As someone who is 1/32nd Scottish, I feel entitled to say that in the 2 seconds before your Scottish accent, the 2 seconds during and the 2 seconds after a part of my vaguely Scottish soul was awaken from its dormancy, lived a short life of agony and, to its great relief, died.
@@ipsitaparida4471 Agreed! I only knew it because I've never read any of them (though I know the plot) and have only seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I think must have this line otherwise I don't know where I know this from
@@hilary3219 yeah yeah I wasn’t sure but they did sound familiar… Jack just makes us feel so relatable regardless of if I have actually the books or references he mentions, that what I like about youtubers who make their career a passion and make us audience inspired too :)
I didn’t enjoy that book, I didn’t really understand it and wasn’t attached to the characters (Ik you usually aren’t in classics but still). Could someone explain why they enjoyed it please? Maybe I’ll understand your reasons.
2:36 - The best opening line is in fact “The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” from The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe but okay
@@sonam10107 Haha thete are few things I believe in in this world, but Douglas Adams' genius is one of them (no shade to Silvia Plath though, The Bell Jar is phenomenal)
Disappointing that this quiz did not include the most iconic opening line of all time: Anna Karenina's "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way".
@@Silverizael I'm not from the UK but I do know it's VERY difficult to get even 86% there, almost impossible depending on the degree. He got a 1st which is above 70 percent and that's their A.
@@valentina7782 So different from classes in the US. Is that meant to be a grade for the entire degree, like the average percent, or is it still a per class number? Since for my Master's degree, I got almost all A's in my classes and only two B+'s. And for graduate degrees, at my university at least, it was basically expected that you would be getting an A in almost all your classes. If your GPA for your degree dropped below a 90, you could be put on academic probation. And that didn't mean the classes were easy A's or gimme classes in the slightest. They were still extremely tough.
As a French person I had a gut reaction to the Stranger's opening "Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas". That line is so iconic it became a meme at some point.
@@ceesee1343 “if you’re reading this and you think you might be one, my advice is to close this book right now,believe whatever lie your mom or your dad told you, and try to lead a normal life”
I vote for "One hundred years of solitude" for the best opening line ever: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice".
As someone who just heard of this book (although I've come across that title), can someone please explain what the opening line meant with ice? Like literal ice, is that a clue on the location? Although I really like the juxtaposition of the visuals of "fire" in firing squad and "ice".
@@cheesecakelasagna i haven’t read the book so i don’t have an answer to your question but the original version is in spanish so sadly there’s no juxtaposition of the visuals of fire and ice (the spanish translation of firing squad is pelotón de fusilamiento, there’s no fire in the term) but it’s so cool that it’s there in english!!
@@cheesecakelasagna its a magic realist text, so fabulist whimsical elements freely mix in it with a conventional sense of "reality". So, it literally describes how people in their village first came across(and hence, from their perspective discovered) ice.
One time on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire they quoted the opening line of Dracula and asked which book it was from. I can’t even explain how gassed I was that my English degree gifted me that moment to flex. Worth it I’d say.
‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.’ I screamed ‘I CAPTURE THE CASTLE BY DODIE SMITH!!!!!’ it is my favourite book ever i recommend EVERYONE to read it!!! it’s a coming of age story from 1930s England and is just so so so perfect!!!
as a brazilian, I must say that the best opening setence from a book is "To the worm who first gnawed the cold flesh of my corpse I dedicate these posthumous memoirs as a nostalgic remembrance" from Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis. loved the video nonetheless lol
The intro is just Jack freaking out about the fact that he won't be able to get any of the answers right. And here half of us are who haven't read most of these books sitting here like:........😶
I must say, though, that I screamed when you said The Bell Jar was the best opening line of a book ever because it truly is, and I had literally JUST said that to my husband when I had your video on pause at The Bell Jar line, only to unpause and hear you say the exact same thing I did hahaha.
