading?

 

Here's a good one from the book I'm rereading:

 

If anyone had asked Johnny Morris who were is best friends, he would have answered, "The sun and the wind, next to mother."

 

This is from a short story by Louisa May Alcott titled "The Hole in The Wall."

 

Here is another favorite from another Lousisa May Alcott short story ("Baa! Baa!"

 

"They didn't look at all like heroines, those two shabby little girls, as they trotted down the hill, leaving a cloud of dust behind them."

 

I can't think of any strong endings right now, so what are some of your favorites? 

submitted by Rose bud, age 13, Surreality
(October 3, 2015 - 10:46 am)

back to the Blab about Books

OMGOODNESS!!! I have a really good beginning of a book I want to share, it's from a book called: "Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians." By: Brandon Sanderson, and it's book 1 of a series. 

"So, there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil librarians."

Well, there you go! If I find any others, I'll tell you.  

submitted by Joan B. of Arc , age 13, Camelot
(October 3, 2015 - 1:19 pm)

Wow. That's awesome! All the Percy Jackson books have good beginings as well.

submitted by Rose bud
(October 4, 2015 - 9:47 am)

I love Brandon Sanderson/Alcatraz Smedry's books!

Wink 

submitted by Aquina W., age 13, Atlantis
(October 4, 2015 - 10:34 am)

Ok I know this book hasn't really come out yet, but the start of the new Magnus Chase book is really funny!  I totally didn't think about the last names until I read the preview and was like, O MY GOSH!!!!  HE AND ANNABETH ARE COUSINS!!!!  I got a preview from Barnes and Nobles.

submitted by balletandbow, age 12, Moon
(October 4, 2015 - 3:08 pm)

One of my favorite beginnings of all time will always and forever be the start of Howl's Moving Castle: 

"In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three." 

It both communicates one of the essential points of the books, and gets some worldbuilding down.

 

Another glorious beginning is Guards! Guards! - the musings on dragons and then Vimes' first scene in the gutter is EVERYTHING I WANT in a book from tone. Good Omens had both a wonderful beggining and a wonderful ending. I'm reading The Master and Margarita right now and that has got a super iconic first chapter, though I haven't finished it yet. And since I have to drag Hugo into everything - Les Mis begins with a digression on a character that only appears in the first two or three books*, admittedly, but its ENDING is just. Ow. In the best possible way.

 

* Les Mis is split into five volumes: Fantine, Cosette, Marius, The Idyll In The Rue Plumet and the Epic in the Rue St.Denis (often just called St. Denis), and Jean Valjean. Those volumes are split into books - the first book in the first volume is called An Upright Man - and the books are further split into chapters. 

submitted by Katia
(October 6, 2015 - 10:31 pm)

This is from Lilo and Stitch, so a movie, but this is my FAVORITE. OPENING. SCENE. IN. ANY. MOVIE. EVER. 

"Read the charges."  

Fruity: utim!

Somebody: No, I am not Tim. I'm Somebody. If you're looking for Tim the Enchanter, try the Hoky Grail cave place, and if you're looking for a certain Hornet, I'd suggest the Internet.  

Fruity: Proi.

Somebody: Are you trying to say proxy? So you're looking for everyone's favorite Hornet... Well I don't know where he is. 

Fruity: zape!

Somebody: Zap? Why would you want to zap him? What's he ever done to you? 

Fruity: Vmrc!

Somebody: VCR? ...I'll just submit now.  

submitted by Somebody, age Who cares, Various places
(October 10, 2015 - 11:42 pm)

If you ask me, this is one of the very best beginning sentences of a book...

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”  - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Here's another beginning that's pretty good!

"There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart's Desire. 

And while that is, as beginnings go, not entirely novel (for every tale about every young man there ever was or will be could start in a similar manner) there was much about this young man and what happened to him that was unusual, although even he never knew the whole of it." - Neil Gaiman, Stardust

 

submitted by Merenwe
(November 20, 2015 - 3:18 am)

"Even before he got electrocuted Jason was having a bad day."

"The snake haired ladies were really starting to annoy Percy."

"I still can't belive we're tracking Bigfoot."

 

submitted by Books!, nose in a book
(July 8, 2016 - 3:14 pm)