# What's your favorite opening line for a novel?



## mestrin (Aug 27, 2012)

I don't buy a book if the first line doesn't hook me.

American Book Review put together this 100-best list. It skews pretty heavy toward the classics, but there are some great opening lines http://americanbookreview.org/100BestLines.asp.

*My favorite from the list*

Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden. -David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System (1987)

*My personal favorite that didn't make the list*

F*&k you. -Don Winslow, Savages (2010)

*What's your personal favorite?*


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I suppose it's more than one line, but...



> 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.


_Doorways in the Sand_, by Roger Zelazny


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## mestrin (Aug 27, 2012)

Nice! I'll check that one out.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Lots of great ones out there, but this one from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World is a favorite:

Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,--a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I like this one:

“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

**********************************************

I can't say though that only read or buy books if I like the first line. Some might stand out, but its not part of my decision. I have to like the whole book. Or at least a chapter. 

I am not familiar with many books on that list, very few actually. But this one of course I like from that list:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

FWIW, I've never thought that "Call me Ishmael" was a _great_ first line -- at least not when taken in isolation like that. It is very _memorable_ in its simplicity, but what about it -- again, taken just by itself -- is great and might make one want to read more? Now if you throw in the rest of the paragraph, you've got something that piques my interest, sets the tone, and starts to demonstrate the writer's "chops", and probably gives most readers a good idea if this little fish* story is going to appeal to them or not. 



> Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.


_____________
* Yes, I know: whales are not fishes.


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## TylerCoulson (Sep 12, 2012)

Good question. The best first line of a book ever is: "Along the western slopes of the Oregon Coastal Range. . . come look: the hysterical crashing of tributaries as they merge into the Wakonda Auga River. . .The first little washes flashing like thick rushing winds through sheep sorrel and clover, ghost fern and nettle, sheering, cutting. . . forming branches." It's from Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey. Second place goes to Genesis, with "In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth". And third place belongs to Mark Twain in a huge tie--all of his works tie for third.


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## Loren DeShon (Jun 15, 2011)

"Call me Ishmael" was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the subject line.


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## mestrin (Aug 27, 2012)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Lots of great ones out there, but this one from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World is a favorite:
> 
> Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth,--a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self


That is fantastic! "cockatoo of a man" makes my stomach hurt with envy it's so damn good!


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## mestrin (Aug 27, 2012)

NogDog said:


> FWIW, I've never thought that "Call me Ishmael" was a _great_ first line -- at least not when taken in isolation like that. It is very _memorable_ in its simplicity, but what about it -- again, taken just by itself -- is great and might make one want to read more? Now if you throw in the rest of the paragraph, you've got something that piques my interest, sets the tone, and starts to demonstrate the writer's "chops", and probably gives most readers a good idea if this little fish* story is going to appeal to them or not.
> _____________
> * Yes, I know: whales are not fishes.


Really great point.


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

"DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country ; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."


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## Sean Patrick Fox (Dec 3, 2011)

Not off that list, and it's actually for a short story, but I rather enjoyed it.

"Though only pushing forty, Pete Connell was a bitter old f*ck, the kind of man to turn the Host into ashes at the touch of his tongue."

from "Killing O'Malley" by Reed Farrel Coleman (writing as Tony Spinosa)


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## lvhiggins (Aug 1, 2012)

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

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice


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## Steve D Palmer (Jun 28, 2012)

Atunah said:


> I like this one:
> 
> "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


I like this one too 

I think the first page is the thing that makes me decide whether to read on or not - I can forgive a so-so first line, but if I had to pick a favourite opener it'd be "The primroses were over." from Watership Down.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

On the whole, we're a murderous race.

"Dead Beat", by Jim Butcher.


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## Cindy416 (May 2, 2009)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

And "Call me Ishmael."


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.

V.S. Naipaul, _A Bend in the River_


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## deckard (Jan 13, 2011)

The first lines from the Prologue to Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides:

"My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call."

Deckard


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## DCBourone (Sep 10, 2012)

"All nights should be so dark, all winters so warm, all headlights so dazzling."

Martin Cruz Smith, Gorky Park.

I borrowed and bent it a bit:

"All ships should be so swift.

All waters, so calm.

All nights.

So bright..."

Structure and tone, borrow at will.


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I agree that "Call me Ishmael" is meaningless on its own.  I mean you read that and...what?

Now, the first sentence of Michael Cox's "The Meaning of Night" is rather intriguing:

"After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper."


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

"The seller of lightning-rods arrived just ahead of the storm." -- Ray Bradbury, _Something Wicked This Way Comes_.