My favourite opening line has to be from Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
The Bell Jar's opening line is truly *chef's kiss* and since I don't see anyone else doing it, I will shamelessly reveal that I got 4/15 lmao. I guess mine and the quiz maker's taste in books isn't all that alike, since I only got all the ones I have read lmao
Loooove the opening for 1984. The ”… and the clocks were striking thirteen.” the EERIENESS of it. Sets the tone right away. And the opening line for the book I’m currently reading: [book title], light of my life, fire of my loins.” Second sentence: ”My sin, my soul.”
My favourite opening line is from Ballard's High Rise: "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building the previous three months."
You could get someone to make you another quiz for the end of the year about books you've read in 2021 to see how much you remember. Also would love to see how well you do based on bad book descriptions, e.g. two teens die because boy doesn't check for pulse (Romeo and Juliet).
My favourite will forever be: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” It’s from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, maybe my favourite book ever.
As someone who loves A Tale of Two Cities so much Ive memorized pretty much the whole first chapter, I died a little on the inside hearing Jack misquote it.
My favorite opening line (a classic and very recognised, should have been in top 10 at least): "Last night I dreamt I went to Mandarley again." - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
"Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure" ("For a long time I would go to bed early"), the opening line to Proust's "Remembrance of things past" absolutely takes the cake for me
My favorite opening lines are “There is a pirate in the basement. (The Pirate is a metaphor but also still a person.) (The basement could rightly be considered a dungeon.) - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.” The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Jack: *incorrectly guesses beloved for one question* Beloved's actual opening line being an upcoming question: I'm about to ruin this man's whole career
Spending my gcse english lit lessons highlighting and analysing that one “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” prepared me to correctly answer that question and that question only
@@jesuschrist4064 ah thank you for asking ! in general yes, just got lots going on returning to uni, flat hunting, studying online, stressing about friends etc etc i hope you’re doing well !
I feel like the most universally known opening lines of books in the world are Pride and Prejudice, and Philosopher's Stone xD Or maybe that's just me, they're some of the only ones I actually know, I don't go around tryna memorise opening lines
You should make a video where you read retellings of classics! I recently read These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong which is a mystery/thriller Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai and I’m obsessed so I’ve been looking to read some more reimagined classics!
I've only seen the movie Pride & Prejudice once and I had the guessed the book right before Jack. Means that the line is so good and tells the entire background to the plot.
I knew the 1984 line because I've read it so many times lol. Also videos like this make me realize how many classics I still haven't read. I think I'll read classics in September.
I like the start of the second book, though maybe it doesn't count because it's an epigraph? "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted."
The opening of Bell Jar is iconic, just as The Stranger. However for me, no other opening line can't ever beat The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality;[*] even larks and katydids[†] are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane,[‡] stood by itself against the hills,[§] holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily[**] against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there,[††] walked alone.”
When I read your title the first thing that came to my mind was "Aujourd'hui Maman est morte. Ou peut être hier, je ne sais pas." Glad to see it made it even though it's not English literature.
My favorite quote from Treasure Island has got to be "'Silver, if you like," cried the squire; "but as for that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un-English.'" Makes me laugh aloud every time. I also quite like "Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past." from 1984, of course.
My favourite opening line: "[Redacted], that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality, were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls."
@@asmijain2695 Well, since no-one else is guessing... it's "Titus Groan", the first of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. (The "redacted" word is "Gormenghast" - which gives it away.) Gorgeously gothic.
probably my favorite opening line is from shirley jackson's haunting of hill house: "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream."
Absolutely shocked that the opening line to The Great Gatsby weaseled its way out of the depths of my memory, as I haven't read the book since high school English like 10 years ago (and honestly didn't even love the book)
the best opening line i know is from my favorite dutch book called 'vallen is als vliegen' or 'falling is like flying' and its opening line translates to: 'Dear reader, I dont want to write this book' it's such a good book! i hope it gets translated sometime!
