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16 Books That Will Hook You From the Very First Line
Love at first sight? Consider us skeptics. Love at first line, though…. Now that's something we'll get behind. A good opening line can grab us in an instant, igniting our imagination and our curiosity. We're powerless. Such lines demand our attention.
We asked on Facebook and Twitter: What book hooked you from the very first line? Explore the top picks below!
Seveneves
by Neal Stephenson
First line: "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."
The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
First line: "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time."
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
First line: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by J.K. Rowling
First line: "Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number 4 Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by Christopher Moore
First line: "You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't."
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
First line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
Nineteen Eighty-Four
by George Orwell
First line: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
First line: "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."
Did the books that hooked you not make the list? Don't keep them to yourself—share the titles and the lines with us in the comments!
We asked on Facebook and Twitter: What book hooked you from the very first line? Explore the top picks below!
by Neal Stephenson
First line: "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
First line: "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time."
by Zora Neale Hurston
First line: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."
by J.K. Rowling
First line: "Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number 4 Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
by Christopher Moore
First line: "You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't."
by Jane Austen
First line: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
by George Orwell
First line: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
by Charles Dickens
First line: "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."
Did the books that hooked you not make the list? Don't keep them to yourself—share the titles and the lines with us in the comments!
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Even though it's a novella, I just love the opening line of Legion by Brandon Sanderson."My name is Stephen Leeds, and I'm perfectly sane. My hallucinations, however, are all quite mad."
'The Power Of One 'by Bryce Courtney.....Before my life really started,i was doing the mewling and suckling,which in my case,happened to be from a pair of 'huge black breasts' of what used to be my wet nurse........
"The only thing I remembered was that I had seen extraordinary sights on the morning of the day I died." Frank M. Robinson: The Dark Beyond the Stars
All children, except one, grow up. - Peter PanOut in the south-west along the banks of the Murrumbidgee the snakes come out at sundown to dance. - Jessica by bryce Courtenay
Tamar Deane had read her dead sister's letter so many times the writing was almost illegible. - Tamar by Deborah Challinor
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."-L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between
This list has a major omission! Surely, The Catcher in the Rye, has like the best opening sentence you'll find in a book. It quite literally hooked me. Strongest voice in literature I've come across, that Holden.
"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.”
"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.”
"I became a smuggler at the age of 9." - The Big Yank, J.P. Sexton
"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend." ~ The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1), Robert Jordan
Katie wrote: The hard core math and science scares people away. But it has great themes and moral, philosophical questions, once you get past the tech talk. (As a mathematician, I loved it )..."
Who doesn't love math or science? I'm not a mathematician but I am math-friendly . . . well I enjoy recreational mathematics and math as a tool for art. ;-)
I'm convinced, I'll add this book on my 2017 too-read-list.
"Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tidewater dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego."-- Call of The Wild by Jack LondonI'm amused every time I see that line. :-)
"I Am a Corpse.I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well."
(My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk)
.
Zathoth wrote: ""The building was on fire, and it wasnt my fault" Blood Rites by Jim Butcher.I knew Blood Rites had to be here already!
"On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nazar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on" --Chronicle of a death foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"When I was thirteen, I started making lists". - Scrappy Little Nobody, Anna Kendrick
"After the war was over, they bound him under the mountain", The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay
first, it's PHILOSOPHER'S Stone, not Sorcerer's. It always bugs me. Second, I agree with those who brought up One Hundred Years of Solitude and Pride and Prejudice.
Third, some mentions of my own.
"At the sunset hour of one warm spring day, two men were to be seen at the Patriarch's Ponds." Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita.
"Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough, and looked don't-fuck-with-me enough, that his biggest problem was killing time." Neil Gaiman, American Gods.
"It was a nice day. All the days had been nice, There have been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet." Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens.
"On the train everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice, with the back alleys." Antal Szerb, Journey by moonlight.
"Barry Fairbrother did not want to go out to dinner. He had endured a thumping headache for most of the weekend and was struggling to meet a deadline for the local newspaper." The Casual Vacancy, J K Rowling.
"People disappear all the time." - Outlander, Diana Gabaldon.I got hooked from the tv show first (that have the same opening line) but the books are quite amazing as well!
Andrea wrote: "first, it's PHILOSOPHER'S Stone, not Sorcerer's. It always bugs me. .."
Don't let it bug you too much, for certain editions it is the correct title. Don't blame the readers, blame the editors.
Cheryl wrote: "“The circus arrives without warning. “No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when ..."
Brilliant book.
"Is today a good day to die?"All the Bright Places- Jennifer Niven
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." - Stephen King, The Gunslinger (and my favorite first line of all time.)
"They called him Moche the Beadle, as though he had never had a surname in his life." - Elie Wiesel, Night.
"There used to be more of us."--Andrew Fukuda, The Hunt
"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
"By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree." Last American Man, Elizabeth Gilbert.
"The night clouds were closing in on the salt licks east of the oxbow lakes along the folds in the earth beyond the Yabolusha River." The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson.
"Son, Last Sunday the host of a popular news show asked me what it meant to lose my body." Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
"Peter Blood, bachelor of medicine and several other things besides, smoked a pipe and tended the geraniums boxed on the sill..." Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, without pictures or conversations?'Alice' Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
By October 2, 1985, the morning Rock Hudson died, the word was familiar to almost every household in the western world AIDS"and the Band Played on" Randy Shilts
so far this is eye opening story telling of a real life crisis and the way it was mishandled from the outset. Not always easy to read but WOW -
Pavel wrote: "“It was a pleasure to burn.” - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury"loved this
Christopher wrote: "Tressa wrote: "In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been tu..."I read that book in my High School years, and I thought the saem thing then as I've thoug..."
I actually enjoyed Mockingbird but was less than enamoured with the supposed prequel "go set a watchman" but that is the beauty of reading what appeals to one won't to another
Cheryl wrote: "“The circus arrives without warning. “No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when ..."
One of my absolute favourite i have read it twice
"The man who was not Terrence O'Grady had come quietly." *Agent of Change by Sharon Lee & Steve MillerHad me hooked for all the books in the sequence! (And the related titles also)
The great grey beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.Clive Barker, The Thief of Always
"Not every story has a happy ending. Some only hold a happy beginning." - The Five Stages of Falling in Love by Rachel Higginson
The End came in a rain of fire and mud- Eighteen, by Alasdair Cameron Madden.
Ethan wrote: "Sometimes books aren't written for your entertainment. Get over it.sincerely,
An elitist.
Really? Studying Literature in college for four years never made me realize that.
Congratulations on being an elitist, though.
Madelon wrote: ""The man who was not Terrence O'Grady had come quietly." *Agent of Change by Sharon Lee & Steve MillerHad me hooked for all the books in the sequence! (And the related titles also)"
Oh, yes! I actually started with the plot-chronological 3-in-1, so this wasn't my first-line-of-all, but it's an excellent hook. I love the Liaden Universe.
Dana wrote: ""The Mind Readers" (Book 1) by Lori Brighton.First sentence that got my attention from the beginning:
"The man sitting across from me at the café was thinking about murdering his wife."" I completely forgot about this book. It was great - so were the follow ups.
I read that book in my High School years, and I thought the saem thing then as I've thoug..."
Sometimes books aren't written for your entertainment. Get over it.
sincerely,
An elitist.