Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

The other bookworm thread had me going upstairs and checking out the titles of books to recommend to others. Picked out a few and started to read the odd one again and it reminded me of an article I read in the Guardian on-line recently with a pole of then ten best ever first lines in fiction.
I can't remember the whole list but it featured Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities among others. I wonder what the Accywebbers bookworms will come up with as memorable openings to a book.

I will begin with the opening lines of "The Horse Whisperer" by Nicholas Evans:
"There was death at it's beginning as there would be death again at it's end. "
it continues:
"Though whether it was some fleeting shadow of this that passed across the girl's dreams and woke her on that least likely of mornings she would never know. All she knew, when she opened her eyes, was that the world was somehow altered."

Not one of the great classics of literature but still a great start.:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

How about 1984:
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Or Kafka's Metamorphosis, which paints an image that has always stayed with me:

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking"

Also like "Mad Magazine's" opening for "Moby Dick": "Call me Fishmeal";)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Nice one - don't like insects though so am not drawn to read Metamorphosis from this.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

This one is bound to come up; so ... "It was a dark and stormy night ... " Poor Bulwer-Lytton.;)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Haven't read I am a Camera - interesting start though...

How about: "I will not drink more than fourteen alcohol units a week"
From Bridget Jones Diary:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I consume the book and then forget it - It always gives me a chance to re-read again almost as if it was new....so I cannot give you any memorable first lines.

Do any of you re-read books?

I don't mind re-reading a book by choice, but I do hate it when publishers change their book covers, and I think I have got my hands on something new to find that I have been duped.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Not the best as such, but certainly intriguing.

In my late teens, I was introduced to malt whisky by a fellow journalist in Edinburgh.

Michael Jackson, "Malt Whisky companion 5th edition" :)

It's more a reference book than a sit down & read.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Mmmm ... that's an image that stayed with you:eek: Far be it from me to suggest some serious psychiatric help; but ..... ;)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

That could have been me writing that post, though I very rarely re-read books, too many new ones to go at.

Totally agree about changing book covers... it's a menace!

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Think the quote is from Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood... which became the stage play I am a Camera... which became the musical Cabaret.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Don't know if you're lowering or raising the tone with that :rolleyes:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I forget them too Margaret which is why I'm up and down to my bookshelves now! The Horse Whisperer I just remember gripping me from the start -the first chapter and the accident with the horses is brilliantly described.

I re-read a lot of favourites -my all time favourite romantic re-read is September by Rosamund Pilcher :o I regularly read it in that month it follows on the story of one of the characters from the Shell-seekers. I also read another of hers around Christmas called Winter Solstice -both are what i consider to be "Comfort reading"!! They all live happily ever after...:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn."

Beauty from the start - hint of menace in the thorn! (O.W.'s Dorian Gray)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I often re-read books, usually after a long enough interlude. Another evocative introduction is :-

In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare,sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

J.R.R Tolkien "The hobbit"

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Most definitely raising Sue. :) Along with the glass of "Uisge beatha"

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"Developements in the field of electronics have constituted one of the great success stories of this century".

Horowitz and Hill: The Art Of Electronics

I've read that opening line hundreds of times, still not got to the end of the book, some of the pages are well thumbed because there are some explainations I just can't get my head around. As a reference book I suppose it's one of the more interesting.
:enough:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I'll drink to that! :):)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Ooops ... sorry about that .... should have put in the title, my fault:o

Oh ... and I always re-read my fav books ... they are like old friends. I always find new ways of reading them ... often, something obvious that I had missed. Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy, Ray Bradbury's short story "The Smile" ... "Catch 22" ... "Goodby to All That" ... "Canticle for Liebowitz" ... "Dune" ... "Tristram Shandy" ... "Egil's Saga" ... maybe I could be reading something new, but I love getting together with old friends, esp. ones that don't raid my fridge and drink all my beer.:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Good one -haven't re-read it in years!:)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Light reading for bedtime - would put me to sleep immediately:rolleyes::D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Is this limited to prose fiction? There are some great opening lines to poems and plays; one I find hard to resist: "An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king." Shelley, "England in 1819".

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

In that case allow me:

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight"
EBB

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Aaaargh! Looks like another trip over to Amazon, haven't read it in years, let someone borrow my copy, usual thing happened, meanwhile, might just go to bed with 'The Lord Of The Rings', (ooerr missus), the same person wanted to borrow that at the same time, glad I said they could have it after they returned 'Hobbit' or I'd have lost that as well.
http://thebutterflydiaries.files.wor...itt-hobbit.jpg

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed

'The Dark Tower' Series(my fave books) - Stephen King

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I could lend you a copy in Italian - my son's, I read it last while at Uni., quite a while ago now.:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

O.K. it could go on my bookshelf next to the 'art of electronics' and other books I either have no chance or no inclination to finish.
:cool:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

This one's in my bookshelf and has an interesting start:
"Julien Barneuve died at 3.28 on the afternoon of August 18, 1943. It had taken him twenty-three minutes exactly to die, the time between the fire starting and his last breath being sucked into his scorched lungs. He had not known his life was going to end that day, athough he suspected it might happen."
Another of Iain Pears, The Dream of Scipio, which I would recommend.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Ah, "The Dark Tower".

