# Best opening line in a book



## tnt (Aug 17, 2010)

I'm not saying the first sentence in a book makes or breaks it... but some are more interesting than others.

Have you ever read a book and the first sentence just blows you away?

My favorite is the opening to Moby Dick:

"Call me Ishmael."

Three words that work in so many ways.  For instance, most books set a scene, gently draw you in, and then ask you to open the door and meet the narrator.

Ishmael doesn't even bother to knock on the door.  He just barges in with, "I've got a story.  Sit down and listen."

Anybody else have a favorite?


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

_It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. _

1984


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

It was a dark and stormy night.
_A Wrinkle in Time_


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

The man who was not Terrance O'Grady had come quietly. 
_Agent of Change_ by Steve Miller & Sharon Lee.

This 10-word sentence had me asking about 10 questions and I needed to read on in order to answer them.

Who was Terrance O'Grady?
Where was Terrance O'Grady?
Who was the man who wasn't Terrance O'Grady?
Why or how might he be mistaken for Terrance O'Grady?
Who was taking him?
Where was he being taken?
Who or what awaited him?
Why had he come quietly?
Why might he have not come quietly?
What will happen when they arrive at their destination?

One sentence and I was hooked -- big time.


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

tnt said:


> I'm not saying the first sentence in a book makes or breaks it... but some are more interesting than others.
> Have you ever read a book and the first sentence just blows you away?


During my career I have lived and worked in six foreign countries, with some having more import to me than the others. At one point, I read the following opening line from _Redemption_, by Leon Uris. It immediately drew me in to two places where I have lived that I love to this day. One was my ancestry, and where I also served at the American Embassy in the 70's and the other was the country from which I married my wife, and where I presently live. Therefore, it was a dead cert I would buy this book, not to mention the caliber of the author. The sentence then:

_*"If the earth were flat, New Zealand would have fallen off it long ago, it's that far from Ireland."*_

If you've been to, or loved either of those places, how could you not continue?

Gordon


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973"


- The Lovely Bones


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

-  Pride and Prejudice


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Lying, left hand for a pillow, on the shingled slant of the roof, there in the shade of the gable, staring at the cloud-curdles in afternoon's blue pool, I seemed to see, between blinks, above the campus and myself, an instant piece of sky-writing.

DO YOU SMELL ME DED? I read.

_~ Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand_


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## jbh13md (Aug 1, 2010)

It was the best of time, it was the worst of times... J/K. I mean, that's an awesome first line, but it's a lot to copy. The one that jumps to mind for me is this:

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


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## DLs Niece (Apr 12, 2010)

"Harry Masterson would be dead in thirteen minutes."    James Rollins... 'Sandstorm'.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

- The Gunslinger, by Stephen King

I also think Lovely Bones has one of the best opening lines I've ever read.


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## AJB (Jul 9, 2010)

I think I'd have to go for:

_Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again_

from Daphne Du Maurier's _Rebecca_. A simple enough phrase, but capable of sending shivers down my spine.

Amanda


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## LisaW. (Jun 1, 2009)

Not the opening line... but the blurb on the cover of Melissa Senate's _Love You To Death_:

_Who's axing Abby's exes?_


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## 13500 (Apr 22, 2010)

Lyndl said:


> "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
> 
> - Pride and Prejudice


I second this choice, but I must say, "The Lovely Bones" one is close.


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
- first line of _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ by C.S. Lewis


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

Aravis60 said:


> "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
> - first line of _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ by C.S. Lewis


I have always loved that one!


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Lyndl said:


> "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
> 
> - Pride and Prejudice


Oooh, that's a good one!


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

AJB said:


> I think I'd have to go for:
> 
> _Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again_
> 
> ...


That would be my vote also.

Mike


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## Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer (Aug 10, 2010)

"One day you know more dead people than live ones." From Jess Walter's Citizen Vince. 
The older I get, the more true that is.


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

_There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck._

Jhereg, by Steven Brust

I'm not arguing it's the best line ever, or even that I've read, but I do love the series and hubby is reading it right now, so it was the first thing that came to mind. And it _is_ a great opening line 

Edit: The opening line of Rebecca is AWESOME. Definitely will get my vote as a good one


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

      -The Hobbit


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

Aravis60 said:


> "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
> - first line of _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ by C.S. Lewis


Great one.


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## CandyTX (Apr 13, 2009)

A friend of mine wrote a book and the first sentance is "


Spoiler



Motherf***ker!


" which had me giggling (Trevor's Song by Susan Helene Gottfried).

My all time favorite is "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." in Anna Karenina

_--- added spoiler_


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfahsionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

--_The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

"It was a dark and stormy night."   



Mike


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.

