Some people make "impulse buys" while waiting in lines at supermarkets. I make them while waiting in lines at bookstores.

And the other day, I latched onto a little volume about the size of a bar of soap. It's called "Opening Lines: The First Sentences from Classic Plays, Poems and Books."

Some of the sentences I recognized; others, I didn't. But it was fun guessing where they appeared and who wrote them.

It got me wondering how many opening sentences from LDS books people might be able to place?

So, here's your chance to find out.

Each sentence below comes from a popular and well-regarded LDS book. There are 10 books in the list. You get a point for naming the book and another for naming (or guessing from the language) who the author is.

Get eight points, and you're a devout reader.

Get nine to 12 points, and you're a scholar.

Get more than 12 points, and, well, please say hello to the rest of the LDS Correlation Committee for me.

Answers are at the bottom.

(1) "It was a frosty morning this early March day in 1827, and Matthew Steed could feel the chill permeating the cabin."

(2) "When I was a little boy, we children traced paper hearts on Valentine's Day."

(3) "It is a matter of history that, at or near the beginning of what has since come to be known as the Christian era, the Man Jesus, surnamed the Christ, was born in Bethlehem of Judea."

(4) "Do you remember making a cat's cradle when you were a child and how magical it was to turn a long, straight piece of string into a complex and complicated pattern?"

(5) "For human beings, the greatest problem in all the universe, the greatest contradiction, dilemma or dichotomy there is consists of two simple facts."

(6) "It is the destiny of the spirits of men to come to this earth and travel a journey of indeterminate length."

(7) "The night was cold, in more ways than one."

(8) "Everywhere, people are in a hurry."

(9) "I remember standing at the kitchen window of our home, looking down the gravel road as far as I could see across the flat, Canadian prairie that led to who knows where."

(10) "When one decides whether or not to deal with hard doctrines, the tendency is to put them off or to be put off by them."

Answers:

1— "The Work and the Glory (Pillar of Fire), Vol. 1," by Gerald N. Lund. 2 — "Standing for Something," by Gordon B. Hinckley. 3 — "Jesus the Christ," by James E. Talmage. 4 — "Cat's Cradle," by Chieko N. Okazaki. 5 — "Believing Christ," by Stephen E. Robinson. 6 — "The Miracle of Forgiveness," by Spencer W. Kimball. 7 — "The Peacegiver," by James L. Ferrell. 8 — "Live the Good Life," by President Thomas S. Monson. 9 — "Better than You Think You Are," by Ardeth G. Kapp. 10 — "All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience," by Neal A. Maxwell.

Jerry Johnston is a Deseret News staff writer. "New Harmony" appears weekly in Mormon Times.

E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com