Favourite book openings!

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

Hi All,

I had fun reading the book recommendations just now, and I also had fun reading over an older discussion in which people posted first lines from their favourite books for people to guess. Then I thought: it would be fun to read the beginnings of some of the books people are recommending. I'm always more likely to seek a book out if I get the first few lines and want to keep going... and it's interesting to see what makes a successful beginning.

So... what are your favourite book openings? do you have a book to recommend that you think has a particularly awesome beginning? What makes a good beginning? And are those lines sometimes more cherished on re-reading than on the first time?

I've always thought the beginning of The Thief was particularly good (I remember being grabbed right away), but I'm sure you all know that one by heart. So here's another one I think is pretty cool:

"She was standing in the middle of the railroad tracks. Her head was bowed and her right front hoof was raised as if she rested. Her reins hung down to the ground and her saddle had slipped to one side. Behind her, a warehouse filled with medical supplies had just caught fire."

--"The Wars" by Timothy Findley

I love how you don't know "she's" a horse at first.
...I can't wait to read yours!

Comments

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

'It was nine o'clock at night and Tremaine was trying to find a way to kill herself that would bring in a verdict of natural causes in court when someone banged on the door.'

The Wizard Hunters, Martha Wells

'There were five of us --Carruthers and the new recruit and myself, and Mr. Spivens and the verger. It was late afternoon on November the fifteenth, and we were in what was left of Coventry Cathedral, looking for the bishop's bird stump.'

To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

It's an interesting question about what makes openings catchy - the Connie Willis one definitely became more meaningful on re-reading, as it has a touch of everything in the book: humour, loss and sheer stumbling confusion. But it doesn't look as if it does on first sight.

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." from I capture The Castle, by Dodie Smith. As soon as I read this, I knew that I was in capable hands and could settle down to enjoy the book.

"Early this morning, 1 January 2021, three minutes after midnight, th last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl in a suburb of Buenos Aires, ages twenty-five years, two months and twelve days."
Children of men, by P.D James, and my favourite SF-ish dystopian world book ever.

The first lines of my very favourite books have definitely improved on re-reading. Some of them I don't like only for themselves, but for the fact that when I read them, I know I'm about to enter a familiar and well-loved world - and have already begun.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit."
"Mr and Mrs Dursley of Number Four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God."
"Alone we are born, and die alone" (although, as a poem only four lines long, that one probably doesn't count!)

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

"Call me Ishmael." - Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.
I've never read this book, but I've heard a LOT about the first line. The first line put the book on the TBR.

"She was standing in the middle of the railroad tracks. Her head was bowed and her right front hoof was raised as if she rested. Her reins hung down to the ground and her saddle had slipped to one side. Behind her, a warehouse filled with medical supplies had just caught fire."

I like how you're brought up with a jolt at the end of the sentence, when the burning warehouse lets you know something very wrong is going on.

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

I liked the first line of To Say Nothing of the Dog because I read it shortly after Three Men in a Boat, so the parallel opening was very clear, and made it all the more funny.

[mightyinkas.livejournal.com]

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

From Blood Rites by Jim Butcher. (All of his books have pretty good openers, but that's my favorite.)

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

The openings of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, especially books 2 and 3 - the general sense of ancient mystery and nostalgia.

The opening of the Crystal Cave.

....And I forget the rest. D: I feel like The King Must Die had an awesome opening, but I can't remember it. >.>

[helle-d.livejournal.com]

I really like to opening to Philip Pullman's The Ruby in the Smoke - the last line of the paragraph had my twele-year-old-self utterly hooked.

"On a cold, fretful afternoon in early October, 1872, a hansom cab drew up outside the offices of Lockhart and Selby, Shipping Agents, in the financial heart of London, and a young girl got out and paid the driver.

She was a person of sixteen or so--alone, and uncommonly pretty. She was slender and pale, and dressed in mourning, with a black bonnet under which she tucked back a straying twist of blond hair that the wind had teased loose. She had unusually dark brown eyes for one so fair. Her name was Sally Lockhart; and within fifteen minutes, she was going to kill a man."

The Harry Potter one - "Mr and Mrs Dursley of Number Four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." was one that I didn't appreciate on the first read-through, but looking back I absolutely love for how well it fits.

The first line of Kushiel's Dart I do like too - it's another that tells you so much about the character and really kept me reading.
"Lest anyone should suppose that I am a cuckoo's child, got on the wrong side of a blanket by lusty peasant stock and sold into indenture in a shortfallen season, I may say that I am House-born and reared in the Night Court proper, for all the good it did me."

