Jul
09
Recently an article in Don’s World magazine caught my attention that I thought was going to be a summer book reading list. I always like to read about new books. Instead it was the results of a contest they had on the “best last lines” of books. Intriguing! Several categories were listed like fiction, non-fiction, classics, bible book endings. In no particular order I’m listing a few last lines that I really liked, or maybe more than a few! A lot of these are from books I’ve never read so something to add to my list that never seems to dwindle.
George Eliot, Middlemarch
“For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
“He turned out the light, and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”
Ralph Moody, Little Britches
“Father had always said grace before meals; always the same twenty-five words, and the ritual was always the same. Mother would look around the table to see that everything was in readiness; then she would nod to Father. Then she nodded to me, and I became a man.”
Maurice Sendak, 
Where the Wild Things Are
“Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye and sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him—and it was still hot.”
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days
“What had he brought back from this long and weary journey? Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men! Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?”
C.S. Forester, 
The African Queen
“Whether or not they lived happily ever after is not easily decided.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
Leif Enger, 
Peace Like a River
“Is there a single person on whom I can press belief? No sir. All I can do is say, Here’s how it went. Here’s what I saw. I’ve been there and am going back. Make of it what you will.”
Stephen E. Ambrose, 
D-Day June 6, 1944
“To think of the lives that were given for that principle . . . paying a terrible price on this beach alone, on that one day, 2,000 casualties. But they did it that the world could be free. It just shows what free men will do rather than be slaves.”
Judges 21:25
“In those days there was no King in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes
And the two most popular ones they received entries for:
Charles Dickens, 
A Tale of Two Cities
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
“All their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
Maybe I should pay more attention to the endings and come up with a list of my own!
So how about you, got any good last lines of books you like?
“just when I thought our chance had passed, you go and save the best for last”
July 12th, 2009 at 8:52 am
My hubby was in Fairbanks…he didn’t get to see alot since it was a short trip and they didn’t rent a car but he siad it was interesting. I cannot imagine 24 hours of darkness. Evidetnly they have a hard time keeoing faculty at the university in fairbanks becuase the spouses just lose it in the winter without any light.
Glad you survived VBS…it alwys takes so much out of me that I swear that I won’t do it again next year. Of course I always do!