Post your favorite first line of a book.

[CTyankee]

Mine: "Aujourd'hui, mama est morte."

Back in the day college students used to carry that book around. I remember seeing students with their copy when I was a sophomore in college...it was a thing.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

1. It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute. NT

[CTyankee]

3. which book?

[Dr Hobbitstein]

12. Villa Incognito by Tom Robbins. nt

[Squinch]

2. "Are you lost, Captain Cheever?"

[shanny]

4. Far out in the uncharted backwaters

of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.

[lapfog_1]

17. digital watches were considered really cool and froody

[shanny]

25. ...

dawg but I miss Douglas Adams

[rainy]

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

“My wound is geography. It is also my anchorage, my port of call.
I grew up slowly beside the tides and marshes of Colleton; my arms were tawny and strong from working long days on the shrimp boat in the blazing South Carolina heat. Because I was a Wingo, I worked as soon as I could walk; I could pick a blue crab clean when I was five. I had killed my first deer at the age of seven, and at nine was regularly putting meat on my family’s table. I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island, and I carried the sunshine of the lowcountry, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders. As a boy I was happy above the channels, navigating a small boat between the sandbars with their quiet nation of oysters exposed in the brown flats at the low watermark. I knew every shrimper by name, and they knew me and sounded their horns as they passed me fishing in the river.”

The Prince Of Tides

[pangaia]

6. Well, not exactly a book but...

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

[First Speaker]

15. I was maybe the last generation that read that in school...

...and I loved it. Later on I read the Kalevela, on which Longfellow based it. That's cool, to be sure...but not as cool as Hiawatha.

[pangaia]

16. I have never read Hiawatha.. Maybe it is time.

[Tanuki]

22. But the "forest primeval" quote is from Evangeline, not Hiawatha.

[First Speaker]

29. You're right, and my memory messed up on me. Well--read "Evangeline" in school, too...

[llmart]

40. Had to memorize that senior year in high school.

Still remember it to this day.

[pangaia]

41. Me too.

You must be almost as old as i am.

I can also add and subtract.. and write with a pen.

[llmart]

47. LOL!

I can do cursive and math without a calculator. Oh, and I can use a card catalog too!

[Shrike47]

57. In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree...

Had to memorize in Junior High. Remember them?

[Ohiogal]

7. This was a LONG time ago

...but I always loved the first line.

"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."

[CTyankee]

9. Oh boy, I'm unfamiliar with that one...sounds good!

[Ohiogal]

10. That was from "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton

My favorite book from middle school!

[Still Blue in PDX]

51. That's another one I read at least annually, starting with the year of publication. nt

[underpants]

8. "It was a dark and stormy night..."

[Ohiogal]

11. Snoopy never seemed to get beyond the first line, did he?

[FSogol]

24. Not true, Schulz showed us a lot of Snoopy's Novel

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed.

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.

to which Snoopy said, he'd tie it all up in chapter 2.

A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.

At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates? The intern frowned.

“Stampede!” the foreman shouted, and forty thousand head of cattle thundered down on the tiny camp. The two men rolled on the ground grappling beneath the murderous hooves. A left and a right. A left. Another left and right. An uppercut to the jaw. The fight was over. And so the ranch was saved.

The young intern sat by himself in one corner of the coffee shop. He had learned about medicine, but more importantly, he had learned something about life.

THE END

[Ohiogal]

35. Thank you, I never knew that

and I consider myself a Peanuts fan! Never too old to learn!

[First Speaker]

13. Actually, a short story: "Bob Wilson did not see the circle glow"...

...By His Bootstraps, by Robert A Heinlein...as for a novel: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit". Guess.

[Glorfindel]

14. This one...it grabbed me and would not let me go until I had finished the book

"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."

Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

[Leith]

48. That's the First One I Thought of, Too

Immortal words.