(Scaramouche)


But I love the opening line from Rebecca.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

"You're a spoiled, bad-tempered bastard," my sister said, and jolted me into a course I nearly died of.

Dick Francis, Flying Finish


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## BookLover (Mar 20, 2009)

Lyndl said:


> "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
> 
> - Pride and Prejudice


This one gets my vote as well!


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## meljackson (Nov 19, 2008)

This is two sentences but I loved it anyway.

To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor. - Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Melissa


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

Oooh.  The Hitchhiker's Guide and C.S. Lewis ones are great, too


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## daveconifer (Oct 20, 2009)

intinst said:


> It was a dark and stormy night.
> _A Wrinkle in Time_


OMG, does it really start like that? I read that several times but I don't recall that...


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

daveconifer said:


> OMG, does it really start like that? I read that several times but I don't recall that...


Yep, it sure does.


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Aravis60 said:


> Yep, it sure does.


And it was, too.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

daveconifer said:


> OMG, does it really start like that? I read that several times but I don't recall that...


And I'm pretty sure it was a joke, unlike for it's originator:



> It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents - except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.


Edward Bulwer-Lyton, _Paul Clifford

_


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

NogDog said:


> And I'm pretty sure it was a joke, unlike for it's originator:
> 
> Edward Bulwer-Lyton, _Paul Clifford
> 
> ...


_
Just like it was for Charles Schulz/Snoopy_


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

"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."

_The Haunting of Hill House _ by Shirley Jackson.

I also like the opening line of _The Catcher in the Rye_, but it's real-l-l-l-ly long.


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## Maxx (Feb 24, 2009)

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

Arkali said:


> _There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck._
> 
> Jhereg, by Steven Brust


I was scanning what others had written, as this was going to be my post. Not fast enough I guess.


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## northtexas (May 16, 2010)

_I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles) who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as "Claudius the Idiot," or "That Claudius," or "Claudius the Stammerer," or "Clau-Clau-Claudius" or at best as "Poor Uncle Claudius," am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the "golden predicament" from which I have never since become disentangled._

Robert Graves, I, Claudius (1934)


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Arkali said:


> _There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck._
> 
> Jhereg, by Steven Brust
> ...


I wish Mr. Brust and/or his publisher would get all the series onto the Kindle.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas--Hunter S. Thompson.


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I wish Mr. Brust and/or his publisher would get all the series onto the Kindle.


Me and you, both, Nog. I clicked on the Jhereg link today. I need to get off my tail and go through the whole series a-clicking.


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

"I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army."

_Old Man's War_ - John Scalzi.


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## Varin (May 12, 2009)

To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.

- Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave.


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## JimJ (Mar 3, 2009)

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk:

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


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## Anne Victory (Jul 29, 2010)

Varin said:


> To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.
> 
> - Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave.


Oh, that's awesome. Makes me want to check out the book


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Arkali said:


> Oh, that's awesome. Makes me want to check out the book


It's a good book, part one of a series of three.


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## D. Nathan Hilliard (Jun 5, 2010)

It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. - Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine


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## TheSeagull (Oct 25, 2009)

'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.'

I'd say Lolita has the best opening paragraph in literary history but maybe that's just me!


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## Karma Kindle (Jul 27, 2009)

"_The magician's underwear has just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami_."

From my favorite book: Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins


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## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

So many good ones already listed, I still remember the opening line from Neuromancer by William Gibson years after I read it so it must have had some effect:

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

I'm sure there are others but I just don't recall them right now.


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

In Secret Dead Men by Duane Swierczynski, the third sentence grabbed my attention. “..but a couple of kids organized an impromptu club with a mandate to experiment on her corpse.”  It gets even wilder after that.
L.J.


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## robertduperre (Jun 13, 2010)

*The bureaucrat fell from the sky.*

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

Maxx said:


> I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
> 
> A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving


That's beautifully written. Guess I'll be adding that one to my wish list.

Dawn


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## jwasserman (Aug 30, 2010)

"If you want to hear about it, you'll probably want to know where I was born, and what a lousy childhood I had, and how my parents were occupied before they had me, and all the David Copperfield crap, but if you want to know the truth, I don't really want to get into it."
Catcher in the Rye

This one line completely changed how I looked at classic literature.


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## Daniel Pyle (Aug 13, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
> -_The Gunslinger_, by Stephen King


Not only is this one of my favorite first sentences, but it's one of those ones that seems to get better and better every time I read the book, which I've done several times.


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

A screaming comes across the sky.

Gravity's Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon


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## Nick Steckel (Sep 2, 2010)

"I am an invisible man." Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

"riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs." James Joyce, Finnegans Wake

I second the Thomas Pynchon and Dark Tower beginnings.


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## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
> 
> - The Gunslinger, by Stephen King


Easily this one. By a mile.


