Famous First and Last Lines

Famous First Line: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

This is the first line of the novel Neuromancer by William Gibson. He was born on March 17th, 1948. Neuromancer  is a science fiction novel that was published in 1984. It was the first book written that depicted the era of Cyberpunk: future societies where technology has advanced, but crime and corruption have as well. The main character, Case, is an unemployed hacker who is contacted by Armitage who wants Case to steal online data for him. He eventually breaks into Wintermute, an artificial intelligence program which ends up becoming too powerful. 

You could not pay me all the money in the world to read this book. I have absolutely no interest in "Cyberpunk" or dystopias. I know that this was the original start of that idea, but I have read too many dystopian novels to be interested in yet another one. I only picked the quote because of the beautiful imagery. If I had known the novel's background would be as awful as it was, I would have just picked something else. 

Famous Last Line: “Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

This is the last line of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. He was born on January 1st, 1919  and died on January 27th, 2010. The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 and was originally written for adults, but teenagers read it as well for its coming-of-age theme. The story follows Holden Caufield, a teenager who has escaped his prep school for an adventure alone in New York City. He questions what his purpose in life is, if he belongs, and the concept of loss. In the last pages of the novel, he examines how fragile humanity is, and he decides that it is better to keep his feelings and experiences to himself. 

I read this book last year in English 3 and I loved it. I immediately recognized this quote. It gives me chills every single time I read it. Before I read the book, my English teacher Mrs. Bright-Kaufman gave me the idea to read this novel at all different stages of my life. After I finished it, I definitely see why she said that. I plan to buy this book and read it next before I leave for college.