Yann Martel's Life of Pi: First 29 Chapters

Author's Note: Martel opens his introduction with a simple, yet meaningful line: "This book was born as I was hungry." He details how poorly his most recent novel of the time fared, so the opening line could certainly relate to Martel's financial situation, but I think that it also relates to his desire to create art-- a sort of emotional hunger that Life of Pi satiated.
Chapter 4: Life of Pi is said to largely be a defense of zoos, and I think that Chapter 4 epitomizes that defense. Martell comes off as more than just knowledgeable-- he seems to truly be an expert on zoology, and, as the book progresses, religion. Writers often speak of getting into the character's mind, but Martel really seems to become Piscine Patel, and that alone is reason enough for Martel to be considered a contemporary master.
Chapter 7: At the end of this chapter, Life of Pi's religious themes really begin to take form as agnostics are adressed: "To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. 
Chapter 23: I enjoyed the tale of the confrontation among Pi's spiritual mentors, and I found Pi's response-- an insistence that he needs all three religions, not just one-- inspiring.

Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: Chapter 5 and Beyond

V: I liked the way Gatsby decides to get Jay's grass cut. It's a good portrayal of his awkwardness.
VI: When Gatsby and Tom meet for the second time, you really get the feeling that two massive forces are about to collide.
VII: Fitzgerald makes sure the reader never gets too comfortable with this chapter, smoothly moving from the tense garage scene to the heated argument between Jay and Tom to finding out that Myrtle's been killed-- and how.
VIII: This chapter's closing paragraph is true poetry: "It was after we startrd with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete."
IX: Nick states something here that summons sympathy for Gatsby. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us."

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: I-IV

I: Fitzgerald's opener gives the reader a good feel for what kind of character the narrator (Nick Carroway) is going to be-- that is, a mostly detached observer. That Nick is detached, however, does not make him uninteresting. In fact, he is a very interesting character, and through him, Fitzgerald produced one of the most vivid "voices" in all of literature.
II: I think that it's very revealing of Tom's character that he is so open about keeping a mistress, even introducing her to his wife's cousin. Fitzgerald makes it incredibly difficult to feel anything but malice towards Tom, thus making it easy to root for Gatsby later in the book.
III: This chapter is so vivid with detail that the reader can truly feel the excitement of the party. Also of interest in this chapter is the gossip spread among the guests.
IV: I enjoyed the bit about one man rigging the entire 1919 Fall Classic. I also found Jordan Baker's story particularly interesting, as it developed Gatsby's character without him even being present.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451:The Sieve and the Sand

72: Montag betrays his claims of love for Mildred as he says, "She (Clarisse) was the first person in a good many years I've really liked." Again, the dialogue is far too British, but it's still a good inclusion by Bradbury.
73: I wish Bradbury wouldn't put the quotes around family when the word is spoken by Mildred. I think that it takes away from the overall effect of portraying Mildred's mindset.
74: Mildred is an unbelievable character. She goes from panic over the possesion of books to laughter with a friend about a television show without missing a beat.
75: Here Bradbury chooses to describe a conversation rather than recount it with dialogue. In my opinion (an opinion I believe is shared with many-- even most-- of the masters of the craft, including On Writing author Stephen King), dialogue will always be more effective than a narrated conversation.
79: Bradbury here gives an effective portrait of Montag's current state of mind.
85: "...when you've nothing to lose, you run any risk you want." It's a very quotable line, and Bradbury even throws in humor by having Montag and Faber talking about the line's quotability.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Hearth and the Salamander

3: "It was a pleasure to burn." The opening line of the novel is so simple, and yet so effective in setting the tone for Bradbury's dystopia.
6: This is the first scene of dialogue, and it all reads far too British for me to buy into this as an American setting. (Example: "How oddly you say that.")
22: Bradbury does an excellent job of creating tension here. He also manages to begin showing the reader that Montag does not love his life, by having Montag insist that he does.
49: Here, Bradbury miffs me. Montag vommits on the floor, and his wife's reaction is, "Why'd you do that?" Even in this dystopia, even with this lethargic slug of a woman, I find "Why'd you do that?" an unlikely reaction.