I’ll never forget the opening line of The Outsiders "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home..."
Scottish person here - as soon as I saw that Trainspotting opener, I was curious as to how you’d say “oafay” but your accent when you read it the second time was actually pretty decent😂(ps: I’m sure you enjoyed Trainspotting if I remember correctly - I’d definitely recommend the prequel Skagboys. It’s a thiccie, but intriguing!)
I’m literally obsessed with your sweater! I live in Arizona so it’s a chilly 106 f (41 c) outside today, but I will live vicariously through your autumnal fashion sense
I had no idea with several of these books, so the ones I knew for certain were very exciting! _The Great Gatsby_ specifically is my favorite book of all time.
the best oppening line will always be "to the worm that first gnawed at the cold flesh of my cadaver I dedicate as a fond remembrance these posthumous memoirs", from Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by Machado de Assis
I love how like 75% of jacks personality is just his English literature degree💜
And 20% puns
The argument could be made that 100% of his personality is his English degree :P
@@rsvnxorion same 😂😅
70% English literature, 20% puns, 10% left wing political alignment
@@graciachen2469 lmaooo
As someone who is 1/32nd Scottish, I feel entitled to say that in the 2 seconds before your Scottish accent, the 2 seconds during and the 2 seconds after a part of my vaguely Scottish soul was awaken from its dormancy, lived a short life of agony and, to its great relief, died.
This should be a poem 😂
This comment slaps
As a Scottish person I feel this comment to my very core.
This is now my favourite comment of all time
This comment is a work of art
sleep called, but not as much as watching an adult man taking book related quizzes.
now this would make a great opening line👀❤❤
@@a1t3rmusic omg it would!!
Haha! Same I should be going to bed
I fully thought this was an opening line when I read it first lmao.
Haha the best! Here in the same context
"this must be Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice...or Sense and Sensibility... fuck-"
iconic
ahahaa i know right that was such a mood
@@ipsitaparida4471 Agreed! I only knew it because I've never read any of them (though I know the plot) and have only seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which I think must have this line otherwise I don't know where I know this from
@@hilary3219 yeah yeah I wasn’t sure but they did sound familiar… Jack just makes us feel so relatable regardless of if I have actually the books or references he mentions, that what I like about youtubers who make their career a passion and make us audience inspired too :)
Me thinking it would be Oscar Wilde
My favorite opening line is from Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"-
"It was a pleasure to burn."
same! one of my favourite books
Me too, it was one heck of a book
loved that book!
I started that book today :)
I didn’t enjoy that book, I didn’t really understand it and wasn’t attached to the characters (Ik you usually aren’t in classics but still). Could someone explain why they enjoyed it please? Maybe I’ll understand your reasons.
day 18 of asking jack to read timothée chalamet's book recommendations.
I'd love to hear Jack's thoughts on Timothee's books!
I second this
i support your message
PLEASE
He’s gonna do it, guess it worked, congrats
The fact that I haven't read a single book on that list, yet, I knew ALL the answers, tells you EXACTLY about the kind of person I am.
TBR
ME TOO 😂😂
😂
😂😂same
How is that even possible?
Do u open random books and memorise the first line 😂
2:36 - The best opening line is in fact “The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” from The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe but okay
I'm in love with how confidently and assuredly you typed this
@@sonam10107 Spot on! Aurora's got that Douglas Adams swagger.
@@sonam10107 Haha thete are few things I believe in in this world, but Douglas Adams' genius is one of them (no shade to Silvia Plath though, The Bell Jar is phenomenal)
@@sonam10107 haha. I've read that begining!!!
yo that title and opening line tho i want it now
Disappointing that this quiz did not include the most iconic opening line of all time: Anna Karenina's "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way".
was looking for this comment! best line ever
Jack really milking his degree for every penny
As he should!
I'm kind of amazed that he never got an A in any of his classes, as he said at the end there with 86% being higher than any of his grades.
