# Favorite/Most Memorable Scenes From Books



## KRCox (Feb 18, 2011)

What moments do you remember right away from your fav books?


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## Y. K. Greene (Jan 26, 2011)

The sunny, bright Saturday full of promise in "The Regulators." To this day, whenever I think of horror done just right - I think of a perfect, sunny, day. 

The flayed back of Phèdre nó Delaunay, and how a masochist can save a nation in "Kushiel's Avatar." 

The rainbow snow in "The Farthest Away Mountain." Because with a little ingenuity and a lot of pluck you can live your own adventure.

And the first time Lord Henry meets Dorian Gray, in "A Portrait of Dorian Gray" because there hasn't been a character since that's been so effortlessly manipulative, sly and cunning.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KRCox said:


> What moments do you remember right away from your fav books?


What moments do you remember, KRCox? You can't just ask, you have to join the converation.  Otherwise it becomes an "author survey" and we move it to the Writers' Café . 

Betsy


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## KRCox (Feb 18, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> What moments do you remember, KRCox? You can't just ask, you have to join the converation.  Otherwise it becomes an "author survey" and we move it to the Writers' Café .
> 
> Betsy


I have a terrible memory. But I remember when The old man in Riverwind the Plainsman died. It was a very sad moment.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

KRCox said:


> What moments do you remember right away from your fav books?


Too many to mention...

- Sam Spade's first conversation with The Fat Man concerning the Maltese Falcon

- Frodo's first encounter with Strider in the Prancing Pony

- Ben Gunn's plaintive plea for cheese on Treasure Island

- Marlowe meeting Moose Malloy in Farewell My Lovely

- HAL singing "Daisy, Daisy"


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KRCox said:


> I have a terrible memory. But I remember when The old man in Riverwind the Plainsman died. It was a very sad moment.


I'm not familiar with that book...but I have difficulty coming up with "moments." Probably if I looked at specific books I could come up with something.

Betsy


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

Three that come immediately to mind:

When Anne Shirley hears the words “Gilbert Blythe is dying”  and her world comes crashing down.

The final scene in Pet Sematary when he hears Rachel’s footsteps shuffling through the kitchen door and her hand on his shoulder ...  “Hello Darling”

Claire screaming in anguish when she finds Jamie’s grave marker . ( DragonFly in Amber)


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## Carrie Rubin (Nov 19, 2012)

The ending of Midwives  by Chris Bohjalian; the ending of A Tale of Two Cities; and the pig-blood prom scene in Stephen King's Carrie.


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## Guest (Feb 10, 2013)

Off the top of my head, two come to mind without thinking. The first encounter with the Rachel in Moby Dick. While there are parts of the book I skim, that was beautifully poignant, the moment they realise it's the other Captain's children who are missing. From Susan Cooper's Greenwitch, Jane's wish for the Greenwitch. It's been years since I read that book (I lent my copy and it vanished   ) and I can still quote it.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

For me it's not specific incidents but more an overall feeling of time, place, and characters. For instance, I can remember specific incidents out of the James Herriott books, but what attracts me is the whole of 1930's England, the practice of the country vet, and the characters of Herriott, Sigfried and Tristan. That's true of every favorite book or series of books. If I really think about it, I can come up with a particular incident, but what makes that book or series a favorite is the overall impression.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

The first three that come to mind for me:

- Judas's death in Christopher Moore's _Lamb_

- This moment toward the end of Terry Pratchett's _Carpe Jugulum_ (probably not nearly as meaningful taken out of context like this):



> "The world is . . . different." Oats's gaze went out across the haze, and the forest, and purple mountains. "Everywhere I look I see something holy."
> 
> For the first time since he'd met here, he saw Granny Weatherwax smile properly. Normally her mouth went up at the corners just before something unpleasant was going to happen to someone who deserved it, but this time she appeared to be pleased with what she'd heard.
> 
> "That's a start, then," she said.


- The pun Roger Zelazny sneaks into the middle of _Lord of Light_: "That's when the fit hit the shan."


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## Andre Jute (Dec 18, 2010)

Howard Roark from THE FOUNTAINHEADby Ayn Rand standing naked on the cliff over the river.

Haven't read it since I was a boy, but that has stayed with me.

In Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED, I can't remember the name of the female lead character (Dagny?) but there's a scene where she's travelling on a train, sitting with her feet on the opposite bench, and I remember the phrase about the "blade-like elegance" of her legs. (As a writer, I won't ask for more than that people decades later remember a throwaway phrase from me so vividly.)

People who say Rand wasn't a good writer are usually reacting to her politics (I did too, though not in the way they do: I became a Chicago School economist) but she was a perfectly serviceable writer in her political works, and in her earliest pieces, ANTHEM, about collectivism taken to its logical absurdity, and WE THE LIVING, about the brutalities and immoralities of the Russian Revolution, she rose to poetry.


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

I'm the worst at remembering scenes. What I do remember was being scared every time someone sneezed after reading The Stand. 


William mentioned Frodo meeting Strider. That was a great scene.


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## ireadbooks (Jan 11, 2011)

I immediately thought of the scene in the final book of Robin Hobbs's Tawny Man Trilogy, Fool's Fate, when Fitz and Molly are reunited. I actually cried.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2


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## TJDanko (Feb 5, 2013)

Nick when he meets Daisy for the first time in _Gatsby_. The wind catching and floating Daisy and Jordan from the couch. Beautiful.


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## JLH3 (Jan 9, 2012)

Curiously, the moment I remember most from one of my favorite books actually wasn't in the book at all - it was modified in the editorial stage. This would be the scene in _Salem's Lot _ where Jimmy falls on the knives in the basement at the board housing. In the original version he's attacked by rats. I believe one of them even crawled in his mouth. Anyway, read that somewhere in something about Stephen King and the image has always stayed with me.

Also, the leg scenes in _Misery_.


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## Andre Jute (Dec 18, 2010)

TJDanko said:


> Nick when he meets Daisy for the first time in _Gatsby_. The wind catching and floating Daisy and Jordan from the couch. Beautiful.


I haven't read The Great Gatsby for a hundred years (a prime example of how education turns even a poet off the language!), but I remember the infinitely sad moment with Daisy in Gatsby's dressing room, whirling up a storm of his shirts, her last moment of abandon as she resigns herself to life with her dull, brutish husband.


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## TJDanko (Feb 5, 2013)

Andre Jute said:


> I haven't read The Great Gatsby for a hundred years (a prime example of how education turns even a poet off the language!), but I remember the infinitely sad moment with Daisy in Gatsby's dressing room, whirling up a storm of his shirts, her last moment of abandon as she resigns herself to life with her dull, brutish husband.


I know! It's been over over twenty years for me, but I remember Daisy and the shirts vividly. I worry about returning to these books sometimes, whether they hold up or not.


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## Joel R. Crabtree (Aug 6, 2012)

Maybe I'm an "in the moment" reader, because earlier today I was trying to think of some of my favorite or most memorable scenes from books that I've read and came up blank. So I wondered if anyone had any to share. It can be a book that you've written as well. Just interested in what sticks in the mind (and why it doesn't seem to for me).


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Actually, Joel, members can't post from a book they've written.  Discussion of books that members have written is for the Book Bazaar or the Writers' Café.  But I'm sure authors here have read books, too, so they'll be able to join in.  

I'm concerned about spoilers....

Betsy


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

There was a thread on this recently. I stink at it too. Then I see all sorts of great scenes listed and think geez, why didn't I think of that one!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I did think there was just a thread like this....

Betsy


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## Joel R. Crabtree (Aug 6, 2012)

Thanks for the correction, Betsy.

I thought there might be a similar thread already, but I wasn't able to find it.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

If there was, someone will post about it.

I don't remember specific scenes very well, either, or I'd post one.

Betsy


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I did think there was just a thread like this....
> 
> Betsy


http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,139534.msg2042519.html#msg2042519


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## Joel R. Crabtree (Aug 6, 2012)

Thank you, NogDog.


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## Joel R. Crabtree (Aug 6, 2012)

I have difficulty remembering certain scenes, but overall Stephen King seems to stand out more than most. I think a lot of it is the atmosphere he creates though, more than specific scenes. When Church comes back in Pet Cemetary, the doctors in Insomnia, the words "Hey Ho let's Go" from Talisman.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

merging the two threads...thanks, NogDog!