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## RJ Keller (Mar 9, 2009)

“Imagine that you have to break someone’s arm.” - The Gun Seller, Hugh Laurie


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## Daniel Pyle (Aug 13, 2010)

T.L. Haddix said:


> Hugh Laurie - House??


That's what I said. It looks like a pretty good read.


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## RJ Keller (Mar 9, 2009)

Yeah. He wrote it back in the '90s. It's very Wodehousian.


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## Feste (Aug 25, 2010)

I've always loved

" to wound the autumnal city."

which does indeed start mid sentence

From Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany The book ends with "Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out of the halls of vapor and light, beyond holland into the hills, I have come to "

Which (may) completes the beginning line


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## Travis haselton (Jul 24, 2010)

"A summer storm blazed on, with crashing thunder and blinding lightning." some cheap novel I read a while back. The book was ok but I realy like the opening.


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## Jon King (Sep 10, 2010)

Maybe this doesn't qualify, as it's a story, not a book, but

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.
--Poe, _The Cask of Amontillado_


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## jbh13md (Aug 1, 2010)

Jon King said:


> Maybe this doesn't qualify, as it's a story, not a book, but
> 
> The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.
> --Poe, _The Cask of Amontillado_


That is a good one.


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## NicolaFurlong (Dec 4, 2009)

Hey Gang,

Some of these are terrific. I, too, love fab first lines, even have a page dedicated to them on my blog. The opening salvo for The Lovely Bones is one of the best. There are so many to choose from but here's another from a fine Canadian crime writer who may not have read:

“One of the very few advantages of being dead, I’ve discovered, is that you can say whatever you like.” (The Celtic Riddle, Lyn Hamilton)

Cheers from southern Vancouver Island, BC!


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## HL Arledge (Sep 5, 2010)

"When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage killing a man."

Firebreak by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)


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## Shandril19 (Aug 18, 2009)

Another vote for Rebecca.

Closely followed by: 

"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." - Love in the Time of Cholera


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## Daniel Pyle (Aug 13, 2010)

hlarledge said:


> "When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage killing a man."
> 
> Firebreak by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)


That's another great one. Westlake was one of a kind.


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## Birstel (Dec 18, 2009)

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." - Jim Butcher, one of the Dresden files books, can't remember which one right now.


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## Guest (Sep 21, 2010)

Gosh.. It was a Rober Crais-Elvis Cole, novel and I can't remember the line or the book. LOL


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## Sandra Edwards (May 10, 2010)

There's nothing worse than listening to the sounds of preparations for a great party, knowing that you're not invited.

He Sees You When You're Sleeping by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark.

That one sentence drew me in and I had to read the rest ~

Sandy


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## WalterK (Mar 2, 2009)

I see the opening from Neuromancer has already been quoted.

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

What I love about this line is how it immediately identifies one of the primary themes of the novel, the blurring of lines between the physical and virtual realms with a technological metaphor being applied to nature.

- Walter.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."
-Iain M. Banks, _The Crow Road_


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## MoyJoy (Aug 24, 2010)

"124 was spiteful"
_Beloved_
Toni Morrison


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## ken.w (Jul 30, 2010)

"In the beginning the Universe was created.  This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

meljackson said:


> This is two sentences but I loved it anyway.
> 
> To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor. - Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
> 
> Melissa


This.


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## robins777 (Aug 10, 2010)

The prologue from "The Time Traveler's Wife"

CLARE: It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays. I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way.


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## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

ken.w said:


> "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
> 
> Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe


That's a great opening line had forgotten that one haven't read those books in while could be time to revisit them I think.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

it was the best of times, it was the worst of time-


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## Michael Crane (Jul 22, 2010)

*All this happened, more or less.*

- from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut


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## Michael Crane (Jul 22, 2010)

_*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.*_

- from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk


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## Michael Crane (Jul 22, 2010)

mooshie78 said:


> "We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."
> 
> Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas--Hunter S. Thompson.


Another great opening. Great, great book.


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## Bigal-sa (Mar 27, 2010)

"In the beginning was the word" John 1:1 (King James Bible)

I especially liked the way Irving Wallace used it in his book _The Word_


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## Jon King (Sep 10, 2010)

Michael Crane said:


> *All this happened, more or less.*
> 
> - from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut


So it goes.


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## Michael Crane (Jul 22, 2010)

Jon King said:


> So it goes.


 

The book that introduced me to Vonnegut... and I haven't been the same ever since!


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Think you're really pushing the "best opening line" there Steve. Technically for this thread, it should be:

"We were very young."

Not exactly awe-inducing.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

"If the earth were flat, New Zealand would have fallen off it long ago, it's that far from Ireland."

