# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/61 "2000-04-13T02:30:00Z")
“Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like when things are going wrong–your wife is ready to leave you, all of your notions about yourself and the world are getting turned around, everything you trusted is becoming questionable–there’s nothing like having someone try to kill you to take your mind off your problems.” _Phoenix_, Steven Brust “It was a stark and dormy night.” _Castle Murders_, John DeChancie ---
**Author:** ![smilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@smilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smilla)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/62 "2000-04-13T03:38:00Z")
“Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., because…” “The beaurocrat fell from the sky.” ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/63 "2000-04-13T23:01:00Z")
Dang, Kellibelli, you took the one I was gonna do! ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/64 "2000-04-14T02:44:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Catrandom: > \*\*“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 :)\*\* Is that David Coperfield with one ‘P’ by Edmund Wells? Or maybe by Charles Dikkens? That’s Dikkens with two 'K’s , the famous Dutch author. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/65 "2000-04-14T02:45:00Z")
A beer to the first person who catches the reference. 🙂 Provided they show up at the NYC meet this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/66 "2000-04-14T08:51:00Z")
Darn it, I live in LA and I don’t drink beer. But… “No, in that case we don’t have it and perhaps to save time I should add that we don’t have **Carnaby Fudge** by Darles Chickens or **Farnaby Sludge** by Marles Pickens or even **Stickwick Stapers** by Farles Wickens with four Ms and a silent Q! Why don’t you try W.H. Smith’s?” “I did; they sent me here.” “Did they.” * * * “His eyes are as green as a fresh-pickled toad, His hair is as dark as a blackboard, I wish he was mine, he’s really divine, The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.” ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/67 "2000-04-14T12:18:00Z")
Well this one is more of a paragraph but when I read it through carefully I realized its all one sentence so here is my Fav _Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof. -_\* Anne of Green Gables\*\*\* and I just noticed this. For those who have read the book(and/or all the rest) doesn’t the brook described resemble Anne? _This is the year 1492. I am eighty-two years of age. The things I am going to tell you are things which I saw myself as a child and as a youth. -_\* The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc\*\*\* * * * Life is an exotic and sonorous nightmare, in which reason does not always play a role… - Exerpted from V:tM ```auto Dreams die hard and we hold them in our hands long after they have turned to dust. - Bowen in Dragonheart ``` Human beings can always be relied upon to assert, with vigor, their god-given right to be stupid. - Seize the Night by Dean Koontz ```auto You know why people call something impossible? Because it hasn't happened yet. - Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come ``` ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927/68 "2000-04-14T12:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by TopazAntares: > \*\*Well this one is more of a paragraph but when I read it through carefully I realized its all one sentence so here is my Fav > > _Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof. -_\* Anne of Green Gables\*\*\* and I just noticed this. For those who have read the book(and/or all the rest) doesn’t the brook described resemble Anne? > > _This is the year 1492. I am eighty-two years of age. The things I am going to tell you are things which I saw myself as a child and as a youth. -_\* The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc\*\*\* > \*\* (Edited cuz of my typos Huked on foniks worked fur me) * * * Life is an exotic and sonorous nightmare, in which reason does not always play a role… - Exerpted from V:tM ```auto Dreams die hard and we hold them in our hands long after they have turned to dust. - Bowen in Dragonheart ``` Human beings can always be relied upon to assert, with vigor, their god-given right to be stupid. - Seize the Night by Dean Koontz ```auto You know why people call something impossible? Because it hasn't happened yet. - Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come ``` [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-first-lines-of-books/15927.md?page=3)