@@Silverizael I'm not from the UK but I do know it's VERY difficult to get even 86% there, almost impossible depending on the degree. He got a 1st which is above 70 percent and that's their A.
And so he should lol
@@valentina7782 So different from classes in the US. Is that meant to be a grade for the entire degree, like the average percent, or is it still a per class number?
Since for my Master's degree, I got almost all A's in my classes and only two B+'s. And for graduate degrees, at my university at least, it was basically expected that you would be getting an A in almost all your classes. If your GPA for your degree dropped below a 90, you could be put on academic probation.
And that didn't mean the classes were easy A's or gimme classes in the slightest. They were still extremely tough.
it's reassuring to know that these are the kind of skills i will be left with after completing my english degree
no lie!😎
Hey I'm an English major too :)
One of the funniest opening lines is: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
Dawn Treader is such a fun book
Rebecca really chose the nicest way to tell you to get a move on with this video
Miss Donna Tartt is so iconic for straight up telling us Bunny is dead in the first sentence
the way my body took a screenshot when I first read it
me: feels an overwhelming sense of pride when i, a failing a level student who doesn’t take english, got an answer before jack did
also me: said 1985
😂cute
1985 IM DEAD 😭😭😭
As a French person I had a gut reaction to the Stranger's opening "Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas". That line is so iconic it became a meme at some point.
it sounds so much better in french! it makes me want to read it in french even though i barely speak it haha
I'm french as well and I love this line and book so much that I'm scared I might reference it the day my mother dies 😅
Pareil !!
i'm french too and i've directly thought about that line. So good. Very powerfull ans intriging
I love this book so much
Not gonna lie, I'm a little disappointed that the opening line to Percy Jackson wasn't thrown in for funsies.
same. the opening of percy jackson is literally so iconic.
HAHA SAME
"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood."
@@ceesee1343 iconic
@@ceesee1343 “if you’re reading this and you think you might be one, my advice is to close this book right now,believe whatever lie your mom or your dad told you, and try to lead a normal life”
I vote for "One hundred years of solitude" for the best opening line ever: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice".
wow this sounds so powerful, my heart is thumping. I must read this book.
@@theebarenecessities It is a masterpiece. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. :)
As someone who just heard of this book (although I've come across that title), can someone please explain what the opening line meant with ice? Like literal ice, is that a clue on the location? Although I really like the juxtaposition of the visuals of "fire" in firing squad and "ice".
@@cheesecakelasagna i haven’t read the book so i don’t have an answer to your question but the original version is in spanish so sadly there’s no juxtaposition of the visuals of fire and ice (the spanish translation of firing squad is pelotón de fusilamiento, there’s no fire in the term) but it’s so cool that it’s there in english!!
@@cheesecakelasagna its a magic realist text, so fabulist whimsical elements freely mix in it with a conventional sense of "reality". So, it literally describes how people in their village first came across(and hence, from their perspective discovered) ice.
I don’t judge Jack, if I actually spoiled reading for fun to reading to get an English degree I would put it to test every time I could too
Samee
One time on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire they quoted the opening line of Dracula and asked which book it was from. I can’t even explain how gassed I was that my English degree gifted me that moment to flex. Worth it I’d say.
only $200k...
JACK HOW DID YOU NOT INSTANTLY GUESS PRIDE AND PREJUDICE THAT IS BLASPHEMY
Take a shot of coffee each time Jack giggles in between lines.
oh so we getting HAMMERED
@@jack_in_the_books*"MOM! I GOT A REPLY FROM JACK!!! OPEN THE VINTAGE WINE BOTTLE WE'RE CELEBRATING!!!!!!*
‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.’ I screamed ‘I CAPTURE THE CASTLE BY DODIE SMITH!!!!!’ it is my favourite book ever i recommend EVERYONE to read it!!! it’s a coming of age story from 1930s England and is just so so so perfect!!!
I was screaming it too! I’m currently reading it for the first time and am loving it!
now i want to read it !!
