How Many 'O's in My Last Name?

Yeah, I like this meme. I enjoy looking at me books. Thanks, Cate.

The rules...

From the biggest bookcase you have, pick out one book whose author’s last name starts with each letter of your last name. If you have no books by an author whose last name starts with a particular letter, go to the next letter. If you have two of the same letter in your last name, get two separate authors, not two books by the same author. Bonus: If you can, pick the first book you haven’t read off your shelf, unless you’re one of those people who’s read all the books you own.

- Post the first sentence of each book, along with the author and title. Feel free to skip prefaces and such, especially if they’re by a different writer.

A Midwestern town. (Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge - awesome book, even if the first line is a fragment)

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. (The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien – one of the finest books about war, like ever. Read it now.)

I am old now and have not much to fear from the anger of gods. (Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis – okay, another book you have to read. Amazing retelling of a classic myth.)

Plaxy and I had been lovers; rather uneasy lovers, for she would never speak freely about her past, and sometimes she withdrew into a cloud of reserve and despond. (Sirius by Olaf Stapledon – a brilliant work of science fiction by an author who isn’t read enough.)

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. (1984 by George Orwell – yep, Orwell. I have two Os in my name, after all.)

Fear is fun. (How to Write Horror Fiction by William F. Nolan – yeah, I thought I could figure it out by reading a book. Darn. Great book though, and the only one on my shelf written by anyone with a surname starting with N.)

This is fun because the first line is so important. I like to walk around the classroom and read the first line from books my students are reading. One of my favorites, from Love Sick by Jake Coburn: "I'm a slut for a good rumor." So I tag everyone. On the planet. Dooooo it!