The best sort of meme

Stolen from anomilygrace , who had some very good books in her list.  ;)

The Rules:
1. Pick 10 of your favorite books or series.
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

(I'm limiting myself to fiction on this... although it doesn't make the choosing any easier.  It's impossible to pick out ten and say, "These are the books I love and admire above all others!"  Different books and different authors simply suit different moods and days.)

1)  I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.  That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board, which I have padded with our dog's blanket and the tea-cosy.  I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith guessed by sewaddicted  and peronel

2)  To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood.  In a county there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a little girl;  wide awake and longing to get up, but not daring to do so for fear of the unseen power in the next room - a certain Betty, whose slumbers must not be disturbed until six o'clock struck when she waken of herself "as sure as clockwork".  Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell guessed by dalarnahorse123

3)  There were four of us - George and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency.  We were all sitting in my room, smoking, and talking about how bad we were - bad from a medical point of view I mean, of course.  Three Men in a Boat - To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome guessed by peronel

4)  "Will you all be quiet!"  snapped High Chancellor Querida.  She pouched up her eyes and glared around the table.  Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones guessed by peronel

5)  Mrs.  Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with adlers and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place;  it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade;  but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum.  Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery guessed by vanityfairy

6)  Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians.  They met upon the third Wednesday of every month and read each other long, dull papers upon the history of English magic.  Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke guessed by reine_de_coudre

7)  Rossamund was a boy with a girl's name.  All the other children of Madame Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls teased and tormented him almost daily because of his name.  Monster Blood Tattoo- Foundling by D.M. Cornish guessed by jade_nolan

8)  It was a nice day.  All the days had been nice.  There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet.  But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one.  Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman  guessed by peronel

9)  Cat Chant admired his elder sister Gwendolen.  She was a witch.  Chronicles of the Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones guessed by

peronel 10)  No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine.  Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen guessed by vanityfairy