# Best First Lines of Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 5, 2000, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927 "2000-04-05T19:38:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bluepony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Bluepony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluepony)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/41 "2000-04-08T05:25:00Z")
“Cannery Row, in Monterey, in California, is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” (John Stienbeck) * * * _…send lawyers, guns, and money…_ ``` Warren Zevon ``` ---
**Author:** ![xekul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/838e76/32.png) [@xekul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xekul)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/42 "2000-04-08T05:53:00Z")
The ``dark and stormy night’’ line was actually first used by a guy named Bulwer-Lytton in a novel called _Paul Clifford_. Every year, there’s a Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest to create the best worst first line for an unwritten story. Some of the submissions are absolutely brilliant. > [@](#): > > The moment he laid eyes on the lifeless body of the nude socialite sprawled across the bathroom floor, Detective Leary knew she had committed suicide by grasping the cap on the tamper-proof bottle, pushing down and twisting while she kept her thumb firmly pressed against the spot the arrow pointed to, until she hit the exact spot where the tab clicks into place, allowing her to remove the cap and swallow the entire contents of the bottle, thus ending her life. – Artie Kalemeris, 1997 winner. Here’s the web page: [http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/](http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/) * * * ``You’re just an empty cage girl if you kill the bird.’’ – Tori Amos. ---
**Author:** ![Steve-o](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecc23a/32.png) [@Steve-o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve-o)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/43 "2000-04-08T06:16:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by spoke-: > \*\*Well this is from memory, so I’m sure I dont have it exactly right, but it’s from **1984** : > > “The clock in the square struck thirteen.” > \*\* “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” Not spectacular taken on face value, but after you’ve read the book, it’s awesome. It brings a smile (knowing grin) to my face just looking at it now. * * * Things are random only insofar as we don’t understand them. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/44 "2000-04-08T20:39:00Z")
A Tale of Two Cities if good, but, for some reason, I always liked: “Howard Roark laughed” The Fountainhead–Ayn Rand ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/45 "2000-04-08T21:16:00Z")
I’ve always been partial to _‘There was a wall.’_ - **The Dispossessed**. Not sure exactly why, it’s just so simple yet evocative. That one sentence created my whole picture of Annares, believe it or no. (I had to adjust it, a few times, but it stood pretty well, considering.) * * * _Eschew Obfuscation_ ---
**Author:** ![Catrandom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@Catrandom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catrandom)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/46 "2000-04-08T21:27:00Z")
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” David Copperfield, of course 🙂 * * * ## Catrandom Go to a vet that’s also a taxidermist. Either way, you’ll get your cat back. _Sig courtesy of the amazing WallyM7_ ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/47 "2000-04-08T22:08:00Z")
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier And the first paragraph or two of “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. I’d quote it, but alas I cannot find my copy. ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/48 "2000-04-08T22:58:00Z")
From what I have handy: I was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him. catch- 22 They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them. One flew over the cuckoo’s nest Now is the winter of out discontent made glorious summer by this son of York Richard the III. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/49 "2000-04-08T23:24:00Z")
> [@](#): > > “As I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had but two things on my mind, Paul Newman and a ride home.” Kellibelli, I came into this topic specifically to mention that book, but didn’t know the line at all, so I was going to ask if anyone else did. I read it when I was 12 or 13 years old, and memory fades, you know. 🙂 But I remember, even now, how it struck me that that book ended with the exact same sentence (paragraph?) that it started with. Great book. And here’s my other entry to this topic… “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice - not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” – _A Prayer For Owen Meany_ by John Irving. * * * “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank “Mom, he’s a neo Nazi! He’s a doctor also? Well…” - WallyM7 ---
**Author:** ![chocolate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chocolate)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/50 "2000-04-08T23:34:00Z")
My contribution, the most famous line I ever remember from a book (other than “call me Ishmael”) \*\* “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness . . .”\*\* _A Tale of Two Cities…_ Charles Dickens (this better post right!) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/51 "2000-04-09T06:36:00Z")
“There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphore, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife’s blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck.” –Steven Brust, _Jhereg_ Very good series, if you like fantasy. * * * “There are only two things that are infinite: The Universe, and human stupidity-- and I’m not sure about the Universe” –A. Einstein ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Commander\_Fortune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Fortune)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/52 "2000-04-09T06:42:00Z")
_People are afraid to merge._ -Less than Zero ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/53 "2000-04-09T07:27:00Z")
_on freeways in Los Angeles._\* ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/54 "2000-04-09T07:39:00Z")
How humiliating. _on freeways in Los Angeles._ ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/55 "2000-04-09T16:36:00Z")
“While gazing recently at my Hubert the Harris (stuffed) Lion, I noticed it comes complete with a belly button and glasses.” ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/56 "2000-04-09T20:24:00Z")
**I forgot what we named the new baby, but I’m sure it’ll come to me.** Actually, I wrote this when describing a nightmare to a friend (childbirth at my age!), and twisted soul that she is, she said that’d make a good first line for a story. Here’s for real: **It was a death that began it all and another death that led us on.** “Morality Play”, Barry Unsworth **Bill Roberts decided to rob the firecracker stand on account he didn’t have a job and not a nickel’s worth of money and his mother was dead and kind of freeze-dried in her bedroom.** “Freezer Burn”, Joe Lansdale First lines aren’t much of an indication of how much you’re going to like the book, are they? Most of my favorites start out pretty inauspiciously. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/57 "2000-04-10T07:39:00Z")
“Necromunda is an inhospitable world of pollutant wastes and acidic clouds, the result of centuries of industrial endeavour.” - _Necromunda: Sourcebook_ ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/58 "2000-04-12T22:10:00Z")
I knew I had this sitting around someplace: During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the Autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppresively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of land; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher ---
**Author:** ![Suo\_Na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Suo\_Na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suo_Na)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/59 "2000-04-12T22:31:00Z")
Ah, literature, one of my favourite subjects. Here’s my contribution: “I was never so amazed in my life as when the Sniffer drew his concealed weapon from its case and struck me to the ground, stone dead.” - Robertson Davies, Murther & Walking Spirits * * * * * * I’m a political prisoner trapped in a windowless cage Cuz I stopped the slaughter of turnips by killing five men in a rage. ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2000, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/60 "2000-04-12T23:34:00Z")
“The sky over the terminal was the color of a television set tuned to a dead channel.” -Neuromancer “It is a sin to write this.” -Anthem PunditLisa: I hated Rebecca… it was assigned in a popular fiction class I was in. My time to read the first half: 2 weeks. The second half: Two hours. I wouldn’t have hated the first part so much if I’d know the last bit would be so good! * * * [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) I am human, and I need to be loved Just like anybody else does [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927.md?page=4)