One of the 3 I knew 😅
Well, some 20 years ago I bought this book just for its first line. And I was glad I did :-)
OMG!! Same, I read it years ago, and since it isn't as popular I was surprised to find it here.
"maybe if i just keep repeating it, it will start to make sense"
me in tests and exams
The Bell Jar’s opening line is marvelous and iconic but personally, no opening line could ever beat that of One Hundred Years of Solitude
Yes, the supremacy ❤️
Agreeeeee 👐
agreed.
I totally agree
Can someone please type its opening line here?
Nevermind, there's a comment that typed it out literally right below this.
I'm really surprised at how decent I did on this quiz without having read most of these books lol
same lol the Internet is a wonderful place
Legit same. I just have a knack for googling opening lines and not following through.
as a brazilian, I must say that the best opening setence from a book is "To the worm who first gnawed the cold flesh of my corpse I dedicate these posthumous memoirs as a nostalgic remembrance" from Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis. loved the video nonetheless lol
não tem como n achar esse opening icônico kkkkkk
@@deliriumnights sim!! passo mal com a sagacidade da lenda, tinha que ser leitura obrigatória em qualquer lugar do mundo
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
That is a beautiful sentence…wow
The intro is just Jack freaking out about the fact that he won't be able to get any of the answers right. And here half of us are who haven't read most of these books sitting here like:........😶
"There's no thoughts, just vibes" How did you describe my life so accurately Jack
I must say, though, that I screamed when you said The Bell Jar was the best opening line of a book ever because it truly is, and I had literally JUST said that to my husband when I had your video on pause at The Bell Jar line, only to unpause and hear you say the exact same thing I did hahaha.
us having elite taste
My favourite opening line has to be from Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
“It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
I love that a lot too
@@erina2600 such a good book!!
The Bell Jar's opening line is truly *chef's kiss* and since I don't see anyone else doing it, I will shamelessly reveal that I got 4/15 lmao. I guess mine and the quiz maker's taste in books isn't all that alike, since I only got all the ones I have read lmao
"Call me Ishmael"
*My Directioner brain* : " *I have a son, his name is Ishmael, he never calls me anymore* 😩"
Kafka putting the entire plot in the first sentence really got me - read that one in school, it was a wild ride :):):)
at this point Jack will make "showing off your degree" as a job prospect for lit degrees
Loooove the opening for 1984. The ”… and the clocks were striking thirteen.” the EERIENESS of it. Sets the tone right away.
And the opening line for the book I’m currently reading: [book title], light of my life, fire of my loins.”
Second sentence: ”My sin, my soul.”
My favourite opening line is from Ballard's High Rise: "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building the previous three months."
I read High Rise recently - that line certainly stays with you!
I can't lie, I was a bit disappointed that "Look, I didnt want to be a half-blood.' wasn't included - Percy Jackson is pure ICONIC
You could get someone to make you another quiz for the end of the year about books you've read in 2021 to see how much you remember.
Also would love to see how well you do based on bad book descriptions, e.g. two teens die because boy doesn't check for pulse (Romeo and Juliet).
GENIUS!!!
This is genius! Yes yes yes! I vote you do it hahaha
"because the boy didn't check for pulse" LOL
My favourite will forever be: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
It’s from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, maybe my favourite book ever.
As someone who loves A Tale of Two Cities so much Ive memorized pretty much the whole first chapter, I died a little on the inside hearing Jack misquote it.
My favorite opening line (a classic and very recognised, should have been in top 10 at least):
"Last night I dreamt I went to Mandarley again." - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink"
Me: isn't that a twenty one pilot's lyric?
(the fact that I'm a current English literature undergrad...sml)
Y’all, I got 12/15 while only reading half of those books… if only I could guess that well for my Chem quizzes 💀💀
Anything in particular you struggle with I might be able to help Im a chem nerd🥰
@@tilly_guest1 Thats really sweet, I’m have this semester off though 😤
"Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure" ("For a long time I would go to bed early"), the opening line to Proust's "Remembrance of things past" absolutely takes the cake for me
loved this, now please do ending lines!! i just reread the song of achilles for the third time and it has my favorite closing line ever!