I vote for that. And for "A screaming comes across the sky." --Gravity's Rainbow.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude


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## Music &amp; Mayhem (Jun 15, 2010)

How about ...

This gun is not a gun. 

John LeCarre. gulp, I can't remember the title but I remember the first line.  

It might be Single & Single. But maybe not. Sorry.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Music & Mayhem said:


> How about ...
> 
> This gun is not a gun.
> 
> ...


You're right. It's from Single & Single.


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## Maria Hooley (Jul 21, 2009)

"A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."

Graham Greene--The End of the Affair


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## Rainha (Sep 20, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
> 
> - The Gunslinger, by Stephen King


That's my absolute favorite. Every time I hear it, it makes me want to read the series again.


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## HelenSmith (Mar 17, 2010)

I agree with so many that have already been posted: The Crow Road, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Rebecca, Another Roadside Attraction, Choke, Pride and Prejudice.

Here's another good opening line:

On Easter Sunday my father killed and ate a dog.

Fast and Louche, confessions of a flagrant sinner by Jeremy Scott.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

HelenSmith said:


> On Easter Sunday my father killed and ate a dog.
> 
> Fast and Louche, confessions of a flagrant sinner by Jeremy Scott.


Such a simple sentence, yet my mind did about three barrel rolls trying to figure it out. If anything screams "story here"....


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## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

"Drake’s Paradox of Air Fares states:  “First class passengers pay extra for the privilege of being first to arrive at the scene of the crash.”  A corollary to Drake’s Paradox is that business class passengers pay slightly less to arrive second."

Don't bother looking for the book.  It's unpublished and most likely will remain that way.  The rest didn't live up to the beginning.  In short, it sucked.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

Two points if you know what book it's from!

(Oh, heck, make it two hundred. . . .they're not worth anything anyway. )


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## HelenSmith (Mar 17, 2010)

> Such a simple sentence, yet my mind did about three barrel rolls trying to figure it out. If anything screams "story here"....


It's great, isn't it! And it's an autobiography, not a novel.

The author's name might give a clue to why his father killed and ate a dog on Easter Sunday.

The rest of the book doesn't quite live up to that first sentence but it's very enjoyable, just the same.


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## Masara (Sep 23, 2010)

So many opening lines in this thread that make me want to read (or reread) the books

The first time an opening line had a effect on me was aged 11, reading Dick Francis's "nerve"

"Art Mathews shot himself loudly and messily in the centre of the parade ring at Dunstable races"


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

"It was Wang Lung's wedding day."

- Pearl S. Bock
_*The Good Earth*_


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## stormhawk (Apr 29, 2009)

Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could really fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. 

John Scalzi - Android's Dream


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## Aravis60 (Feb 18, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> "Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.
> 
> Two points if you know what book it's from!
> 
> (Oh, heck, make it two hundred. . . .they're not worth anything anyway. )


Charlotte's Web! Charlotte's Web!


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Aravis60 said:


> Charlotte's Web! Charlotte's Web!


200 points for you!

I was wondering there whether no one knew it, or no one cared! 

My mother always thought that was a great first line for a kid's book.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I'd forgotten about this one:



> 'Describe, using diagrams where appropriate, the exact circumstances leading to your death.'


From _Red Dwarf_ by Grant Naylor (a humorous sci-fi adventure, not a book about a vertically challenged socialist), and apparently not enKindled.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

"Mamen died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know."
~ the stranger , Albert Camus

One of my favorite books, I've been clicking I want it on Kindle since I got my 1st kindle.


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## R. Doug (Aug 14, 2010)

I loved _The Stranger_. What a great novel.


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## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I'd forgotten about this one:
> 
> From _Red Dwarf_ by Grant Naylor (a humorous sci-fi adventure, not a book about a vertically challenged socialist), and apparently not enKindled.


Thats a great line i'd completly forgotten that one Red Dwarf one of my favorite ever TV shows and the books were really good to. Shame Rob Grant and Doug Naylor don't write together anymore they had just that right mix of proper sci-fi and humour. Although their solo books are good they just worked together so well, always a shame when good colabarators fall out.

*edit* just clicked on the i'd like to read this book on kindle link not sure this ever has any effect but i'm sure there are lots of 'Red Dwarfers' out there who'd want this on kindle


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## gone (May 8, 2010)

My wound is geography. 

Trite perhaps, but I'm still a little in love with Pat Conroy. Went and got married again, drat


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## theaatkinson (Sep 22, 2010)

tnt said:


> I'm not saying the first sentence in a book makes or breaks it... but some are more interesting than others.
> 
> Have you ever read a book and the first sentence just blows you away?
> 
> ...


I too love this opening line...and many many lines from Moby Dick. In fact, my title for OIT came from Moby Dick. Basically says everything I wanted to say about the journey of the character...that the perfect paradise is actually the womb. Cool to see someone else favors that opening line too.


