They Said WHAT?

It's the last day of January already. I'm having a hard time believing that January 2010 is already over. Where did it go?

I'd like to first send out some thanks today. All the folks who have commented here, on Facebook or sent me emails about the new blog look. Thank you so much for the kind words. And those of you who have found glitches for me, thank you for that also! I'm ecstatic that so many of you have said it is easier to read and navigate. That makes it worth all the effort to change. You know it's so darned easy to stay status quo and just go day to day. But, this change was completely worth the effort.

Also, I'd like to thank all the folks who sent me such nice emails this week about my post on Robert Crais' event in Dayton. First of all, it's such a blast to be able to talk about him with you guys. I love talking to other Craisies. And I also love hearing from some of the lurkers. It's nice knowing you're out there. Thank you for sharing my love of RC with me! I was surprised at how many people on Twitter said they were reading him for the first time because I had been tweeting about him. Warms my heart. And actually I was surprised. I thought for sure everyone already knew about his supreme wonderfulness. So, thank you all!

Today's post is a new project I'd like to try this year. The last Sunday of each month, I'll round up great lines/segments from books I've read in the month. This month's will have a couple from December, too, but after this it will be books I've read in that month. There are so many times when I read a great line and think, "man, I want to tell everyone about this." And then ultimately I forget because my memory is pathetic. And this will be my effort to remember. It's my goal to document them now. They might be lines that made me laugh or ones that jolted me with an incredible use of language or ones that really made me think. Overall, they are lines that stood out to me and elicited a "wow" response.

I hope you enjoy this. AND, if you have some great lines that you loved from your reading and would like me to include them. Send them my way. This can be a collaborative post. That would be fun! So here's the first "Great Lines" post of 2010:

From Kelli Stanley's CITY OF DRAGONS:

“ ‘The Chinese say whoever learns without thought is lost. But whoever thinks without learning is in great danger.’”

From Sean Chercover's TRIGGER CITY:

“A kid in a police uniform strode toward me, his hand held up like a traffic cop.

‘You can’t park there.’ Blond wisps of hair sprouted from his upper lip, petitioning for a promotion to the rank of mustache.”

From Marcus Sakey's GOOD PEOPLE:

“Even braced for it, the roar of the first shot hit like a thousand volts, kicking every cell into life, adrenaline pounding fast and hard. People didn’t realize how loud the things were, like God clapping his hands.”

From Walter Mosley's THE LONG FALL:

"Throwing a punch is the yang of a boxer's life. The yin is being able to avoid getting hit. I'm pretty good at the yang part."

"A person with no books is inconsequential in a modern setting, but a peasant who reads is a prince in waiting."

"If anyone was an example of having too much on the ball it was my son. He would track down Satan and then try to brace him for a bad loan."

From Craig McDonald's PRINT THE LEGEND:

"Hector didn't know if he would go in this direction in life, not just yet, but the opening line of a story or novel suddenly occurred to him: When you start sleeping with women younger than your cigarette lighter, you know you've turned a sorry corner."

From Steve Hockensmith's HOLMES ON THE RANGE:

"You can follow a trail without even knowing you're on it. You can start out just ambling, maybe get to thinking you're lost - but you're headed somewhere all the same. You just don't know it till you get there."

And my last one is from Robert Crais' THE FIRST RULE, but it's a bit difficult to take this out of context and have it mean much. I'll preface it by saying the male body is a murderer named "Moon" who Joe Pike has been looking for and this is the scene where he finds him:

"The dog's face and chest were matted with blood, and its feet were red boots. A second male body was half on a couch and half on the floor. The flesh on the second man's left forearm had been partially eaten, but his right forearm was intact. The numbers tattooed there were easy to read.

187
187
187
187
187

One for each of the people he put in the ground.

Pike said, 'Good night, Moon.'"

So there's my January roundup. Hope you enjoyed these lines. Maybe they even tempted you to read one of these books if you haven't already. They were all wonderful reads. Hope you had a January filled with great books and I hope your February finds you with even more.

Happy Reading!