Instantly atmospheric. Instantly posing questions that draw you in. Pure magic.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Tony Richards said:


> "The seller of lightning-rods arrived just ahead of the storm." -- Ray Bradbury, _Something Wicked This Way Comes_.
> 
> Instantly atmospheric. Instantly posing questions that draw you in. Pure magic.


Forget the first line, that's one where the book's _title_ drew me in -- similar to Zelazny's _A Night in the Lonesome October_.  (Though I suppose it must be stated that both those titles come from poems by others -- a couple hacks named Shakespeare and Poe.  )


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## Greg Clarkin (Apr 26, 2012)

Many favorites, but right at the top of the list is this one:

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


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## DooneyKat (Jul 24, 2012)

Atunah said:


> I like this one:
> 
> "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."
> 
> ...


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## John Blackport (Jul 18, 2011)

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


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

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

-- _Neuromancer_, by William Gibson


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## krazykuvaas (Sep 18, 2012)

It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.-Catch 22  

It's a couple of lines, but it's unforgettable.


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## dalton_wolf (Sep 11, 2012)

Wow, I've seen a lot of 'Best of' lists. That may be the worst. There certainly are a lot of _famous_ first lines there. But those are made famous more for the entire novel, itself, and not for any brilliance found in the initial sentence, I think.

To be sure, there are a few that are brilliant. Jane Austen's opening for Pride and Prejudice is absolutely stellar. She tells you everything right up front in one simple sentence. You can safely assume right from the start that this book will be about women. And Men. And it will likely involve women finding and trapping a husband or two, and I even got the impression that Ms. Austen looked upon the entire situation with cynical humor or maybe even outright disdain.

All of your own personal favorites were better than most on that list.

My own is not nearly as clever or deep, but it grabbed me 30 years ago, and I can still remember being sucked in immediately by it's simplistic complexity.

_Man," said Terl, "is an endangered species." _

"Wait...what?" I thought at the time. "Why? Where are they? Who's this Terl? What kind of way is that to open a book?"


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## Lensman (Aug 28, 2012)

I still like Clive Barker's first line from The Thief of Always

"The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive."

You read it, blink, and think "What the hell?"- just what a first line needs to draw the reader in and make him keep reading.


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## dalton_wolf (Sep 11, 2012)

Lensman said:


> I still like Clive Barker's first line from The Thief of Always
> 
> "The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive."
> 
> You read it, blink, and think "What the hell?"- just what a first line needs to draw the reader in and make him keep reading.


Lol. I haven't read that one. Now it's on my list. Great first line.


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## TheRiddler (Nov 11, 2010)

My favourite:

It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13 - 1984

I remember reading that and being hooked instantly

Definitely a point has to be awarded to Anna Karenina & Lolita, although I haven't read the actual books


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## Flopstick (Jul 19, 2011)

TheRiddler said:


> My favourite:
> 
> It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13 - 1984
> 
> I remember reading that and being hooked instantly


A good choice. I'm also very fond of:

_The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel._ (Neuromancer by William Gibson)

edit - oops, just seen that I was beaten to that one too!


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

Jonathan C. Gillespie said:


> "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
> 
> -- _Neuromancer_, by William Gibson


This is my favorite opening line ever! Gibson tweeted a few weeks ago about how disheartening it was to struggle for that perfect first line and realize sometime later that people born now wouldn't understand it any more. Still, I'd kill to have an opener like that one, even for just a couple of decades.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Coral Moore said:


> This is my favorite opening line ever! Gibson tweeted a few weeks ago about how disheartening it was to struggle for that perfect first line and realize sometime later that people born now wouldn't understand it any more. Still, I'd kill to have an opener like that one, even for just a couple of decades.


Yeah, I guess "kids" these days would picture that as a mostly black sky with a blue rectangle at the bottom with text saying something about calling customer service if you want to view that channel.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

TheRiddler said:


> Definitely a point has to be awarded to Anna Karenina...


The opening line of Anna Karenina is great (as is the rest of the novel.) I don't know if it hooks people, but it's certainly a great philosophical observation on life and families.

_All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way._


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## That one girl (Apr 12, 2011)

TheRiddler said:


> My favourite:
> 
> It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13 - 1984
> 
> I remember reading that and being hooked instantly


This is my favorite, as well.

I'm also partial to, "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug." The prose is a bit choppy, but the image is clear.


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## Scott J Robinson (Sep 22, 2012)

"Antarctica. First you fall in love with it, then it breaks your heart."

From Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson.


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## Julia444 (Feb 24, 2011)

Great question!

I have lots of favorites, but here's one I can remember without looking it up:

"They might have been alone in a painted landscape."

Mary Stewart, THE IVY TREE

She's one of my favorites anyway, but that line ends up becoming thematically important and is, I think, a great start.

Julia


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