Nancy Pearl on NPR: Great Opening Lines to Hook Young Readers. She includes the classic C.S. Lewis opening from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”), but not my other favorite opening from a YA fiction book:
“Now, Bix Rivers has disappeared, and who do you think is going to tell his story but me? Maybe his stepfather? Man, that dude does not know Bix deep and now he never will, will he?” From The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks.

Thanks to Denny at The Book Den for pointing me to this great list of books recommended for summer reading by the writers at Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint.

And here’s another great list of History and Historical Fiction by PastorBob, who happens to be my pastor.

Reading Aloud ala St. Benedict’s Rule, thanks again to the Headmistress at The Common Room.

From this list of 160 Books All Boys Should Read, I’ve read . . . eight. I’m a voracious reader, but I’m obviously not a boy.

And here’s a spreadsheet for Dr. Peter Boxall’s 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. You can download the (excel) spreadsheet for free, and it gives you a place to mark which of the books you’ve read and tells you haow many you need to read each year to complete the list before you die. That’s provided you live an average lifespan. Fun. Oh, I’ve read 107 of the 1001, about 10%, and I must read 29 of the books on the list each year if I want to finish before I die. Thank goodness, I’m not interested in all the books on the list. No Ragtime for me, and I don’t think Updike and I will ever hit it off. The first 100 books on the list were published in the last ten years or so, and I don’t think many of them will make my personal list either.