150 of the most compelling opening lines in literature Some books grab you right from the start. At his core, Peter Pan is defined by his eternal childhood, something that the novels opener explains perfectly to the reader. 14. Stephen Kings supernatural western is a great series of books. What have we left out? I will tell you in a few words who I am: lover of the hummingbird that darts to the flower beyond the rotted sill where my feet are propped; lover of bright needlepoint and the bright stitching fingers of humorless old ladies bent to their sweet and infamous designs; lover of parasols made from the same puffy stuff as a young girls underdrawers; still lover of that small naval boat which somehow survived the distressing years of my life between her decks or in her pilothouse; and also lover of poor dear black Sonny, my mess boy, fellow victim and confidant, and of my wife and child. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then the first line is the window to the book. Orwell's opening line creates a slight but immediate discordance that sets you up for an unsettling experience. All this happened, more or less. Ah, they don't make them like they used to. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. And thus we are introduced to Captain Nemo and his Nautilus, both enigmas roaming the deep solitude of the ocean. I'm beginning a series looking at some of the best opening lines in literature. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. 2. "Call Me Ishmael." - Moby Dick, Herman Melville This is perhaps the most iconic non-crappy opening line in history. If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.. Ursula Le Guin once called the first sentences of a book the doorways to worlds in her essay, The Fishermans Daughter. They serve as the introduction to a new experience; the first few whiffs of deliciousness you smell when youre about to tuck into an inviting meal that youve never had before. Story Opening Line: Middle Grade. But who is Ishmael? Lewis Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Lo. By the time I managed to get a copy of 2001, I was already mesmerized by O'Neil Cylinders, and this work was a little bit of a put-down. Well I had a unique seat that day. hide this ad . This is the type of descriptive opener that pulls you in and makes you want to keep reading. Here is a small fact: You are going to die. Comments. We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. If you know anything about this novel you know that living in a gym is not the worst thing the main characters have to deal with. Some of these I revisited after some time, regretting that I didnt push through the first time. Thanks to everyone who added a book line, sometimes it's really difficult for 15 years old introvert to find a book. This technique is a staple of European classics. Wish him luck! Check your inbox, and click on the link to activate your account. When not on his computer he enjoys traveling, eating pizza, and watching 80s action films. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. The Forgotten by David Baldacci. "Son I'm 30 / I only went with your mother cos she's dirty.". The real reason I check book lists on Bored Panda is finding something good to read. One of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. 1. Famous opening lines of books might seem like they were written off the cuff, but they are often planned and re-written by authors trying to find the perfect sentence. I was sitting in 1D." How to use the power of imagination to open your speech? The A Tale of Two Cities first line isn't Dickens's only banger. It can longer be denied. 7 once-controversial TV episodes that wouldnt cause a stir today, 150 of the most compelling opening lines in literature, 14 facts about I Love Lucy, plus our five other favorite episodes, The circus arrives without warning. . They can lock him up, hide his letters, and pretend hes not magic all they want, but thats not going to stop him from fulfilling his destiny. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Is that even his real name? To better explain how effective these first lines are, I included a few important details about the novels they came from. Theres so much going on in this one line from the maestro Sylvia Plath. 39. But perhaps one of our favourite things to do on a cold wintry night is to curl up with one of our favourite Christmassy books and travel to far away places (while real-life travel is so uncertain), while we let the glow of an open fire warm our faces. . 101 Dalmatians - Dodie Smith 101 Dalmatians, Dodie Smith "Not long ago, there lived in. Love this book. Study Guides . 22. Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.. Charlotte's We b by E.B. Consisting of over 1800 hours of audio and video material, the PEN America Archives showcase the intersection of literature and free expression through the voices of some of the most prominent writers, intellectuals, and activists from the twentieth and twenty-first . in a voice that rustled. , Mrs. Set before and during the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities opening line hints at the radical opposites taking place in the story: of love and hatred, oppression and freedom, and the rich and the poor. from Where the Sidewalk Ends That book is hands down the trippiest, oddest, most unsettling thing I've ever read. 48. Whats your favorite opening line from a book? This opening line pretty much sums up the feelings you have while reading this one. Or maybe yesterday, I dont know.. Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury First line- It was a pleasure to burn. Pachinkos opening line is a reminder that history can be unkind, especially for ordinary people. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This book was one I hated when I was a teenager, but then laughed about when I was an adult. Are you sure this isn't the first line to Tracks by Louise Erdrich? The interruption was suave, dexterous, persuasive rather than contradictory., Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree., Tom Langdon was a journalist, a globetrotting one, because it was in his blood to roam widely. Imagine this, you open the book and are suddenly confronted by a character calling themselves Ishmael. I think I only paused for bodily necessities and to close my eyes and mutter 'No no no!' Please provide your email address and we will send your password shortly. This time of year, the lighter fare known as the summer read no longer holds the same appeal. Let's keep in touch and we'll send more your way. Why use one word when you can use five. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here. Ah, who else would tilt at windmills. This first line doesnt give much information about Harry and his mates. Stop! cried the groaning old man at last, Stop! Magnificent. I liked most of Sinclair Lewis's books , even though he was an insecure, &, tortured man. In the same year, she started working at Bored Panda as a photo editor.Greta is a coffeeholic and cannot survive a day without 5 cups of coffee and her cute, big-eared dog.Her biggest open secret: she is a gamer with a giant gaming backlog. - nervous - very, very nervous I am and . Get your point across in an emotionally sensitive way. Kincaid Who is Ishmael? Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.. Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood, 1998. Can someone please tell me what is going on?! that was all. But it doesnt matter, because people persist anyway. Once upon a time, growing up, I read a short story "The Star". We have sent an email to the address you provided with an activation link. Plays. By gnark. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Moby Dick Herman Melville. This is one of those that stood the test of time bloody well. 33. Sign up for the latest news and must-read features from Stylist, so you don't miss out on the conversation. The Five People You Meet in HeavenbyMitch Albom, 34. The Princess Bride by William Goldman. As I grew older, I read them personally, and still can't make up my mind which of the two I like best. 'All children, except one, grow up.'. Has the world ended? He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. Me And My Girlfriend Revisited Slovakian Tatras, And Here Are 34 New Photos From Our Trip, "Wool Thrills": I Create Unique Felted Dolls, Here Are 32 Of My Best Ones, Artist Depicts Famous Characters As Real Human Beings Dressed In Modern Clothes (30 New Pics), Hey Pandas, What Is The Creepiest Thing That Happened To You? My mother died today. Imagine if I didnt check those books out againI would have missed a lot of opportunities to read stories that I came to love. One of the great philosophical novels, the journey Santiago goes on is very inspiring. There's this classic opening to A Christmas Carol: "Marley was dead: to begin with." That's followed by several sentences about just how dead Marley was, like the author is protesting a little bit too much (and of course, Marley's ghost . Please check link and try again. Its a proclamation that all the horrific events and atrocities in the story have more or less happened in real life. Everyone from classic writers such as C.S. It may be unnecessary or idiotic, but it shows how much control they have over the population. Take inspiration from another culture this Christmas. In the pleasant city of Stillwater, Mr. Popper, the house painter, was going home from work." "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." "This is George. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson. ' , It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didnt know what I was doing in New York. , Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden. , If I am out of my mind, its all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. , Francis Marion Tarwaters uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up. , Granted: I am an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; theres a peephole in the door, and my keepers eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me. , When Dick Gibson was a little boy he was not Dick Gibson. , Hiram Clegg, together with his wife Emma and four friends of the faith from Randolph Junction, were summoned by the Spirit and Mrs. Clara Collins, widow of the beloved Nazarene preacher Ely Collins, to West Condon on the weekend of the eighteenth and nineteenth of April, there to await the End of the World. , She waited, Kate Croy, for her father to come in, but he kept her unconscionably, and there were moments at which she showed herself, in the glass over the mantel, a face positively pale with the irritation that had brought her to the point of going away without sight of him. , In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. , Take my camel, dear, said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass. , He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull., The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. , On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. , Justice?You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law. , Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash. , I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. , When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets, Papa would say, she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851) One of the most famous opening lines in the English-language canon is this one from Melville's tome about whale hunting. But a good read. . Scarlett OHara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. And when a writer successfully evokes these responses from you, youre probably already hooked, because a great opening line is no longer a choice, but an enchantment that throws you into the depths of a story. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. . 1. And the next day would be Christmas., The little town straggling up the hill was bright with coloured Christmas lights. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, hes also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that Ive been turning over in my mind since. The books are probably best enjoyed by reading them in order, beginning with Stormbreaker, which has the terrific opening line: "When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never. Some are short sentences while others consist of many lines. Lewis. 32. I bet like many readers some powerful or heartfelt first sentences have lodged in your mind forever. The lizards were wearing flip-flops and the cacti that line the streets of the city were gasping., Tuck looked at the red-and-white pile on the ground at his feet and realized for the first time what it really was: a dead Santa., It was late one fall in Halloweenland, and the air had quite a chill. What they all have in common is how great they are. He climbs onto his bicycle, and sets off on his way. They set the scene and hook the reader in. It's very funny and weird. It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. Where others say only instability and fear in life, Tom felt graced by an embracing independence. Moby Dick by Herman Melville "Call me Ishmael." There is one thing that makes the opening line for Moby Dick so powerful: curiosity. Great Opening Lines for Emcee Written by Timothy Hyde in Be a Better MC An Insiders Guide to Great Opening Lines for any MC or Speech. Its not sunny escapism I crave, its the foggy gloom of Dickensian London. The Racketeer by John Grisham. Not rudely interrupted. The Hobbit by J.R.R. The opening line is found in the Preamble and states the goal of the Constitution. 8. This tale about a college girl on the edge is a must-read. "Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space.". Ive definitely stopped reading a few books because I didnt like the first paragraph. Ishmael is the name of the first-person narrator of the story, although he is a relatively minor character in the story itself. 1. 1. . Be sure to let us know which must-read books have you read. - The Martian by Andy Weir This opening line pretty much sums up the feelings you have while reading this one. Help us send the best of Considerable to you. Youll have to read this classic to find out. I remember hearing this line, getting interested, and then hearing a summary and being less interested for some reason. Full of a baby's venom. A sad one, really. The boys name was Santiago. Full of a babys venom. Colonel Aureliano Buenda facing a firing squad? He was leaning over the railing of the iron bridge, staring down moodily at the black water. They make you laugh or snort, think and reread, and ask questions. Against the moon a skeleton sat, alone upon a hill. Opening: "Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Well, I'm not reading anything that's about a guy who eats dogs. Fahrenheit 451s first line is a crucial insight into the main characters world, where knowledge is voluntarily, and happily burnedthe result of people wanting numb contentment rather than progress. Here is a list of 150 of the most compelling opening lines in literature. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly." "It was an afternoon in late September. It sets the scene for what is to come. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or . We will not publish or share your email address in any way. With his background and fierce appearance, no one expected Bruno the mastiff to be a good dog for small children. Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome. "NOW, what I want is, Facts. Tolkien, 37. I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull; He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my Mother, whose Relations were named Robinson, a very good Family in that Country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual Corruption of Words in England, we are now called, nay we call our selves, and write our Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always calld me. "124 was spiteful. So many questions. 5. If you are a dreamer, come in, If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire For we have some flax-golden tales to spin. "In certain latitudes there comes a span of time approaching and following the summer solstice, some weeks in all, when the twilights turn long and blue.". Doesn't parse, I love the language. The Martian by Andy Weir. Another American classic about a man trying to catch a fish. The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. From minimalist line drawings to stunning travel photography, these are the most beautiful prints to buy this Christmas. 7. Truer words have never been spoken. An ominous warning kicks off this incredible Pulitzer Prize-winning book. So many questions. Why is his father taking him to discover ice? Imagine a plane full of smoke.