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## Music &amp; Mayhem (Jun 15, 2010)

Things are never as they seem.

First line of an excellent thriller by John Lutz, The Chill of Night

http://www.amazon.com/Chill-Night-John-Lutz/dp/0786021942/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286411530&sr=1-3


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

"This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."

-- *The Princess Bride*, by William Goldman

And the opening paragraphs of Robert Heinlein's *The Puppet Masters* and Stanley Ellin's *The Valentine Estate* are among the best narrative hooks you'll ever run across.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

Can't say this is the best, but it certainly caught my attention today and made me think of this thread...

"Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day". ~ *The Lost Hero* by _Rick Riordan_


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## jesscscott (Aug 5, 2009)

"Lolita: light of my life, fire of my loins."

Best, hands down!

~ *Lolita */ _Vladimir Nabokov_


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I just finished re-reading _Trumps of Doom_ by Zelazny (1st book in the 2nd Amber series), which opens with:

*It is a pain in the ass waiting around for someone to try to kill you.*


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## Gingy (Oct 15, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfahsionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
> 
> --_The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_


Good one!!


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## Gingy (Oct 15, 2010)

Maxx said:


> I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
> 
> A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving


And that's what I was going to vote for...I was rummaging around for my copy so I could post it.

That is such a beautiful book.


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## Debra Purdy Kong (Apr 1, 2009)

AJB said:


> I think I'd have to go for:
> 
> _Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again_
> 
> ...


Yes, that's my favorite too! I wondered when someone would mention it.


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## Heinrich Xin (Nov 9, 2010)

> "On the 24th of February, 1810, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples."
> 
> The Count of Monte Cristo
> Alexandre Dumas


Many great novels don't have that kind of "great" opening lines, but it doesn't stop people from reading them.


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## amira50 (Nov 10, 2010)

Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again." 
REBECCA  by Daphne Du Maurier


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

Since Daphne Du Maurier's first line of Rebecca has been quoted here more than once, I'll choose this one by Harlan Coben's CAUGHT:

"I knew opening that red door would destroy my life."

That's not bad at all.


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## JenniferShirk (Nov 15, 2010)

I love Kristan Higgins' opening in Fools Rush In:

_I'm a stalker. The good kind._

LOL!!!


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

There are a lot of good opening lines here. How about the classics?
I love these:

_"Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York"_
Richard III ~William Shakespeare

_"Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?"
"For how long, Catiline, will you keep abusing our patience?"_
In Catilinam ~Marcus Tullius Ciciero

I love the aggressive, direct and accusatory tone. No holds barred.


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## Alan Simon (Jul 2, 2010)

Don't know if anyone else mentioned this one but my favorite is:

SCARLETT O'HARA was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.

Pretty much says it all and sets the stage for all 1000+ pages of GWTW.


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## Music &amp; Mayhem (Jun 15, 2010)

Here's a couple from my "can't bear to throw them away" books.  

Tomas was talking about a head floating in a toilet bowl.  Scimitar, by John Abbott

Eamonn Dillon of Sinn Fein was the first die, and he died because he planned to stop for a pint of lager at the Celtic Bar before heading up the Falls Road to a meeting in Andersontown.  The Marching Season, Daniel Silva


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

Maybe someone's already claimed this one, but Dicken's Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." The way that opening plays out is hand-crafted, humbling excellence.


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## Luke King (Nov 4, 2010)

According to the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Fiction awards, the worst first line for 2010 goes to Molly Ringle:

For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss – a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.


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## lorezskyline (Apr 19, 2010)

Luke King said:


> According to the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Fiction awards, the worst first line for 2010 goes to Molly Ringle:
> 
> For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss - a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil.


That goes into the so bad it's almost genius catagory I almost want to read the book now to find out how much worse it could get!


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

That's wonderfully horrible. We gotta start a new thread dedicated to this. Hmm.


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## Music &amp; Mayhem (Jun 15, 2010)

Luke King said:


> According to the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Fiction awards, the worst first line for 2010 goes to Molly Ringle:
> 
> For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss - a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil.


Wow! That's so baaad it's good!  That's a flashfiction story in itself. Try and imagine it ... did they rendezvous inside the gerbil cage? Rendezvous outside the cage and then, overwhelmed by passion, jump inside? What? Who is Molly Ringle? Inquiring minds want to know.


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## warobison (Aug 29, 2010)

Although it's not my favorite book by a long shot, I've always liked the beginning of John Irving's _The Hotel New Hampshire:_ "The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born--we weren't even conceived yet:...."


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## xandy3 (Jun 13, 2010)

My personal favorite, "Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like Love."

