Book Beginnings & The Friday 56: 1984 by George Orwell

Published on by Margaret

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

1984 is one of the books I’m currently reading. It’s one of those books I’ve had for years and never read.

The Book Begins:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice. *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your  ereader . If you have to improvise, that is okay. *Find a snippet, short and sweet, but no spoilers!

These are the rules:

  1. Grab a book, any book.
  2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
  3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
  4. Post it.
  5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Page 56:

‘By 2050 – earlier, probably – all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron – they’ll exist only in Newspwak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they used to be.

Summary:

The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell’s prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of “negative utopia”—a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions—a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time. (Goodreads)

~~~

What have you been reading lately?

15 thoughts on “Book Beginnings & The Friday 56: 1984 by George Orwell”

  1. The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier.
    ‘I left the car by the side of the cathedral, and then walked down the steps into the Place des Jacobins.’
    I promise it gets more interesting if you complete the first paragraph! *my only thought*

    Liked by 1 person

  2. This book had such a powerful impact on me, Margaret! I’m glad you’re reading it, and I’ll be really interested in what you think of it. In fact, I ought to take my copy out and read it again, and see what I think of it now (It’s been a while since I read it).

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  4. 1984 is a brilliant book and it really should be read more thoroughly than it is! It’s always used as an example for things, but usually those examples show that they haven’t actually understood the book xD I hope you enjoy it and that it connects with you in the way it did with me! I hope you have a lovely weekend 🙂 Juli @ A Universe in Words

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