Best opening line from a book

[worddork]

I have noticed that there are a lot of book-lovers here at CS.com, so I figured it was time for us to share our favorite opening lines from a book. You know, the first line you read, that tells you "This is going to be a good read"

Here's my, from [I]Pigs don't fly[I] by Mary Brown

"My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much."

When I first read that, I broke rule #1 :spew: which hurt as the day before I had had my wisdom teeth removed. I must admit it was worth the pain.

[MCSledgehammer]

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
-Stephen King, "Gunslinger"
Great series up until the self-insertions by the author. I mean really, how arrogant do you have to be to make yourself a pillar upon which the existence of the universe rests?

[Mr. Rager!]

"If you're going to read this, don't bother"

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

[Lachrymose]

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
-Stephen King, "Gunslinger"
Great series up until the self-insertions by the author. I mean really, how arrogant do you have to be to make yourself a pillar upon which the existence of the universe rests?

This is the first one I thought of. I can't believe it only took one reply to get to it. :)

Of course it has even greater significance since it's (highlight for spoiler) also the last line of the book which I find amazing.

When I found out about King inserting himself into the series, which was before I even got to that part, I thought the same thing. However, after reading it, I really like the way he included himself. It's not that he was god-like, he was just being used as a vessel to complete the series. The character wasn't even aware of this. Only the members of the Ka-tet were.

[Rapscallion]

"Erratum: You have the wrong book."

Uncle Fegg's Encyclopedia of All World Knowledge. By two of the Python crew (Gilliam and Palin?).

Rapscallion

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.

---Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

[Eireann]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

My favorite novel from Dickens.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Excellent novel, Eireann. But the actual first line is longer than that.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

[CaroPhoenix]

I can think of two:

From When the Cat's Away by Kinky Friedman:

"Winnie Katz's lesbian dance class was like God. Mankind knew it was there, but no one had ever seen it. Moses had seen God, in the form of a burning bush interestingly enough. Then he took two tablets and went to bed."

And from The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (the book that inspired me to be a writer):

"The sun sets in the west. Just about everyone knows that. But Sunset Towers faced east, strange."

[Boozy]

I didn't know if I necessarily had any favourite opening lines, but I have more than a few favourite books. Flipping them open, I've discovered that they actually have some pretty decent opening lines:

"What's it going to be then, eh?"
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

"We slept in what had once been the gymnasium."
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

"It was a pleasure to burn."
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I'll bet you guys can guess where this one's from:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, 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."

[AdminAssistant]

"My mother didn't try to stab my father until I was six, but she must have shown signs of oddness before that." Never Have Your Dog Stuffed (and other things I have learned) by Alan Alda

"Marley was dead, to begin with." - well...you know....

[Becks]

Boozy, sounds like Catcher in the Rye.











You know, I almost typed it as Catcher in the Wry. I love you, Bob Uecker.

[ArcticChicken]

"I had just come home from telling my favorite sister that her husband had been eaten by a lion."

One Virgin Too Many by Lindsey Davis.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

''When I got over to Leonard's Christmas Eve night, he had the Kentucky Headhunters turned way up...and Leonard, in a kind of Christmas celebration, was once again setting fire to the house next door.''

-- From The Two-Bear Mambo, by Joe R. Lansdale

[Gawdzillers]

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." 1984

"All this happened, more or less." Slaughterhouse-Five

[derangedperson]

Call me Ishmael.

[Eireann]

The finest opening paragraph in all of English literature:

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years, and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

[Eric the Grey]

The first line of my all-time favorite book needs the next paragraph to go along with it: :D

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 Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett


:cool: Eric the Grey

[wagegoth]

Related to the topic and fun: http://www.twitterlit.com/

They post first lines of books daily, then link to the book at Amazon. I have the RSS feed on My Yahoo!

[Listerfiend]

I have two.

1. "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die."- Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

2. The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head on a roasting pan." -Stiff, Mary Roach

[wagegoth]

I love William Gibson.

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Neuromancer.



"The ghost was her father's parting gift, presented by a black-clad secretary in a departure lounge at Narita."

Mona Lisa Overdrive.



"They set a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair."

Count Zero.

[wagegoth]

"I'd been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar."

Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris.

This is how I got hooked on this series. None of the other books have started this well, but this book was all it took.