_The Gargoyle_ by Andrew Davidson.

Great book.


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## zx3zx4 (Oct 25, 2010)

Ok...you guys have beat me to every good line I could recall, so I'm retaliating by posting the link to the Bulwer-Lytton award winners for _worst_ first lines (1983-present):

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/lyttony.htm


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## Cavaguy (Nov 28, 2010)

tnt said:


> I'm not saying the first sentence in a book makes or breaks it... but some are more interesting than others.
> 
> Have you ever read a book and the first sentence just blows you away?
> 
> ...


The whole of that opening scene makes me feel I can't write

S


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## M. G. Scarsbrook (Nov 22, 2010)

"Mother Died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know." - The Stranger by Albert Camus


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## stormhawk (Apr 29, 2009)

Bulwer-Lytton opening lines thankfully don't have full novels attached to them. They are composed solely for the purpose of the contest. 

As a member of the American Reading Public, I am truly grateful for this.


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

"I knew opening that red door would destroy my life."  Harlan Coben.  Caught.

Maybe not the best first line ever, but a darned good one.


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## Ryl (Nov 25, 2010)

For me it's a toss up between _Pride and Prejudice_ (It is a truth universally acknowledged...) and _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ (There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.) There are lots of great lines here, though, in books I've never read. Fun topic!


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## M. G. Scarsbrook (Nov 22, 2010)

“It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” - 1984, George Orwell.

Intriguing, foreboding, and spooky from the very first line. Can't get better than that!


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## libbyfh (Feb 11, 2010)

"When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon."

James Crumley, THE LAST GOOD KISS

There's no better, IMHO


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## vtwin (Jan 7, 2010)

Mine would have to be:

"The great Fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail."  - Jaws by Peter Benchley


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## allanguthrie (Jul 17, 2009)

For me, it has to be the no-nonsense tone-setting opening line from Richard Stark's FIREBREAK:

"When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage killing a man."


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## Maryn (Nov 24, 2010)

Lots of great first lines here! I love the P&P, Rebecca, Moby Dick, GWTW, and Catcher in the Rye ... there are some I've not read that sound fascinating as well!

To add a seasonal touch, I'll suggest this one:


> "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.


 From Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.


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## aslagle (May 17, 2010)

"I always get the shakes before a drop."
-Rico, _Starship Troopers_ by Robert Heinlein


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Elmore Leonard, Freak Deaky:

"Chris Mankowski's last day on the job, two in the afternoon, two hours to go, he got a call to dispose of a bomb."

I don't know how you cannot read the next paragraph, and if you read the next paragraph you're reading the entire first chapter. He really hooks you.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

Lyndl said:


> "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
> 
> - Pride and Prejudice


The opener of P and P is one of my all time favorites. I am reading again all of Austen (great for my mental health!) and must say she's got lots of great first sentences. Here's the first sentence from _Emma_: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to vex her." Of course the rest of the novel is all about her bringing great vexations upon herself through her own ill-advised behavior! Funny! Love it!


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## TheRiddler (Nov 11, 2010)

I love a lot of these, but seeing as this hasn't been mentioned yet:

"They have gone and I am alone at last."

Private Peaceful


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## Randy Kadish (Feb 24, 2010)

I vote for "Moby Dick's" first line.

Randy


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## Erick Flaig (Oct 25, 2010)

I am compelled to agree with Herman Melville's: "Call me Ishmael." *Moby Dick*

But I am most fond of: 
"The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm." Ray Bradbury, *Something Wicked This Way Comes*


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## Tris (Oct 30, 2008)

I like a mjority of the first-liners that everyone has already posted.  I would like to add a new one.  It's from "First Family" by one of my favorite authors David Baldacci.

"Her footsteps were unhurried."

It goes further:

"Down the street, making one left, a two-block straight away, and then a slight right.  There was a pause at one intersection, a longer stop at another.  Just from habit, really.  The radar in her head showed no danger and her pace picked up.  There were people around but the hour was late, but they never saw her.  She seemed to ease by like a breeze, felt but never seen."

Yes, it's not really a "first sentence", but I loved how it just got me going into the book.  It's the beginning of the prologue (which I absolutely loved when I usually hate them)...but it creates a solid picture in your head.

Tris


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## Moi_Ici (Dec 27, 2010)

"Guido Maffeo was castrated when he was six years old and sent to study with the finest singing masters in Naples."

_Cry to Heaven_ - Anne Rice


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## Music &amp; Mayhem (Jun 15, 2010)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Elmore Leonard, Freak Deaky:
> 
> "Chris Mankowski's last day on the job, two in the afternoon, two hours to go, he got a call to dispose of a bomb."
> 
> I don't know how you cannot read the next paragraph, and if you read the next paragraph you're reading the entire first chapter. He really hooks you.


