fooled anyone? first and last fake book lines

At book club today, we played one of my favourite games, called Ex Libris. You can play it in any room where there’s a bookshelf, but I once bought a pack of cards with rules printed on the box that make it easier.

Basically, one person reads out a book title, author, years the author lived, and a synopsis. Then we decide if we’re going to take the first line or the last line of the book, and everyone writes one they think might fool everyone else into thinking it’s the book’s real wording. The person with the card also copies out the real first or last line, and then reads them all together and we vote on which one we think is the right one. You get points if you guess the correct line, but also if people vote for the one you’ve written! It’s good fun. See if you can guess the real lines from the ones we came up with today.

Last line of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome, 1859-2927 (which is the real line from the book?):

Last line of Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, 1884-1967:

Last line of Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007:

First line of Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes, 1946-:

Thanks for a cosy, fun time, everyone! Here’s my scientist friend Alice Brewer, who runs a home business called BeanPi, for which she makes lovely clothes and accessories for kids. She’s with Juniper, one of our youngest book club members.