[morwynskya]

My favorite opening paragraph of all time:

"On a cold, fretful afternoon in early October, 1872, a hansom cab drew up outside the offices of Lockhart and Selby, Shipping Agents in the financial heart of London, and a young girl got out and paid the driver. She was a person of sixteen or so -alone, and uncommonly pretty. She was slender and pale, and dressed in mourning, with a black bonnet under which she tucked back a straying twist of blonde hair that the wind had teased loose. She had unusually dark brown eyes for one so fair. Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man. "

from The Ruby in the Smoke, the first book in the Sally Lockheart Quartet by Philip Pullman.

[BookstoreEscapee]

2. The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roster chicken. I have never before had occasion to make the comparison, for never before today have I seen a head on a roasting pan." -Stiff, Mary Roach

That is a really good book. Sounds totally morbid, but it's fascinating! Her other book was interesting, too, but not quite as good (it's about ghosts and such).

OK, slightly more than a line...

"Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize." Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

[Boozy]

That is a really good book. Sounds totally morbid, but it's fascinating! Her other book was interesting, too, but not quite as good (it's about ghosts and such).

I'll read anything by Mary Roach (even books about corpses). She's one of the wittiest writers out there.

The subject matter of Spook wasn't as intriguing, but she was definitely on her game with the writing.

[BookstoreEscapee]

The subject matter of Spook wasn't as intriguing, but she was definitely on her game with the writing.

Exactly. The topic didn't really grab me but I read it because it was by her.

I might have to read Stiff again...

[sms001]

You know, I almost typed it as Catcher in the Wry. I love you, Bob Uecker.

Just finished it myself. What a life! As a guy who grew up with Jack Buck, I have to say being able to listen to someone "old school" like him again is great. Makes a North Woods summer that much better.

[Bright_Star]

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
-Stephen King, "Gunslinger"
Great series up until the self-insertions by the author. I mean really, how arrogant do you have to be to make yourself a pillar upon which the existence of the universe rests?



I thought him doing that was pretty clever. Made me wonder why he hadn't put himself in one of his stories earlier.

[VicSilver]

I have noticed that there are a lot of book-lovers here at CS.com, so I figured it was time for us to share our favorite opening lines from a book. You know, the first line you read, that tells you "This is going to be a good read"

Here's my, from [I]Pigs don't fly[I] by Mary Brown

"My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much."

When I first read that, I broke rule #1 :spew: which hurt as the day before I had had my wisdom teeth removed. I must admit it was worth the pain.

This is funny..when I read the title of this thread, I immediately thought of Mary Brown's books. The Pigs Don't Fly line is great, but my favorite opening line is from her book "Playing the Jack."

"On the thirteenth of April in the year 1785 I was sitting in a ditch in Derbyshire, convinced I was dying."

A close third (to Playing the Jack, and Pigs Don't Fly), is from the sequel to Pigs Don't Fly (Master of Many Treasures). Although it's two lines, not one...

"Venice stank. For the loveliest city in the world (so I had been told), center of Western trade, Queen of the Adriatic, she certainly needed a bath."

[Listerfiend]

That is a really good book. Sounds totally morbid, but it's fascinating! Her other book was interesting, too, but not quite as good (it's about ghosts and such)...

I've had friends come over and upon seeing the book on my shelf I always get weird looks... I mean, Roach takes a really taboo, creepy, weird subject matter and presents information on it in an extremely entertaining yest respectful way. I didn't know about her other book--I'll have to look it up.

[Becks]

Just finished it myself. What a life! As a guy who grew up with Jack Buck, I have to say being able to listen to someone "old school" like him again is great. Makes a North Woods summer that much better.

I've missed hearing Ueck these past few years. And he's an awesome guy in person, too.



And he has another book. Impossible to find, though. :cry:

[BookstoreEscapee]

I've had friends come over and upon seeing the book on my shelf I always get weird looks... I mean, Roach takes a really taboo, creepy, weird subject matter and presents information on it in an extremely entertaining yest respectful way. I didn't know about her other book--I'll have to look it up.

I can say this much, which makes it more interesting to me. Spook is about ghosts and stuff, but B&N has it categorized as Cognitive Science. If it was in New Age like most ghost stuff I probably would not have read it.