Diana Wynne Jones' Dogsbody plunges you straight into the action, and is one I'd recommend to any Sounisians who have the bad luck to not yet have rad any DWJ:
"The Dog Star stood beneath the Judgment Seats and raged. The green light of his fury fired the assembled faces viridian. It lit the underside of the rooftrees and turned their moist blue fruit to emerald.
"None of this is true!" he shouted. "Why can't you believe me, instead of listening to him?" He blazed on the chief witness, a blue luminary from the Castor complex, firing him turquoise. The witness backed hastily out of range.
"Sirius," the First Judge rumbled quietly, "we've already found you guilty. Unless you've any, thing reasonable to say, be quiet and let the Court pass sentence."

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

"He was called Smith and was twelve years old. Which in itself was a marvel, for it seemed as if smallpox, the consumption, brain fever, jail fever, and even the hangman's rope had given him a wide berth for fear of catching something. Or else they weren't quick enough." Smith, by Leon Garfield. Perfectly catches the tone of the book -- grimly funny and fast-moving, like its hero.

"Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud." Airborn, Kenneth Oppel. I love this because it's so musical, but it also puts you in the scene very efficiently.

"I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now -- which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead, too, and then the age difference won't matter." The White Darkness, Geraldine McCaughrean. Despite lots of action and adventure, the heart of this book is internal, and the opening let me know right away that I'd enjoy being in Sym's head.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

...And the first line of To Say Nothing of the Dog confused the hell out of me--I felt like I'd just been dumped at fast-forward speed into the middle of a very urgent scene--which, of course, I was-- thinking, "What's a verger? What's a bird stump??" Etc. Then later, when I found out what who Mr. Spivens was, I went, "WTH??" and had to go back and reread.

But what a fun, rollicking ride it was.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, interesting, interesting. *strokes chin* Would you recommend TSNotD (oh dear, that's an unfortunate acronym), Checkers?

[viviolo.livejournal.com]

"Anyway, I said savagely to myself as I tried to lift a large and very clumsy suitcase down from the baggage rack, anyway, it is my father's old home, and I've always liked antiques, and I suppose an ancestral house is always more interesting than--"Oh, drat it! Ouch!"

This opening forever secured my love for Peggy Grahame from The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope.

Off the top of my head, I love the opening lines for A Wrinkle in Time ("It was a dark and stormy night,") A Ring of Endless Light ("I saw him for the first time at the funeral,") and more recently, The Graveyard Book ("There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.")

Aaaaand here's the delightful opening paragraph from Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. Clearly I am in a nostalgic YA/Children's lit. mood?

"Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable. The climate was unremarkable. The knights kept their armor brightly polished mainly for show--it had been centuries since a dragon had come east. There were the usual periodic problems with royal children and uninvited fairy godmothers, but they were always the sort of thing that could be cleared up by finding the proper prince or princess to marry the unfortunate child a few years later. All in all, Linderwall was a very prosperous and pleasant place.

Cimorene hated it."

[adalanne.livejournal.com]

*claps hands together excitedly* Oh this is a topic near and dear to my heart. At the agency I work at, we ask for the first 5 pages of the writers manuscripts, and you would be surprised how many people waste that. A good book, I feel, starts with a good opening line and then compels you on from there; you have no choice to read on because it's so good from the start.

From The Demon's Lexicon:
"The pipe under the sink was leaking again. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that Nick kept his favorite sword under the sink."
-Plumbing and weaponry? I'm sold! Such a wonderful, 'Wait, what?' moment.

From Third Man Out:
"I almost asked John Rutka if somebody had shot him in the foot--I knew plenty of people who'd have loved to--but before I could, he gave me a look of astonishment and said, 'I've been shot. One of them actually shot me.'"
-This made me laugh out loud on the subway. Not only does it let us know that our protagonist is snarky, but having his snarky quip cut off by the fact that his quip is true is just brilliant.

From The Big Splash:
"He approached me as I made my way into the caf for lunch. He was small and wiry, with a face that would've been more at home on a rodent. His jaw moved slowly and with great purpose as it worked over a piece of fruit gum, the kind that gave off a sickeningly sweet smell but lost its flavor after three chews. His name was Joey Renoni, a.k.a. 'the Hyena,' and I knew who he worked for."
-The author's brilliance shines here. The tone is so very detective noir, but the "caf" and the gum give you just enough hint that there's something else going on here (in case you didn't see the cover). It's a few more paragraphs before it explicitly states this takes place in middle school, but that's the brilliance. So understated, yet so hilarious.

From The Gun Seller:
"Imagine that you have to break someone's arm.
"Right or left, doesn't matter. The point is that you have to break it, because if you don't...well, that doesn't matter either. Let's just say bad things will happen if you don't."
-God, if it wouldn't take up so much room, I'd type out the whole first page, because it is brilliant. It plays with and against expectations so wonderfully that it'll leave you dizzy.