[Tanuki]

18. Call me Ishmael.

[procon]

37. That intriguing line has stuck in my memory for nearly 60 years.

I keep putting off rereading the book because I'm so far behind reading new books that I''ll never catch up, but none of them can beat that one opening sentence.

[unblock]

19. "i'm pretty much fucked."

the martian. sadly this first line from the book doesn't appear in the movie.

[Ron Obvious]

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

It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13.

Mother died today, or maybe it was yesterday. (That's the one from the OP in English)

[Thyla]

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

[shanny]

27. Author didn't recommend drugs and alcohol

...but they always worked for him.



Another huge loss.

[Thyla]

42. Agreed, a huge loss

He took obscene quantities of both or at least liked people to think he did, but certainly a great mind and journalist.

One wonders what he would make of the current circus, I'd read those books.

[shanny]

43. Well, I do recall that Nixon inspired him

to want to drive down to the White House and throw a bag of live rats over the fence so you can just imagine what he would have to say now. Unfortunately my imagination isn't good enough. That's why he is so greatly missed.

[lkinwi]

23. Marley was dead, to begin with.

[eppur_se_muova]

26. The hills were a trap, and the trap was baited with grass. nt

[Sailor65x1]

28. It was a bright, cold day in April,

and the clocks were striking thirteen.

[Runningdawg]

30. That was me,

that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry.

[snowybirdie]

31. "It was crazy then

Crazy good, if you didn't look too close. " Puerto Vallarta Squeeze. Great first line, lousy book.

[FM123]

32. From The Great Gatsby

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone" he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you've had."

[Jane Austin]

33. I am born.

David Copperfield

[bbrady42]

34. This is my favorite book in all the world.

The Princess Bride

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

36. Not an opening line, but an opening paragraph.

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

[crazycatlady]

38. I'll go with the first one I read that was memorable

"Where's Papa going with that axe?"-- Charlotte's Web

[applegrove]

39. Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand. The Stone Angel, by

Margaret Laurence.

"Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand. I wonder if she stands there yet, in memory of her who relinquished her feeble ghost as I gained my stubborn one, my mother's angel that my father bought in pride to mark her bones and proclaim his dynasty, as he fancied, forever and a day.".

A 90 year old remembers her life.

[pressbox69]

44. It was the best of times

it was the worst of times.

[cemaphonic]

45. "It was the day my grandmother exploded."

And if we can include opening paragraphs:

"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."

[Still Blue in PDX]

50. Ah, yes. nt

[fNord]

46. We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert....

.......when the drugs began to take hold.”


Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

HST


It’s a good thing your dead Doc, If you were alive, your head would explode.

[Still Blue in PDX]

49. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

I was probably 8 or 9 years old the first time I read it, and I read it at least once or twice a year for the next decade.

[Zoonart]

52. A Tale Of Two Cities

"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."

[MontanaMama]

53. From "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean

"In my family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing." Love this line and it is only surpassed by the last line:

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters..."

[yesphan]

54. The drought had lasted now for ten million years,

and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended.

[malthaussen]

55. Probably my favorite first line...

... can't be reproduced here. George MacDonald Fraser's opening line in The Pyrates goes on for about 200-300 words, with prolific use of commas and semicolons. He even breaks it into two paragraphs with ellipsis.

-- Mal

[Guilded Lilly]

56. Scarlet OHara...

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

[lark]

58. The one I always remember is,

"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times".
Think this was from the Iron Mask, but not positive.

[Brother Buzz]

59. There was a desert wind blowing that night....

It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge. - Raymond Chandler, Red Wind: A Collection of Short Stories

[Brother Buzz]

60. When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow

[CTyankee]

62. Oh, yes, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Great book. Great movie...

[MissMillie]

63. one of the best books ever!

I could read it every year and never be disappointed.

[sarge43]

61. "Like a glowing jewel, the city lay upon the breast of the desert."

The City and The Stars, Arthur C. Clarke

The final line: But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again.