Firsts and Lasts

Before The-Book-By-You-Know-Who came out, there was speculation as to what its last word would be. I couldn't understand why this would interest anybody, except for maybe a few gamblers in Vegas, and truth be told, I still don't get it.

Of course, the whole thing sparked my curiosity and made me wonder what the last words were of other notable books. So, for fun, I grabbed The-Book-By-You-Know-Who and nine other random books from my bookcase to compile a quick list of last words. While I was at it, I grabbed the first words, too. As you will notice, none of the novels started with Once or ended with after...