Book Beginnings Friday: Double Feature Ft. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

 

Book Beginnings Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader. Join us every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

This week I started to somehow fall back into my habit of starting oe too many books at a time -- something I told myself I would stop doing -- so I've buckled down and narrowed down my current reads to focus on these two: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Below you will find book beginnings for both!

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I've been dying to read Strange the Dreamer, but it took awhile to finally get my hands on a copy. I am already in love with Laini Taylor's prose (yet again!), and I cannot wait to unravel more of this story.

[Below is an excerpt from the prologue and the first chapter,s since it is often helpful to have both.]

Prologue

"On the second sabbat of Twelfthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky.

Her skin was blue, her blood was red."

Chapter One:

"Names may be lost or forgotten. No one knew that better than Lazlo Strange. He’d had another name first, but it had died like a song with no one left to sing it. Maybe it had been an old family name, burnished by generations of use. Maybe it had been given to him by someone who loved him. He liked to think so, but he had no idea. He'd had another name first, but it had died like a song with no one left o sing it. Maybe it had been an old family name, burnished by generations of use. Maybe it had been given to him by someone who loved him. He liked ot think so, but he had no idea."

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Yes, I have finally decided to jump into this classic. I read War and Peace last year and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, as I expected it to be much more difficult to follow and get into than it was. I've been wanting to read Anna Karenina for ages, and I finally decided to stop thinking about it and just do it, so here we are! I'm about 200 pages in and its wonderful! Some of you may know the opening lines to this book, and they are definitely some of the best.

Chapter 1

"All unhappy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. 

All was confusion on the Oblonskys' house. the wife had found out that the husband was having an affair with their former French governess, and had announced to the husband that she could not live in the same house with him. This situation had continued for three days now, and was painfully felt by the couples themselves, as well as by all the members of the family and household." 

What do you think? Would you keep reading? Have you ever read any of these? (And feel free to join in and make your own post!)

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*Excerpt taken from the novel itself; I do not claim to own any part of the excerpt.