# Best Book Opening **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163 "2002-11-27T18:10:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/21 "2002-11-28T00:43:48Z")
“A screaming comes across the sky.” - Gravity’s Rainbow : Thomas Pynchon ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/22 "2002-11-28T01:29:40Z")
\*\*Every Who down in whoville liked Christmas Alot, but the Grinch who lived just North of Whoville, did not. \*\* How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Best opening line of a book ever. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/23 "2002-11-28T02:35:53Z")
Thank you Ender! Was that from memory? ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/24 "2002-11-28T03:15:26Z")
The first sentence of John Varley’s ‘Steel Beach’. I can’t remember it verbatim, but it was something along the lines of ‘In five years the penis will be obsolete’. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/25 "2002-11-28T03:29:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Badtz Maru \* > \*\*The first sentence of John Varley’s ‘Steel Beach’. > > I can’t remember it verbatim, but it was something along the lines of ‘In five years the penis will be obsolete’. \*\* Go up about 5 posts. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/26 "2002-11-28T04:05:52Z")
Would that it was. I have various short story collections on my shelf and this was one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/27 "2002-11-28T04:28:45Z")
Best opening line? It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/28 "2002-11-28T05:34:17Z")
It’s a very new book, so it’s hard to say if it qualifies as “best ever,” but the poem that open Clive Barker’s new novel _Abarat_ sets the perfect tone for the book. > [@](#): > > \*I dreamed a limitless book, > A book unbound, > Its leaves scattered in fantastic abundance. > > On every line, there was a new horizon drawn, > New heavens supposed; > New states, new souls. > > One of those souls, > Dozing through some imagined afternoon, > Dreamed these words, > And needing a hand to set them down, > Made mine.\* Follow that with the first sentence of the book itself… > [@](#): > > _The storm came up out of the southwest like a fiend, stalking its prey on legs of lightning._ Just beautiful. After that beginning, I was ready for anything. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/29 "2002-11-28T05:44:23Z")
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 I defy any to read that and instantly stop. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/30 "2002-11-28T05:51:57Z")
In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. Norman Maclean _A River Runs Through It_ ---
**Author:** ![bristlesage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@bristlesage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bristlesage)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/31 "2002-11-28T07:22:17Z")
“It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.” –George Orwell, “1984” ---
**Author:** ![Osbie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cdc98d/32.png) [@Osbie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osbie)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/32 "2002-11-28T07:51:53Z")
“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_ ~ Jane Austen ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2002, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/33 "2002-11-28T08:31:37Z")
Looking through some of my favorite books, I fear that I will list the openings to them, not because they are particularly memorable, but simply as an excuse to call attention to them. However, I know that these two do have very worth-while and famous openings that deserve mention (and I am surprised that the second has yet to be listed). _A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct._ Dune Frank Herbert “Who is John Galt?” Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand ---
**Author:** ![Ersatz\_Shmoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@Ersatz\_Shmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ersatz_Shmoe)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/34 "2002-11-30T01:25:19Z")
“It was the best of times, it was the…blurst of times!!! Stupid monkeys!” ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/35 "2002-11-30T01:58:38Z")
I’ll second **bristlesage** on the obviously memorable opening sentence being from _1984_. But the particularly perfectly judged opening words are “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan …” Can’t remember the rest of the sentence offhand, yet that’s just the most wonderful mouthful of vowels. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/36 "2002-11-30T03:45:08Z")
“Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” I’ll enthusiastically add another vote for Ulysses. And lest we forget; “It was a pleasure to burn.” - Farenheit 451 ---
**Author:** ![DeepPurple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@DeepPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepPurple)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/37 "2002-11-30T04:12:13Z")
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/38 "2002-11-30T04:12:45Z")
“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.” – The Dark Tower Series: The Gunslinger ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/39 "2002-11-30T04:54:44Z")
You know, Jurhael, I was just about to type a post about that very same opening. “It’s hard to know where to start with this.” Kevin Brooks, _Martyn Pig_ ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2002, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163/40 "2002-11-30T05:14:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*In those days, there were heroes and villains, and darkness walked the earth. There were dragons to be slain, captured princesses to be saved, and mighty deeds to be accomplished by knights in shining armor. > > Many tales are told of that time, tales of steadfast bravery and derring-do… > > This isn’t one of them.\* From [Blue Moon Rising](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451450957/), by Simon Green. One of my favorites. Enjoy, Steven [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-opening/139163.md?page=3)