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20 Favorite First Lines from Books
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single book in possession of a fantastic plot, must be in want of a good first sentence. Otherwise, who would want to keep reading?
Last week we asked on Facebook and on Twitter: What's your favorite first line from a book? Today we've got your top answers. Did yours make the list?
Don't see your favorite first line? Then share it with us in the comments! And discover more unforgettable lines with this book list: 100 Novels with the Best First Lines.
Last week we asked on Facebook and on Twitter: What's your favorite first line from a book? Today we've got your top answers. Did yours make the list?
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
The Gunslinger
by Stephen King
by Stephen King
"Sometime during your life—in fact, very soon—you may find yourself reading a book, and you may notice that a book's first sentence can often tell you what sort of story your book contains."
The Miserable Mill
by Lemony Snicket
by Lemony Snicket
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
by Harper Lee
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and 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, if you want to know the truth."
The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
by J.D. Salinger
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by J.K. Rowling
by J.K. Rowling
"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
by Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
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
by Charles Dickens
"I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster."
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls
by Jeannette Walls
"Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were."
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
by Margaret Mitchell
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
by Douglas Adams
"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
by Sylvia Plath
"'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo lying on the rug."
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
by Louisa May Alcott
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
by C.S. Lewis
by C.S. Lewis
Don't see your favorite first line? Then share it with us in the comments! And discover more unforgettable lines with this book list: 100 Novels with the Best First Lines.
Comments Showing 51-100 of 128 (128 new)
"Imagine a ruin so strange it must never have happened." - Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
12 June 1942 I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support - Anne Frank, the diary of a young girl
From Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: "A Highlander in full regalia is an impressive sight - any Highlander, no matter how old, ill-favored, or crabbed in appearance. A tall, straight-bodied, and by no means ill-favored young Highlander at close range is breath-taking."
The Red Velvet Rose wrote: "1. Rebecca2. Pride and prejudice
3. Gone with the wind"
100% agree!!!
Thank You so much. I came to the comments to enter this one in.Kaitlynn wrote: ""The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault." Blood Rites, Dresden Files, Jim Butcher"
My name was Salmon,like the fish;first name, Susie. I was fourteen when i was murdered on December 6, 1973.The Lovely Bones. Alice Sebold
I love the first line of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader!!
“The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit." Uglies. Scott Westerfeld.
"Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love." - Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle"We came like doves across the desert." - Alice Hoffman, The Dovekeepers
"First the colours." - Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
"A nation chants, 'But we know your story already'." - Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
"The Old Ones say that fate has a smell, a feel, a presence, a tactile heft in the air." - Richard Wagamese, Dream Wheels
Elaine wrote: "From Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: "A Highlander in full regalia is an impressive sight - any Highlander, no matter how old, ill-favored, or crabbed in appearance. A tall, straight-bodied, and by no..."??? That's not the first line of the book...
"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." --Neil Gaiman The Graveyard Book.
While perhaps not the greatest of all times, worth honorable mention:They shoot the white girl first.
-Toni Morrison, Paradise
Definitely grabs your attention.
Also,
I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time. It was the early summer of 1945, and we walked through the streets of a Barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn poured over Rambla de Santa Monica in a wreath of liquid copper.
-Carlos Ruiz Zafón The Shadow of the Wind
“He was dead. However, his nose throbbed painfully, which he thought odd in the circumstances.” ― Diana Gabaldon, Voyager
+Harry Potter!Always!
^_^
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.Anna Karenina
The small boys came early to the hanging. Pillars of the Earth.
I am inexplicably disappointed in the choice of Rebecca for the most favored. Whilst many of my favorites are here, the best, to my way of thinking is, "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband, nor my last." - Ahab's Wife
Jennifer wrote: ""It was a dark and stormy night." A Wrinkle in Time"That one is actually from Paul Clifford (1830) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. There's even a competition named after him because it's considered so bad: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulwer-L...
Contusions wrote: ""Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.""I freaking love "One hundred years of solitude", and I must say its first line should (or must) be included in this Blog Post :)) Amazing!
