Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger (1951)
http://www.penguin.co.uk/
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want
to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like,
and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all
that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it,
if you want to know the truth. In the first place, my parents would
hvae about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal
about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially
my father. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also
touch as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam
autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff
that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty rundown and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that's all I told
D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. He's in Hollywood. That isn't
too far from this crumby place, and he comes over and visits me
practically every weekend. He's going to drive me home when I go
home next month maybe. He got a Jaguar. One of those little English
jobs that can do around two hundred miles an hour. It cost him damn
near four thousand bucks. He's got a lot of dough, now. He didn't use
to. He used to be just a regular writer, when he was home. He wrote
this terrific book of short stories, The Secret Goldfish, in case you
never heard of him. The best one in it was "The Secret Goldfish." It
was about this little kid that wouldn't let anybody look at his goldfish
becasue he'd bought it with his own money. It killed me. Now he's out
in Hollywood, D.B., being a prostitute. If there's one thing I hate, it's
the movies. Don't even mention them to me.
[328 words]
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll (1865)
http://www.gutenberg.org
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having
nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it
had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice
`without pictures or conversation?'
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her
feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be
worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit
with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of
the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!' (when she
thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but
at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of
its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it
flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoatpocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field
after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the
hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she
was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly
down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she
found herself falling down a very deep well.
[313 words]
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone.
J. K. Rowlings (1997)
http://soft.rosinstrument.com/
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were
perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be
involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such
nonsense.
Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a
big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs.
Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came
in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the
neighbors. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no
finer boy anywhere.
The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest
fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone
found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met
for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her
sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.
The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in
the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never
even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they
didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.
When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there
was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things
would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his
most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a
screaming Dudley into his high chair.
None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.
[340 words]
Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes House
By CARL HULSE and ROBERT PEAR (Nov. 8, 2009)
http://www.nytimes.com
WASHINGTON — Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly
approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday night,
advancing legislation that Democrats said could stand as their defining social policy
achievement.
After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for
decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over
10 years. Democrats said the legislation would provide overdue relief to Americans
struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.
“This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country,” said Representative
George Miller, Democrat of California and one of the chief architects of the bill.
Democrats were forced to make major concessions on insurance coverage for abortions to
attract the final votes to secure passage, a wrenching compromise for the numerous
abortion-rights advocates in their ranks.
Many of them hope to make changes to the amendment during negotiations with the
Senate, which will now become the main battleground in the health care fight as
Democrats there ready their own bill for what is likely to be extensive floor debate.
Democrats say the House measure — paid for through new fees and taxes, along with
cuts in Medicare — would extend coverage to 36 million people now without insurance
while creating a government health insurance program. It would end insurance company
practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or dropping people when they become
ill.
Republicans condemned the vote and said they would oppose the measure as it proceeds
on its legislative route. “This government takeover has got a long way to go before it gets
to the president’s desk, and I’ll continue to fight it tooth and nail at every turn,” said
Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas. “Health care is too important to get it
wrong.”
On the House floor, Democrats exchanged high-fives and cheered wildly — and
Republicans sat quietly — when the tally display showed the 218th and decisive vote,
after the leadership spent countless hours in recent days wringing commitments out of
House members. [...]
[341 words]