Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme now sponsored by Rose City Reader (who originally inspired the meme). Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Gilion's place.

Here's mine from "The Absent-Minded Coterie" by Robert Barr in The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories edited by Michael Sims [I have decided to go with the first lines of the current short story I am reading from the collection]:

Some years ago I enjoyed the unique experience of pursuing a man for one crime, and getting evidence against him of another. He was innocent of the misdemeanor, the proof of which I sought, but was guilty of another most serious offense, yet he and his confederates escaped scot-free in circumstances which I now purpose to relate.

{Interesting...going after someone for one crime, but finding out he has committed another.}

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate. Just grab a book, any book, and turn to page 56. Find a sentence that grabs you and post it.

Here's mine from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe in The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories edited by Michael Sims:

The time elapsing between the hearing of the voices in contention and the breaking open of the room door was variously stated by the witnesses.