Love that book, one of Leonard's that I read. Chapter 3 is a short story all by itself. The police dept shrink interviews Chris because he wants to transfer to sex crimes ... Priceless.


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## Bunny Hugger (Jan 7, 2011)

Tap dancing child abuser. That's what _The Sunday New York Times_ from March 8, 1993, had called Vivi.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. I first read this book 9 years ago and love it so much that I'll still reach for it when I'm in the mood to read, but don't want to start something new just yet. It's one of those books that I can open to some random page and dig in. You should see my copy; worn, tattered and water stained from being brought into the bathtub over and over!


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

tnt said:


> I'm not saying the first sentence in a book makes or breaks it... but some are more interesting than others.
> 
> Have you ever read a book and the first sentence just blows you away?
> 
> ...


"All children, except one, grow up."

Just brilliant.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

This is by far and away the best opening line I've ever read  (which may say more about me than anything else...)
Victor Gischler
From _*Gun Monkeys*_

I turned the Chrysler onto the Florida Turnpike with Rollo Kramer's headless body in the trunk, and all the time I'm thinking I should've put some plastic down.


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## Arthur Slade (Jan 20, 2011)

One of my faves is from a steampunkish novel *Mortal Engines* by Philip Reeve.

"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea."


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

"Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we are having all this trouble with our republic..." - "Ninety-two in the Shade," by Thomas McGuane.



and...

"This is the first time I've worked without a net." - "Panama," by Thomas McGuane.



Neither of which, unfortunately, are available as eBooks, so I will also post on the "I want this book on Kindle" thread. Why are so many backlisted "literary" titles not yet available as eBooks?


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## DaMichaels (Jan 22, 2011)

Have to go with Kafka's _The Metamorphosis_: "When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning, he found that he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug."

Talk about a hook!


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

_*"I knew opening that red door would destory my life."*_
From *Caught* by Harlan Coben.

I think that's a great first line.


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## dltanner99 (Sep 9, 2010)

Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers: "I always get the shakes before a jump..." After 50 years, it still draws you in from the get-go.


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## rsullivan9597 (Nov 18, 2009)

I'm doing this from memory - so might not be 100% correct.



> On my seventy-second birthday I did two things, visit my wife's grave and join the army.


Old Man's War. Talk about an opener that draws you in to want to know more!!


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## Annalinde Matichei (Jan 23, 2011)

"Every English child dreams of looking-glasses or of wardrobes."

_The Feminine Régime_ by Miss Regina Snow - a much more interesting book than it looks (it is often taken as a "flagellation novel", thanks to its publisher, which it really isn't), now sadly out of print.

The rest of the paragraph was pretty good too, but I don't have the book any more and anyway y'all only wanted the first sentence. That has always stuck with me.


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## Margaret Jean (Aug 31, 2010)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ." (Tale of Two Cities) "Call me Ishmael." (Moby Dick) "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Anna Karenina).

The reader is instantly hooked!


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## Paul Levine (May 14, 2010)

I'm doing this from memory, but I think I have it. "The Last 
Good Kiss" by James Crumley.

When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearn, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint outside Sonoma, California, just drinking the heart out of a fine Spring afternoon.

_no self-promotion outside the Book Bazaar_


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## libbyfh (Feb 11, 2010)

Great minds, Paul.. I posted the same quote a few months ago! (James Crumley... THE LAST GOOD KISS)


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## Brianna Lee McKenzie (Jan 9, 2011)

Margaret Jean said:


> "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ." (Tale of Two Cities) "Call me Ishmael." (Moby Dick) "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (Anna Karenina).
> 
> The reader is instantly hooked!


From the moment that I read the first line of "A Tale of Two Cities" I was drawn into the story. I was sixteen and impressionable. I was so very impressed.


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## najoll (Jul 30, 2013)

There's some wonderful stuff - some great first lines - in this thread. Here's another one.

* I am a sick man. . . I am an angry man. I am an unattractive man. I think there is something wrong with my liver.* [elipsis in the original]

OK, that's more than one line - but in the translation I had (I can't lay my hands on it now!) I think it was a single sentence. Possibly . .

Anyone care to try to identity the book?


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## MartinStanley72 (May 17, 2011)

_Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure._

This is a great opener from Camus' _The Stranger_, and gives a lot of information about the narrator. Most people would remember and be seriously affected by the death of a parent, but the narrator is so nonchalant about it, so cold, that he can't even remember the actual day. Great, but chilling.

Also _The Last Good Kiss,_ which has been posted by others in this thread is a brilliant opener.


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## Daniel Harvell (Jun 21, 2013)

It's interesting to see how popular "It was a dark and stormy night" is despite how derided it's become after years of overuse.


