Thursday, June 2, 2005

In The Beginning

The first sentence that I ever read that made me go, "Huh. I think I will always keep track of first sentences..." came from the book FALSE MEMORY by Dean Koontz. When people ask why I keep track of this trivial piece of info in my book log I tell them it is because of this book. It's all Dean's fault!

The drumroll please...

The first sentence that started my madness:

On that Tuesday in January, when her life changed forever, Martine Rhodes woke with a headache, developed a sour stomach after washing down two aspirin with grapefruit juice, guaranteed herself an epic bad-hair day by mistakenly using Dustin's shampoo instead of her own, broke a fingernail, burnt her toast, discovered ants swarming through the cabinet under the kitchen sink, eradicated the pests by firing a spray can of insecticide as ferociously as Sigourney Weaver wielded a flamethrower in one of those old extraterrestrial-bug movies, cleaned up the resultant carnage with paper towels, hummed Bach's Requiem as she solemnly consigned the tiny bodies to the trash can, and took a telephone call from her mother, Sabrina, who still prayed for the collapse of Martie's marriage three years after the wedding.


I am glad I started keeping track of first sentences after this one...breathe already Dean, would ya? I love his stuff! Really wish he'd write the third Christopher Snow book already, though. I've been waiting now for what? SIX YEARS! But I am looking forward to reading VELOCITY, I'm just waiting for it to get here. Look for it at your local library.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a cool idea to collect first lines.

"My name is India Opal Buloni and last summer my daddy, the precaher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog."

That first line hooked me when I read Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. It is a rare thing to be hooked by a first line.

And I, also, love Evanowich. I love that not only does she make me laugh she makes me GAFFAW. That shouldn't be a guilty pleasure! I just learned there were PLUM CRAZY T-Shirts...What fun!

Shannon said...

Thanks for your comment.

I, too, read Because of Winn Dixie and that is a great sentence. I wish I never started with this sentence obsession sometimes because I am constantly opening up books and looking at that first sentence. Even if I never intend to read the book. I think it's an illness.

And I haven't seen about the PLUM CRAZY shirts...I'm gonna have to surf over there and check it out! Janet Evanovich ROCKS!

Thanks again!
~Shannon