Wow I never knew metamorphosis by Kafka was translated like that :( makes me genuinely sad since in German it is soo incredibly beautiful
My favorite opening lines are “There is a pirate in the basement. (The Pirate is a metaphor but also still a person.) (The basement could rightly be considered a dungeon.) - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.” The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
God yes the Starless Sea is.....purely amazing
I love this book so much. I literally screamed when I saw your comment
The opening line for A Tale of Two Cities is such a banger considering the book that follows it.
all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
leo tolstoy, anna karenina
imho hands down best opening to a book
This is my favorite opening line since I read it a couple years ago.
Jack: *incorrectly guesses beloved for one question*
Beloved's actual opening line being an upcoming question: I'm about to ruin this man's whole career
Spending my gcse english lit lessons highlighting and analysing that one “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” prepared me to correctly answer that question and that question only
was just starting to spiral into a stress and anxiety puddle so this is perfectly timed, thank you jack!
are you okay?
@@jesuschrist4064 ah thank you for asking ! in general yes, just got lots going on returning to uni, flat hunting, studying online, stressing about friends etc etc i hope you’re doing well !
you’ve got this, I believe in you!✨💕
Not me screaming THE GREAT GATSBY for the last one as that's what I am studying for a level english literature ( the only quote I remember lol )
I'm currently reading this as well but for fun and still failed lol
I love how excited Jack is when talks about literature 🥺 it is so palpable!
was not expecting to see the secret history in here!! i hope it’ll be seen as a classic one day
I always thought a good translation for l'étranger by Albert Camus would be "the alien"? A bit old fashioned, but I would make sense, maybe?
Omg yeah
That would fit
"No thoughts, just vibes" is gonna be my life motto from now on 😂
No thoughts just vibes. Such a mood
This. This is the reason why I am still alive.
I feel like the most universally known opening lines of books in the world are Pride and Prejudice, and Philosopher's Stone xD
Or maybe that's just me, they're some of the only ones I actually know, I don't go around tryna memorise opening lines
You should make a video where you read retellings of classics! I recently read These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong which is a mystery/thriller Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai and I’m obsessed so I’ve been looking to read some more reimagined classics!
Ariel Bissett posted a video semi recently where she ranks classic books by their first sentence. This video reminded me of it! Loved it.
Truly impressed but I have to wag my finger at you for thinking Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice might have the same opening line.
I must be honest: the challenge is really interesting, but I'm here for Jack's little cutie laugh.
I was just going to say that his lil giggle is so cute!
I've only seen the movie Pride & Prejudice once and I had the guessed the book right before Jack. Means that the line is so good and tells the entire background to the plot.
I knew the 1984 line because I've read it so many times lol. Also videos like this make me realize how many classics I still haven't read. I think I'll read classics in September.
It's not a classic, bit I love the opening line of Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn", it's plain and simple:
"Ash fell from the sky."
I like the start of the second book, though maybe it doesn't count because it's an epigraph? "I write these words in steel, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted."
Weird that exactly when I put my bookmark in my current read for the day, a Jack Edwards video is posted.
What are you reading?
@@TiliaHaggstrom Keeping On, Keeping On by Alan Bennett. Bennett is a playwright, actor and narrator from Leeds in the North of England.
@@jamesmcloughlin7691 I've never heard of him, but he has some really interesting sounding plays!
@@TiliaHaggstrom I would recommend you check out his series "Talking Heads", but the 1988 version.
@@jamesmcloughlin7691 thanks! I'll check it out
The opening of Bell Jar is iconic, just as The Stranger. However for me, no other opening line can't ever beat The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
Can someone please type the opening line here please?