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

I can't remember if I already posted this, so here it is, maybe again:

"When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man." 
(Richard Stark,_ Firebreak_)


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## pattik100 (Aug 2, 2013)

A black shoe whizzed past Pearl's face, causing her to recoil with a fearful gasp.  "Granny and Little Girl Pearl."


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Most of my faves have already been listed, i.e., *A Tale of Two Cities, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Peter Pan, Rebecca, The Hobbit*, etc. So I will introduce a new one from *Little Women*.

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents."

It made me want to read about these poor deprived children as soon as I read it at the age of eight years old.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

I too always think of "Rebecca" in terms of favorite opening lines.  

Interestingly, I was recently re-reading "Rebecca" for the umpteenth time, but the first time in many years.  I decided to listen to the audiobook this time.  At the same time (not literally ) I was reading-reading Stephen King's "Bag of Bones", in which I read this line:  "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. If there is any more beautiful and haunting first line in English fiction, I've never read it."  Coincidence or meant to be?


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## TJDanko (Feb 5, 2013)

Stephen King does have some good opening lines. There's an interview with him that's been knocking around for a week or so about first lines.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/why-stephen-king-spends-months-and-even-years-writing-opening-sentences/278043/


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## lmroth12 (Nov 15, 2012)

Meemo said:


> I too always think of "Rebecca" in terms of favorite opening lines.
> 
> Interestingly, I was recently re-reading "Rebecca" for the umpteenth time, but the first time in many years. I decided to listen to the audiobook this time. At the same time (not literally ) I was reading-reading Stephen King's "Bag of Bones", in which I read this line: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. If there is any more beautiful and haunting first line in English fiction, I've never read it." Coincidence or meant to be?


I also love that line and re-read *Rebecca* annually. There is a park with botanical gardens, a rose garden and an arboretum in my city which I used to call Manderley. I say "used to" call it Manderley because a tornado 3 years ago wiped out the area that I dubbed "the Happy Valley" along with several of the trees in the arboretum leaving only a skeleton of the woods; it left the rose garden intact but knocked down all of the oak trees that encompassed it. Afterward I remembered that opening line and how the first chapter ended. "We can never go back to Manderley again; Manderley is no more." I will NEVER call a place Manderley again for fear of cursing it! I still miss that place: it was my favorite place to go to read, write, and just be still...


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

The first line of "Bag of Bones", by the way:  "On a very hot day in August of 1994, my wife told me she was going down to the Derry Rite Aid to pick up a refill on her sinus medicine prescription—this is stuff you can buy over the counter these days, I believe."

And there were a number of references to Manderley - the main character/narrator had what he called "Manderley dreams".


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## bhazelgrove (Jul 16, 2013)

In my young and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I have been turning over ever since. 

Gatsby.


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## Saffron (May 22, 2013)

"There was a wall."

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.


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## cshoughton (Jul 10, 2013)

I do think that the honor goes to Melville, but Tolstoy's translated opening for Anna Karenina is quite excellent:

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Craig


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## sdougn (Aug 26, 2013)

It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming


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## Sam Kates (Aug 28, 2012)

Most of the classic first-liners have already been quoted, so I'll offer this one - not a classic opener, by any means, but it does everything a first line should:



> The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.


Stephen King _IT_


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

"Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice's Lenten fast in the desert."

_A Canticle For Leibowitz_. Walter M. Miller, Jr.


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## C.F. (Jan 6, 2011)

cshoughton said:


> "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."


That's my favorite opening line. When I was interviewing for a prestigious scholarship (150% tuition), they asked me what book that line was from. Out of the 100 finalists, they said I was the only person who knew. I ended up getting the scholarship .


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## LinaG (Jun 18, 2012)

It's not dramatic, but I love the book so much:

"We came on the wind of the carnival."  From Chocolat by Joanne Harris.

A magical story I read just when I needed magic.


Li


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## 67499 (Feb 4, 2013)

Who doesn't get a kick out of "When Lady Ann Sercomb married George Smiley towards the end of the war she described him to her astonished Mayfair friends as breathtakingly ordinary. When she left him two years later in favor a Cuban motor racing driver..." from John Le Carre's *Call for the Dead*.


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

From *Jhereg* by Steven Brust:

_There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck._


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## Saffron (May 22, 2013)

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

Neuromancer by William Gibson.


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## lazarusInfinity (Oct 2, 2012)

"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, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


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## authorjea (Sep 14, 2013)

"I don't know how other men feel about their wives walking out on them, but I helped mine pack." _Breaking Up_ by WH Manville


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## Dina (May 24, 2013)

“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home...” S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders


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## Amrit (Sep 11, 2013)

"His face was as pitted as the moon." From _The Orchadist_ by Amanda Coplin


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