Book Beginnings: Harriet the Spy & Stardust

Harriet was trying to explain to Sport how to play Town. “See, first you make up the name of the town. Then you write down the names of all the people who live in it. You can’t have too many or it gets too hard. I usually have twenty-five.”

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

I think this paints a pretty good picture of Harriet and how technical and older-than-11 she can be 🙂

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.

The tale started, as many tales have started in Wall.

Stardustby Neil Gaiman

I have to admit that while I loved this book the first time around, I actually like the way the story begins in the film (2007) more. Well, that’s not entirely true. I don’t like how the story begins in the film until it starts in with the real story, and not the more “modern” part–basically when Stormhold appears. With the book, there is no “modern” part, looking back to the beginning of the story. It starts in the past and quickly fast forwards to the present (sometime in Victorian England). Regardless, I’m excited to be reading this book again!

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Book Beginnings is a weekly meme, hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages.
How to participate: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. Include the title and the author so we know what you’re reading. Then, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line, and let us know if you liked or did not like the sentence. The link-up will be at A Few More Pages every Friday.