Friday Memes: Book Beginnings & Friday 56

I have two bookish resolutions for the New Year. One--to read only from my on TBR stacks and sign up for only for challenges that will allow me to fulfill the requirements using my own books. And Two--to try harder to participate in more blogging world activities. To that end, I'm jumping back into the Friday Memes run by the fine ladies at Rose City Reader and Freda's Voice.

 
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 are the first few lines from The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel (1901): 

Well, the memory seems to be getting rather impaired now. What, for instance, was the name of that person who preached just before the Boreal set out, about the wrongness of any more attempts to reach the North Pole?

 

(Hmm. Sounds like a Polar Expedition might be a bad idea in this book...)

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 is the mine from The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel (1901):
I could have made short work and landed at Hull, but I would not: I was afraid. For I was used to the silence of the ice; and I was used to the silence of the sea: but I was afraid of the silence of England.