"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." The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Daniel wrote: "“You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter."Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain"
Yes! This is the one I was looking for!
This is such a perfect post! I 'just' put in a review box the other day about this very topic. Reading the first line of a sentence and, well, I really shouldn't until I'm ready to read the book. Every time I get a book the first thing I do is look inside the first few pages for quotes and the first sentence/paragraph. I noted how I need to stop doing that because I wasn't ready to start it yet, but the very first sentence just obliterated my what's next to read "schedule" (kinda bi-polar at the moment), but because of that first sentence.....
by Jax Miller went immediately onto my "currently reading shelf". It's an ARC so I hope it's okay to share the first lines. If not I'll take it down."My name is Freedom Oliver and I killed my daughter. It's surreal, honestly, and I'm not sure what feels more like a dream, her death or her existence. I'm guilty of both."
It totally freaked me out and I had to make it a next up, immediately. Grabbed by the throat!
There are so many I want to share so I hope this post is still up tomorrow. Not going searching at 2:13 a.m., lol. Gonna pick up my book and read :)
Perfect blog post!! *Happy Reader* :D Thank you!
by Erika Swyler quote from an ARC...subject to change, but I hope not! A Fantastic book!!"Perched on the bluff's edge, the house is in danger. Last night's storm tore land and churned water, littering the beach with bottles, seaweed, and horseshoe crab carpaces. The place where I've spent my entire life is unlikely to survive the fall storm season. The long island sound is peppered with the remains of homes and lifetimes, all ground to sand in its greedy maw. It is a hunger"
Daniel wrote: "They're all good. Recently I was particularly struck by Patrick Ness's opening to The Knife of Never Letting Go: "The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got n..."
My fav books & author. Brilliant first line
"A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection." - C. Palahniuk "Fight Club"
Lovely words evoking many memories. Wonderful"Now consider the tortoise and the eagle."
Terry Pratchett: Small Gods.
Contusions wrote: ""Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.""OH YES! One Hundred Years of Solitude! Excellent, excellent first line.
...just half way through this journey of our life, I re-awoke, to find myself inside a dark wood... way off course, the right road lost...(Tom Phillips translation of Dante's Divine Comedy - Inferno: Canto I)
The longer my father lived in this world the more he knew there was another to come. It was not that he thought this world beyond saving, (Niall Williams "History of the rain")the most compelling opening after the Divine Comedy (IMHO)
Death is a simple phenomenon in nature. Only men make it frightening. Marin PredaThe Most Beloved of Earthlings
Life is difficult.This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. - The Road Less Travelled,M.Scot Peck
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." --Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Becky wrote: "Elaine wrote: "From Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: "A Highlander in full regalia is an impressive sight - any Highlander, no matter how old, ill-favored, or crabbed in appearance. A tall, straight-bo..."Didn't pay attention :-(
Then I'd have to go with A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens first line!
If there's a poll for a favorite last line, let me know.
I know I already posted on here with my favorite book but this one,which I had lent to me some years ago must tie for first place with me. It was 1894,the age of gaslights and horse-drawn buses,large flowery hats and trailing skirts. Autumn Alley by Lena Kennedy. I loved it so much that I had to get myself a copy.
Sweet Second Chance: He stood tall, head bowed, autumn sun warming his dark hair and black suit.
'The morning it happened--the end of my lovely world--I did not water the lilac bush outside my father's study.' --The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig
“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.”- The day of the Triffids
"He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." - Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." - Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen.
Daniel wrote: "They're all good. Recently I was particularly struck by Patrick Ness's opening to The Knife of Never Letting Go: "The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got n..."
This is exactly what came to my mind when I opened this post. :)
Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. (Mother died today.)- Albert Camus, L'Etranger
“Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick.”--The Shining, Stephen King
"A certain feeling comes from throwing your good life away, and it is one part rapture."Barbara Kingsolver , Flight Behavior
"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." The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
It seems P&P and Harry Potter makes it to almost every list that GR is putting together here! hahahaha"
I love the choices, but Lolita and Anna Karenina are unforgettable and should have been included.
Also, I love the line from One Hundred Years of Solitude.