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality;[*] even larks and katydids[†] are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane,[‡] stood by itself against the hills,[§] holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily[**] against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there,[††] walked alone.”
That is a pretty damn great opening line.
@@erikaalejandra1710 Late reply but thank you so much! The symbols intrigue me, I might check the book out this week.
that tiktok reciting Jack's book buying addiction has made my hyper aware of Jack's little giggles !!
My fav line is: "Its way too early in the morning for dead people" from You've been warned.
"I would leave this country if I got a 0 on this quiz."
Also him moving to Paris.🤣
It could be cool to do a part 2 to this video with 'modern' classics. So like "To kill a mockingbird" or even "Percy Jackson".
I'm 15, I have no literature degree but I knew almost all the books. Never socializing and reading books all the time has finally paid off 😌😩
same PHAHAH
Love it!
😂😂 Love this comment!
SAME AHAHAH
I've read 1984 years ago and still immediately got a 1984 vibe from that opening line.
I basically screamed pride and prejudice, I need to go to sleep
seeing so many people loving capture the castle makes me so happy!
When I read your title the first thing that came to my mind was "Aujourd'hui Maman est morte. Ou peut être hier, je ne sais pas." Glad to see it made it even though it's not English literature.
You should do the same just with the final line of different books
Thank you, Rebecca, whoever you are 🙏
My favorite quote from Treasure Island has got to be "'Silver, if you like," cried the squire; "but as for that intolerable humbug, I declare I think his conduct unmanly, unsailorly, and downright un-English.'" Makes me laugh aloud every time. I also quite like "Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past." from 1984, of course.
My favourite opening line: "[Redacted], that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality, were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls."
Book?
@@asmijain2695 Well, since no-one else is guessing... it's "Titus Groan", the first of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. (The "redacted" word is "Gormenghast" - which gives it away.) Gorgeously gothic.
probably my favorite opening line is from shirley jackson's haunting of hill house: "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream."
I love the way he does a little chuckle. So cute! 🥰
Absolutely shocked that the opening line to The Great Gatsby weaseled its way out of the depths of my memory, as I haven't read the book since high school English like 10 years ago (and honestly didn't even love the book)
the best opening line i know is from my favorite dutch book called 'vallen is als vliegen' or 'falling is like flying' and its opening line translates to: 'Dear reader, I dont want to write this book' it's such a good book! i hope it gets translated sometime!
omg or: 'it was the worst of times, it was the worst of times' from Autumn by Ali Smith
I’ll never forget the opening line of The Outsiders
"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home..."
Scottish person here - as soon as I saw that Trainspotting opener, I was curious as to how you’d say “oafay” but your accent when you read it the second time was actually pretty decent😂(ps: I’m sure you enjoyed Trainspotting if I remember correctly - I’d definitely recommend the prequel Skagboys. It’s a thiccie, but intriguing!)
the way i shouted the secret history at my screen because it was the only one i knew
This actually one of my favourite videos that you have made
I’m literally obsessed with your sweater! I live in Arizona so it’s a chilly 106 f (41 c) outside today, but I will live vicariously through your autumnal fashion sense
How are you still alive in such a chilly environment??
41c is chilly?
One of my favourite opening lines of a book ever is from The Go Between - "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there"
7:44 was way too relatable as to how indecisive i can be lol love your vids!
So would you say it was 'the best of times' reading the opening line of a Tale of Two Cities and 'the worst of times' reading the rest of the book?
I had no idea with several of these books, so the ones I knew for certain were very exciting! _The Great Gatsby_ specifically is my favorite book of all time.
i SCREAMED when i heard the first line of the secret history - absolutely my favourite book ever ever ever.. donna’s got NERVE and i LOVE IT
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”
the best oppening line will always be "to the worm that first gnawed at the cold flesh of my cadaver I dedicate as a fond remembrance these posthumous memoirs", from Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, by Machado de Assis
“The sky above port was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel.”
- Neuromancer by William Gibson