30 GREAT OPENING LINES IN LITERATURE

"A few miles south of Soledad, the Salina River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

Sounds familiar? Of course, it does. It's the opening line in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

According to an article published in The Telegraph today, position number 1 of the ranking is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: "It's a truth universally acknowledged...". You can check it out here.

Let me recommend two wonderful websites which provide free books online:

Project Gutenberg

Literature.org

More literature? Sure! Do you know that today, 22 Feb. marks the 75th anniversary of Antonio Machado's death at Collioure (France)? Antonio Machado was one of the greatest Spanish poets. I'm sure you remember your Spanish Literature teachers and their lessons about Machado's poetry, don't you?

Comments

SMART GOAL SETTING AND LANGUAGE LEARNING HABITS

Why learning a language is a daily commitment. 7 ways to develop good habits in language learning. How to set SMART goals in language learning . 7 Ways to Develop Good Language Learning Habits from Transparent Language, Inc. Top ten reasons to learn a language. Fawlty Towers (tv series). Top ten Fawlty Towers moments (watchmojo.com video) Hilarious!!!

TODAY IS ... REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Remembrance Day in the UK Remembrance Sunday: veterans march past the Cenotaph in memory of the fallen and defiance of terror (The Telegraph) Events to remember servicemen and women who died in conflict VIDEO (BBC News) When is Remembrance Sunday 2016? Why do we wear poppies to remember war dead? (Sunday Express) British War Poets Wilfred Owen: Dulce Et Decorum Est Top ten war poems (The Guardian) Remembrance Sunday READING EXERCISE

Big Brother, the thought police, the two minutes’ hate, doublethink, unperson, 2+2=5 and the ministry of truth.

"It was a bright cold day in April," goes the first line of 1984, "and the clocks were striking thirteen" George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four opening sentence. Another 35 years have elapsed since then, and Nineteen Eighty-Four remains the book we turn to when truth is mutilated, when language is distorted, when power is abused, when we want to know how bad things can get. Nothing but the truth: the legacy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (The Guardian)