What's your favorite first line?

[Isagel]

I´m always delighted when I find a book with a good opening sentence. Sometimes the first sentence is almost like poetry.

Right now I´m reading "Mortal engines" by Philip Reeve. It´s a childrens book and this is the first sentence:

"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."

After a start like that, I had to read the whole book.

As I´m always curious I decide to ask you -- What is your favorite first sentence of a book? How did the book you read right now start? What do you think make an opening line great?

--

There are also 2 quizzes on the site to test you on first lines from novels

"Famous First Lines from Classic Literature Quiz"
http://www.online-literature.com/for...php?quizid=112

and

"Great First Lines Quiz"
http://www.online-literature.com/for...php?quizid=390

[ravana]

As a rule, only after reading the annotation I deside to read that book, or not. And don't like poetry beginning. I became more interested with narration beginning like in "Catcher in the Rye":
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'l probably want to know is where I was born.............."

[emily655321]

That's interesting. People always ask, "memorable last lines?" but never first ones. I don't think I have any. Usually I'm horribly bored with a book until I get about 20 or 30 pages into it. Same with movies. I guess I tend not to notice lines unless they really hit me, because the only time I enjoy a book is once I'm engrossed in it and forget that someone was actually sitting at a table writing it.

[Koa]

I think I'm much more interested in first lines than in last lines... maybe the first ones are even more famous than the last ones (Im thinking of the famous beginning of Anna Karenina: 'happy families are all happy in the same way, unhappy ones are unhappy in their own way'. Or something like that).

When I was younger I used to read the first and last lines of a book before buying it, or just reading it. Once the last lines were a true spoiler, and from that day on, I decided to lose that habit...

There's an Italian book I love, whose first lines I've learnt by heart, and they came to my mind a few days ago, after years...and I realised i still remember them, with I can say 90% of accuracy (I could quote them but...well...). I often like to learn by heart things like that if they represent something to me.

Oh, and every averagely-educated Italian knows by heart at least the first 2 lines of the Divine Comedy. (I know the first 16 cos I learnt them at school) Older people might remember more cos they were forced to learn a lot of it at school.
Oh and there's another Italian stuff we study at school, whose first words are quite famous...(but that's another thing I doubt you know, so I'd leave it for when I'll open a thread on Italian literature, which I had in mind but never did...and now exams are too close to turn into a forum-addicted teacher )

[Lara]

There are two first lines that stand out in my mind. One comes from a book that, oddly enough, I have never read, but it is famous:

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, starts off, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

and, as simple as it is, I do like Herman Melvilles, "Call me Ishmael."

[imthefoolonthehill]

His name was Bob. Bob had ***** ****

(from fight club)

... translation.... Bob had female dog milk-secreting organs.

[ajoe]

Originally posted by Lara
and, as simple as it is, I do like Herman Melvilles, "Call me Ishmael."

lol, I was going to put this! But that's fine, I'll settle with Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle's first line instead: Call me Jonah.

[ajoe]

Originally posted by imthefoolonthehill
His name was Bob. Bob had ***** ****

(from fight club)

... translation.... Bob had female dog milk-secreting organs.

that's cute! *grins*

[imthefoolonthehill]

thanks... I was trying to be unoffensive yet still let people know what was said.

[Isagel]

"His name was Bob. Bob had ***** **** "
Talk about setting the tone for the rest of the book!
:-) That sentence hits like a slap. (Actually I´ve only seen the movie. I have too read the book some day)

ravana - I ´really like books that start like someone telling you a tale, like they are sitting next to you. Not all writers can do it so that it doesn´t feel like a cliche, though. But Salinger can. He is one of the few who makes the story feel like something personal, that you share with him. At least I think so. I hope I´m making sense.


I told my fiance about this and I had to promise to write his favorite first lines. He thinks they are the best ones ever written:

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

[Basil]

"This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast."

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

[Dexter]

It's not the first line ("Call me Ishmael"") but the second "When I feel a dark November in my soul, I know it is time to go to sea again ..." I hope that's close - lost my copy of Moby Dick, so I can't check it. Somebody check it for me?

Another favorite first line is "Hwaet we gear-dagum theod-cyninga" (Beowulf) But I recommend Seamus Heaney's translation. Dexter .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................

[Dexter]

Somehow my second line got lost in the quote "When I feel a dark november in my soul, I feel the need to go to sea again." I hope that's close - lost my cpy of Moby Dick, so can't check it.

Another favorite line is "Hwaet we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum ..." although I recommend Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf.

Try "Stately plump Buck Mulligan ..." (Ulysses)

or "Riverrun past Eve and Adams ... (Finnegan's Wake)

[Basil]

Or, if you will indulge me three lines:

Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday.

Albert Camus, The Stranger

[Diceman]

Some good entries folks, but I feel obliged to point out that the first sentence of a book ends with ".". Anything after this is most emphatically not the first sentence!

I like the simple ones, which grab you with the promise of something more to come. My choice might make a few of you cringe, but here goes:

"Who is John Galt?"

Perfect: short, sweet, and sets up a mystery that lasts for most of the novel.