# How many first lines from books do you have memorized? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382 "2009-11-05T02:49:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/21 "2009-11-05T04:20:55Z")
**Scaramouche** : “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/22 "2009-11-05T04:36:49Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Wasn’t the first line of Roth’s _The Great American Novel_ “Call me Smitty”? Hmm. You’re right. Which is too bad, because while it’s a joke it’s not nearly as good a one. I wonder if I’m remembering some National Lampoon spoof or the like? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/23 "2009-11-05T04:38:27Z")
“Death came for him by mistake” - _Black Steel_. “Death came quietly to The Row.” - _Sten_. “Death came for Bork’s sister during the party.” - _Brother Death_. “_Imprimis_, they nuked the spaceport.” - _We Few_. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/24 "2009-11-05T04:40:39Z")
> [@Ruby](#): > > Only one. > > “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” > [@kapri](#): > > “It was a dark and stormy night.” Besides the two above – and I only know “It was a dark and stormy night” from _Peanuts_; knew it was from an actual novel but can never remember which one – there’s: “Mother died yesterday; or maybe today, I don’t know.” Albert Camus, _The Stranger_. And I’m not even sure I have that correct. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/25 "2009-11-05T04:53:56Z")
Lessee, “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful but men seldom realized it when caught in her charm like the Tarleton twins were.” - Gone with the Wind “Mother died today.” - The Stranger “Events cast shadows before them, but the larger shadows creep over us unseen.” - Logopolis. (A Doctor Who novelization. Does that count?) I used to know this kinda stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/26 "2009-11-05T04:55:07Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > “Mother died today.” - The Stranger Ah, see? I screwed it up above. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/27 "2009-11-05T06:25:43Z")
“The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” I liked this one, because the meaning has changed, most peoples TV’s turn a sky blue when there’s no signal nowadays. Do plays count: “Now is the winter of our discontent, turned glorious summer by this son of York”. Only kinda remember this one: “Rage Sing o ye muses of the rage of Peleus’s son Murderous man killer That cost the Acheans so many good men, dragged down to Hades.” ---
**Author:** ![Blisters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Blisters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blisters)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/28 "2009-11-05T06:52:36Z")
Call me Ishmael and The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed ---
**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:** [November 5, 2009, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/29 "2009-11-05T07:00:33Z")
Well, I know quite a few famous first lines, but, of books I’ve read, only one first line stuck with me. ‘There was a wall.’ - The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/30 "2009-11-05T08:32:48Z")
Among others: “It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.” Anthony Burgess, _Earthly Powers_. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/31 "2009-11-05T15:09:12Z")
> [@](#): > > All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. I find it rings true. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/32 "2009-11-05T15:30:23Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > “_It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen_.” > > If that opening line doesn’t perk up your interest, I don’t know what will. I once saw a photo of the first MS page of _1984_, typed but covered with Orwell’s handwritten edits. There was very little white space showing. He rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” - _The Hobbit_ by J.R.R. Tolkien. “Fred was halfway to the safe house when he realized that he should’ve put down plastic before dumping Ron’s headless body in the trunk.” - _Gun Monkeys_ by Victor Gischler (paraphrased - that’s close to it, at least). ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/33 "2009-11-05T15:42:28Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > “_It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen_.” > > If that opening line doesn’t perk up your interest, I don’t know what will. I always assumed that “13 O’clock” was just a Britishism for 1pm that was current at the time, which would make the sentence not so interesting. Wikipedia is somewhat ambigious: > [@](#): > > In Britain, the use of the 24-hour clock in daily life has grown steadily since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1934, the Radio Times switched to the 24-hour clock for programme listings. The experiment was halted after five months following widespread protests from readers, and has used the 12-hour clock ever since. Maybe one of our older british posters can set us straight. Was a “clock striking 13” supposed to invoke a slightly different and futuristic world to Orwells readers, or was it just a common way of saying it was an hour after noon. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/34 "2009-11-05T16:04:50Z")
“Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court Number 3 and waited for justice; vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her.” “The Sun did not shine.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/35 "2009-11-05T16:06:24Z")
1. “Arma virumque cano Trojae qui primus ab oris…” (Opening line of “The Aeneid,” which I know only because Father Callaghan taught us to sing it to the tune of “The Stars and Stripes Forever”) 2. “Marley was dead, to begin with” (Gee, I wonder who’ll solve THAT one.) 1. “Riverrun” is the first "sentence of “Finnegans Wake.” The last “sentence” is “along the.” I confess freely, I never managed to read much of what lay between those lines. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/36 "2009-11-05T16:15:24Z")
I’ve NEVER read anything by Nabokov, but I still know the opening line: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/37 "2009-11-05T16:16:30Z")
“The British are frequently criticized by other nations for their dislike of change, and indeed we love England for those aspects of nature and life which change the least.” Mutiny on the Bounty “The gale tore at him and he felt its bite deep within and he knew that if they did not make landfall in three days they would all be dead.” Shogun ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/38 "2009-11-05T16:19:45Z")
I was a big Robert A. Heinlein fan in my youth, so I can remember a couple of first lines from his books: “You see I had this space suit.” (“Have Space Suit – Will Travel”) “Max liked this time of day, this time of year.” (“Starman Jones”) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/39 "2009-11-05T16:23:12Z")
Who remembers the first line to Tom Sawyer? “Tom!” ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382/40 "2009-11-05T16:33:38Z")
Some more easy ones Well, I know “All of Gaul is divided into three parts” despite never having read Cesar (or what the three parts are, or why its important). And “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth”. “He was one hundred and seventy days dying, and not yet dead”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-first-lines-from-books-do-you-have-memorized/516382.md?page=3)