From There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom:
"Bradley Chalkers sat at his desk in the back of the room--last seat, last row. No one sat at the desk next to him or at the one in front of him. He was an island."
-I don't know if this is as compelling an opening on the first read, because I first read it at age 9, but it just breaks my heart. You know so much about Bradley from that, and it also captures the humorous pathos that pervades throughout the book. Louis Sachar is a god of children's book writing.

From Good Omens:
Separate page, enormous text: "In the beginning"
Next page, book starts: "It was a nice day."
-Guh. Okay, it's Terry Pratchett (and Gaiman, but mostly Pterry) so you know it's brilliant, but that there, the playing against expectation, taking the most well-known opening 3 words and juxtaposing them with the most banal phrase to come up in awkward conversations? *is dead from brilliance*

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

TSNotD is a marvellous book, and I highly recommend it. *prods Checkers to chime in with her recommendation*

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Nobody's done Howl's Moving Castle yet?

In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility actually exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.
Sophie Hatter was the eldest of three sisters. She was not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success...


Bloomability, by Sharon Creech:

In my first life, I lived with my mother, and my older brother and sistster, Crick and Stella, and with my father when he wasn't on the road. My father was a trucker, or sometimes a mechanic, or a picker, a plucker or a painter. He called himself a Jack-of-all-trades (Jack was his real name), but sometimes there wasn't any trade in whatever town we were living in, so off he would go in search of a job somewhere else.

And, of course, The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley:

She scowled at her glass of orange juice. To think that she had been delighted when she first arrived here--was it only three months ago?--with the prospect of fresh orange juice every day. But she had been eager to be delighted; this was to be her home, and she wanted badly to like it, to be grateful for it--to behave well, to make her brother proud of her and Sir Charles and Lady Amelia pleased with their generosity.


This is so much fun. :D

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

And you realize how dangerous this is. I've read, I dunno, probably more than half of those books whose first lines have been put up here, but now I really want to read all those that I haven't read yet.

But theres this thing called homework. It gets in the way of alot of things. *sigh*

[octopirock.livejournal.com]

I'm also biased because I read There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom when I was 10, but I do remember that being an amazingly resonant first sentence.

Opening Paragraphs of the Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

First the Colors.
Then the humans.
That's usually how I see things.
Or at least, how I try.

***HERE IS A SMALL FACT***
You are going to die.

I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

***REACTION TO THE***
AFOREMENTIONED FACT
Does this worry you?
I urge you--don't be afraid.
I'm nothing if not fair.




Ok, that was alot, but I just love the narration in this book. It's so strange, but it works.
And I haven't even finished reading the book yet. I WILL SOON.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I've been reading the first few lines of The Graveyard Book to anyone who will listen--whole classes of students, sometimes. It's fabulous.

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately. The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet."

*chills*

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

*chiming*

Oh yes, I lovedlovedloved that book. It's one I'll read over and over, I'm sure.

[foxglove-chant.livejournal.com]

To stray a little from the fantasy genre, one of my all-time favourite first lines is from L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables - partly because she successfully breaks so many rules of writing, and partly because it's so evocative of the setting and the character. Here:

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 has its sources 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.

Re: Opening Paragraphs of the Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, reading it now. Almost finished!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY ADORE THAT BOOK.

Connie Willis is an odd author for me -- I either love what she writes with a passion or hate it with equal fervor. But TSNotD is my most loved of everything she's written so far, and I would recommend it unconditionally to anyone.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved The White Darkness! Airborn, too (as did my oldest son when I read the Airborn trilogy out loud to him).

[hapaxnym.livejournal.com]

Anytime I play this game, I always cite my absolute favorite:

"The man who was not Terrence O'Grady had come quietly."

from AGENT OF CHANGE by Lee / Miller.

Other people have cited other favorites, but I can't go without mentioning:

"If I had cared to live, I would have died."

from SILVERLOCK by John Myers Myers, aka The Best Book Ever, Really.

[(Anonymous)]

"Far as I'm concern it began with a sophomore intent on taking a dive from his parents' second story suburban home"
Playing It Cool by Joaquin Dorfman

"In the beginning there were thirty-six of them, thirty-six droplets of life so tiny that Eduardo could only see them under a mircoscope. He studied them anxiously in the darkened room." House of the Scorpion Nancy Farmer

"I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and narrowly avoided retching from the sharp, well-known stench that surrounded me" Hawksong Ameila Atwater Rhodes

These are all books I completely lOVE and recommend to anyone I meet!