Top Ten Tuesday (#3): Favourite Beginnings/Endings in Books

Top Ten Tuesday this week is about favourite beginnings/endings in books.

I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do: endings or beginnings. So instead I did 2 lists, but only Top5s, because otherwise the post this week would have been looong, and no one wouldn't want to read it. So here we go! 

Top 5 Beginnings:

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

"Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of time of mu abundant free time to thinking about death. Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is the side effect of dying. (Cancer is also a side effect of dying.)"

2. Wither by Lauren DeStefano

"I wait. They keep us in the dark for so long that we lose sense of our eyelids. We sleep huddled together like rats, staring out, and dream of our bodies swaying. I know one of the girls reaches a wall. She begins pound and scream - there's a metal in the sound - but none of us help her. We've gone too long without speaking, and all we do is bury ourselves into the dark. The doors open."

3. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

"After a year of slavery in the Salt Mines of Endovier, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point. Most of the thousands of slaves in Endovier receives a similar treatment - though an extra half-dozed guards always walked Celaena to and from the mines. That was expected by Adarlan's most notorious assassin. What she did not usually expect, however, was a hooded man in black at her side - as there was now."

4.  A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

"We should start back, Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. "The wildlings are dead." "Do the dead frighten you?" Ser Waymar Royce asked with just the hint of a smile. Gared did not rise to the bait. He was an old man, past fifty, and he had seen the lordlings come and go. "Dead is dead," he said. "We have no business with the dead." "Are they dead?" Royce asked softly. 

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Adam Douglas

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eighty million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

Top 5 Endings:

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

"What else? She is so beautiful. You don't get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I'm so lucky to love her, Van Houten. You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she hers. I do, Augustus. I do."

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling

"Harry kept smiling and waving, even though it was like a little bereavement, watching his son glide away from him... The last trace of steam evaporated in the autumn air. The train rounded around a corner. Harry's hand was still raised in farewell. "He'll be all right," murmured Ginny. As Harry looked at her, he lowered his hand absentmindedly and touched the lighting scar on his forehead. "I know he will." The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."

3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

""Katniss," Gale says softly. I recognize that voice. It's the same one he uses to approach wounded animals before he delivers a deathblow. I instinctively raise my hand to block his words but he catches it and holds on tightly. "Don't," I whisper. But Gale is not one to keep secrets from me. "Katniss, there is no District Twelve."

4. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

"The subjects will eventually recall and understand the purpose of the hard things we have done and plan to do them. The mission of WICKED is to serve and preserve humanity, no matter the cost. We are, indeed, "good". Please respond with your own reactions. The subjects will be allowed one full night's sleep before  Stage 2 implementation. At this time, let's allow ourselves to feel hopeful. Group B's trial results were almost extraordinary. I need time to process the data, but we can touch on it in the morning. Until tomorrow, then."

5. Across the Universe by Beth Revis

"He grabs my arm, but I shake it loose. I'm not ready for that. But... if my life on Earth must end, let it end with a promise. Let it end with hope. I wrap my pinkie around his. He squeezes my finger, and this world doesn't feel so cold anymore. "Will you stay with me?" I whisper. "Always."

What about your favourite beginnings and endings in books?