Stephen King's On Writing: A Life of Writing

In his memoir, Stephen King stresses the importance of constantly being in the process of writing in order to be a good writer, and, as is evident throughout On Writing, King practices what he preaches.
I think that constantly writing has just become the natural order of things for King after so many years in the habit: King began writin when he was five or six years old, and hasn't quit yet.
King states in the book that he writes three hundred sixty four days per year (three hundred sixty five on leap years). He doesn't even take off for his birthday. I think that when you write with that much consistency (and read at least fifty books per year-- King tallies around eighty per year), you devekop a keen sense of awareness of what writing works and what has to go.
King continues to write, even after his accident-- a testament to his adament stance on the importance of making writing into a daily regimen.
King even asserts his opinion into his novels. In Bag of Bones, my favorite of all of his works, his main character is novelist Mike Noonan. When asked why he insists on writing every single day, Noonan replies simply, "So I won't forget the story."
Stephen King writes every day, and it seems to work for him. He has written around fifty books, and is considered one of the best-- and most popular-- authors of his generation. If you're a budding writer, you could do worse than to take King's approach to the writing life.  As King says in the close of his memoir, "Writing is... as much the water of life as qny other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up."

Stephen King's On Writing and On Living

Prelude: King opens the round swinging, his "voice" on full display-- "There are no bad dogs... but don't tell that to the parent of a child mauled by a pit bull. He or she is apt to bust your beak."
Chapter 2: Here, King seems to criticize writers like Harper Lee and Thomas Harris for not writing enough, but I tend to lean more toward the argument of writers like Sue Grafton (who, incidentally, has written around twenty novels). Grafton theorizes that all writers enter this world with a set number of stories in their heads, and after they've reached that point, nothing they write will be as meaningful as what they wrote before.
Chapter 5: I like King's idea that the best plots are a by-product of characterization. The Sisters Brothers, one of the best novels of the year and quite possibly a future entry in every major "required reading" list known to man is an artistically written character study, but the plot never suffers. It is, after all, the characters that cause the plot to progress. I also love the Dick and Jane writing excercise he details later in the chapter.
Chapter 7: King uses a passage of an Elmore Leonard novel. I've read several of Leonard's books and it's true: he's one of the best dialogue writers in the business. In fact, King's example is mediocre by Leonard's standards.
Chapter 10: The Stand was one of the first Stephen King books I read, and one of the best. Not quite my favorite of his (that'd be Bag of Bones), but it's up there. It was interesting to read about the struggles he underwent in writing that mammoth of a novel. (Until I read The Winds of War, The Stand was the longest book I had ever read.)

Stephen King's On Writing: Toolbox

Chapter Two: I liked King's paragraph referring to the Grammar Police and his blessing to take grammatic liberties in writing.
Chapter Three: King lends his voice even to the writing oriented section. ("Purge this quisping thought!") I also got a chuckle out of his description of the party game. ("You got a nice butt," he said cheekily.)
Chapter Five: Kings ends the section superbly with a reference to the What Writing Is section. ("We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and magic... but as we move along, you'd do well to remember that we are also talking about magic.")

Stephen King's On Writing: C.V.

Chapter 10: King is easy to relate to, here writing, "(My brother) learned at some point that it was usually possible to get Brother Stevie to join him in the point position when trouble was in the wind." I think that ability to make readers connect with the characters (or in this case himself) is one of the reasons King has become such a power player in the industry.
Chaprer 18: "If you write, someone will try to make you feel lousy about it..." That line had an effect on mr. It's very simple, yet such an insight on harsh critics.
Chapter 23: One of the current buzzwords in the literary industry is "voice", that unimitable trait that all great writers possess. King, love his work or hate it, is one such writer. His down-to-earth voice is apparent in the opening paragraph. In fact, these may be some of the smoothest lines in the entire book
Chapter 27: King is a very funny guy. His parenthetical notes are often hilarious. Here, "Much later, when asked to do the Playboy Interview, I called Hermon the asshole of the world. Hermonites were infuriated by that, and I hereby apologize. Hermon is really no more than the armpit of the world.
Chapter 28: Here King notes an important lesson for any aspiring writer. "...sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing to do is to shovel shit from a sitting position." I think I have a tendency to be over-critical of my writing, and I suspect many other writers are the same way.
Chapter 31: King does an excellent job of depicting his own shock and excitement here.
What Writing Is: I found this particularly interesting. It's a great discussion on the essence of writing. It's also another shining moment for King's voice.