Duplicate Post.
Jeez, I got maybe 5 total.
“The rain made everything sound different – the engine of my delivery van, the traffic as it rolled by on a film of fallen clouds, the occasional dull honk.”
A gimme -
“LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!”
“A man with binoculars. That is how it began: with a man standing by the side of the road, on a crest overlooking a small Arizona town, on a winter night.”
Beowulf! I got one…albeit it a very easy one 
The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton.
Err…the novelization of Star Wars Ep. IV?
OK, I’ve got a few:
LL1: “The water in the metal tank slopped sideways and a treacly ripple ran along the edge, reached the corner and died away”
LL2: “I can see by my watch, without taking my hand from the left grip of the cycle, that it is eight-thirty in the morning”
LL3: “I am an invisible man”
LL4: “I have never begun a novel with more misgiving”
LL5: “If you should walk and wind and wander far enough on one of those afternoons in April when smoke goes down instead of up, and nearby things sound far away and far things near, you are more than likely to come at last to the enchanted forest that lies between the Moonstone Mines and Centaurs Mountain”
Did anyone guess this one yet? The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.
The Razor’s Edge W. Somerset Maugham
Yes.
“The police in the small town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, worried briefly in 1974 about a man see prowling in the dark, night after night, the red glow of his cigarette floating along the back streets.”
and
“He drank alone. Which was odd since he didn’t have trouble with people.” (2 sentences since the first is so short)
Yup.
Well, having narrowed this down to two choices, I’m going with Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
My new one:
My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born.
Yes. Easy one.
A rule clarification: you’re allowed to consult any physical book to generate first lines to pose as challenges. But the first lines you answer must come out of your memory. I suppose you can check your answer before you post it, but it must come from your memory. Honour system, folks.
I think we need a recap.
“The night was. . .”
Sorry.
How about “The thing stank.”
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
ENG1: “My first memory is of a time ten years before I was born, and the memory takes place where I have never been and involves my daddy whom I never knew.” [posted earlier]
ENG2: “I am seated in an office, surrounded by heads and bodies.”
ENG3: “See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt.”
Correct!
Bastard! Why does everybody always beat me to the ones I know!?
Correct. Credited to George Lucas, but widely acknowledged to have been ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster.
Here are some more first lines:
“At the first gesture of morning, flies began stirring.”
“Hello? Hello? Yes, I see it works. Good.”
“I don’t usually go to a bar with one of my students. It is almost always a mistake.”
The Dracula Tape ?
No.