Betsy


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## Andre Jute (Dec 18, 2010)

Joel R. Crabtree said:


> It can be a book that you've written as well. Just interested in what sticks in the mind (and why it doesn't seem to for me).


Hell, I can't even remember the names of some of my books, never mind scenes from them. Professional writers move on to new excitements. Scenes from books I'm planning to write are vivid in my mind, but I can't tell you about them, and not for fear of Betsy's cattle prod, but because if I tell you, the excitement will be expended and the scene in the book will be dull.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

There's a scene near the beginning of _The Vampire Lestat_ in which a 21-year-old, still mortal Lestat draws weapons and faces off with a pack of wolves. It's not my favorite Rice book, but for some reason that scene has stuck with me over the years.

Not a single scene, though a series of them, but the section about animals (mainly dogs) in Max Brooks' _World War Z_ still shakes me up to this day after having read it half a dozen years ago. Every time I think of it, I give my beagle an extra hug.


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## Red Dove (Jun 11, 2012)

In Jack Kerouac's _On The Road_ when the narrator recalls his first impressions on meeting Dean Moriarty and describes him as "a side-burned hero of the snowy West".

The opening sentence of J G Ballard's _High Rise_ - "Later, as he sat on the balcony eating the dog...."


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

Another thread on here about _Wool_ made me remember a scene from that book that sticks in my head. It's the opening of the first book when the sheriff is climbing the worn metal stairs. There is such a heavy feeling of gloom. I thought it was fantastic at setting the mood.


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Ty Johnston said:


> There's a scene near the beginning of _The Vampire Lestat_ in which a 21-year-old, still mortal Lestat draws weapons and faces off with a pack of wolves. It's not my favorite Rice book, but for some reason that scene has stuck with me over the years.
> 
> Not a single scene, though a series of them, but the section about animals (mainly dogs) in Max Brooks' _World War Z_ still shakes me up to this day after having read it half a dozen years ago. Every time I think of it, I give my beagle an extra hug.


That's funny, because I've read both of those books, and I don't even remember those scenes. The most memorable scene for me in The Vampire Lestat is his last meal before becoming a vampire, and in World War Z it's the woman calmly discussing how her family resorted to cannibalism while she was smashing frozen zombie heads. Part of what I love about books is how different people can come away from the same one with such different experiences.


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

I saw several people mentioned The Stand and I agree.  The NYC tunnel scene stands out as does the one where the group leaves Stu and it says they never saw him again -- nice little trick there by King.

When Hannibal Lectures escapes in the Silence of the Lambs really freaked me out.  Although, I know he was a fictional character, something in my said, "He's out there."

The ending of Jonthan Valin's "Extenuating Circumstances" really shocked me, too.

--
R.J. Spears


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## AuthorJotter (Feb 24, 2013)

Agree with the scene of Lestat fighting wolves in The Vampire Lestat. It is a scene with lots of tension, and beautifully written.

Would also put out a scene The Three Musketeers, when the Musketeers are having a picnic at a fort during a war. Humorous! Love how Dumas made his characters so polite.


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## Jackson Burnett (Jul 30, 2012)

In The Grapes of Wrath Tom Joad has to leave his family because he's killed a man. Ma Joad asks him when she'll see him again. Tom Joad tells her she'll see him wherever she sees people are laughing and crying, wherever people are fighting to be free.

A close runner-up is in To Kill a Mockingbird. After Atticus Finch fails to win freedom for Tom Robinson, his family and friends in the galley stand up as a sign of respect as Atticus leaves the courtroom.

These are two of the most memorable for me.


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## Ben Finn (Mar 4, 2013)

Matthew Reily's water chase scene in Temple

Awesome


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

The cat in the hat comes bursting into the house. (In French_ chat, chapeau_.)


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## Elizabeth Black (Apr 8, 2011)

The opening of "The Haunting Of Hill House".

The hand-holding scene in "The Haunting Of Hill House". That scene made my skin crawl.

The Habitrail and jumper cables scenes in "American Psycho". Sick stuff.


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## charlie51923 (Mar 4, 2013)

Both the beginning and ending to 2001 A Space Odyssey. It sort of came full circle with mankind moving up another evolutionary jump (albeit by a somewhat mystical source) at the end when Dave finally enters the giant monolith and utters those words, "My God, It's full of stars!"


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