# Which of these do you like best as an opening line?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 13, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680 "2007-07-13T18:04:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680/61 "2007-07-16T15:29:06Z")

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The photo link works for me too. I’m on a Mac if that’s a datapoint for you.

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680/62 "2007-07-16T16:02:47Z")

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#1 is amusing, and I’d read the story, but you don’t need a **Sampiro** to write it. A lot of people could have come up with that thought and it’s kind of generic.

The last sentence in #2 really hits you out of nowhere. That’s the kind of sentence that would keep me reading a story to the end- I’d read #3, but I don’t think I would have as much patience with it.

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680/63 "2007-07-16T16:37:52Z")

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The link works fine for me. PC running XP, viewed on IE.

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**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680/64 "2007-07-16T19:50:14Z")

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I vote for #3.

Also - I want to order this book NOW.

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**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680/65 "2007-07-18T05:45:56Z")

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I like #3. It shows a bit of your style, and outlines the beginning of a story but leaves you intrigued as to how this situation got started and what comes next.

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**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-of-these-do-you-like-best-as-an-opening-line/411680/66 "2007-07-18T17:12:15Z")

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Another vote for #3.

Even with the advantage of having read your posts here, #2 left me having to re-read it, to figure out what was going on. If I have to reread the first sentence of a book, I may decide it’s not worth reading the whole thing.

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