My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the working of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that purs'd and scor'd
Its edge, at one more victim gain'e thereby.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came: EBB's husband.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Thought you were leaving me a little amuse-bouche to get my teeth into Eric...

If I were to re-read any books, Catch-22 would be one... and Catcher in the Rye another. I read Canticle for Leibowitz aout 35 years ago, remember v little about it so perhaps I should go for that as well. Not really a SF fan though.

Two books I do reread at Christmas time are The Country Child and A Traveller in Time, both by Alison Uttley. They are supposed to be for children but I find them very evocative of times past and reading the chapters about Christmas are what I need to get me into the spirit of the season, which I otherwise find very difficult. Another children's book which I heave read over and over is The Woolpack by Cynthia Harnett, a story about the wool trade in the Cotswolds in the 15th century. I prefer historical fiction for children as the adult stuff tends to come in rather weightier tomes which really put me off!

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

If we're going for poetry, Ozymandias by Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land

The imagery in the poem, of ancient statues in the desert, has stayed with me rather like the image conjured up by the opening of Metamorphosis.

I also go for Byron's The Eve of Waterloo, part of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage but also published separately:

There was a sound of revelry by night...

describing a ball followed by hasty preparations for the battle the following day, which of course ends in slaughter.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Try to read them at least once a year, "The Children of Húrin", "The Silmarillion", "The hobbit" & "Lord of the rings" All from Tolkien. Pretty heavy going in places, but worth the effort & I think the re-reading helps things fall into place more easily.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

A long time ago I bought the Tolkien Encyclopedia; it helps with all the names and places. It also has maps which are helpful as the geography of Middle Earth seems to change with every new "age".

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

As for lighter reading,

September, the 3rd 1939. The last minutes of peace ticking away. Father and I were watching Mother dig our air-raid shelter. "She's a great little woman," said Father. "And getting smaller all the time," I added. Two minutes later, a man called Chamberlain who did Prime Minister impressions spoke on the wireless;

Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. Spike Milligan, the rest of the series are also worth a look. :)

Rommel, Gunner who ?
Monty: His part in my victory.
Mussolini: His part in my downfall.
Goodbye Soldier.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Oh son...I read all those books...must be thirty years ago.
I laughed so much....what a comic genius he was...and me with my pictorial imagination.

If you are going through a 'brown phase'(you know the kind of thing - you plant pansies and all that comes up is manure) or are a bit fed up with what life is dishing out to you, I would heartily recommend them.
They will make your sides ache and your eyes leak!

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible. But it is never easy."

Ian Mc Ewan: On Chesil Beach

Brilliant, touching and sad. Pocket sized book, great read.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Love Ozymandias ... has a great last line too ... but if we start getting into that:eek:

Also "Sailing to Byzantium" ... "That is no country for old men." ... even tho' he got it from a movie title.;) And that's another can of literary worms ... movie and book titles filched from lit. "Gone With the Wind" ... "Splendor in the Grass" ... "Look Homeward Angel" ... "Soup to Nuts" (had to get the Stooges in somewhere; what's a thread without a click?:rolleyes:" Arrrgh ... enough.

And now that I'm on a roll: Susie, go for the tomes ... and when you finish one you can use it to stand on so that you can reach stuff on your kitchen shelves:hidewall:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Very cheeky, Eric!:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

You are right though - the possibilities are infinite.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Ain't that the truth:D But I did resist the temptation in another thread .... ;)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Yeah, you really made me wait for that one... :mad8::sad8::wink8:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I read the Hobbit in early 80's a great book, havn't managed to read Lord of the Rings though! :rolleyes:

Just picked up copy of "Slumdog Millionaire"...

"I have been arrested. For winning a quiz show. They came for me late last night, when even the stray dogs had gone off to sleep..."

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"I was sick, sick unto death, with that long agony, and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me."

Edgar Allen Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Sounds a laugh a minute book!:rolleyes:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I can't remember any first lines from the book I am about to tell you about...only thing I can remember is it is very funny.......don't read it in a public place. Puckoon by Spike Milligan.....I read it years ago and it had me laughing out loud on the top deck of Blackburn Corporation bus.......I think they were about to bring in the fellers in white coats, until they saw me in the nurses uniform :).

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

A laugh out loud book for me is Kate Atkinson's "Behind the scenes at the Museum" - if you've never read it Margaret it's got everything -including an unexpected twist at the end.
Otherwise anything by Mavis Cheek -very cheeky and makes you laugh.:)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

First line of Behind the scenes at the Museum:
"I exist! I am conceived to the chimes of midnight on the clock on the mantelpiece in the room across the hall. The clock once belonged to my gt-grandmother (a woman called Alice) and its tired chime counts me into the world. I'm begun on the first stroke an finished on the last when my father rolls off my mother and is plunged into a dreamless sleep, thanks to the 5 pints of John Smith's Best Bitter he had drunk in the Punchbowl with his friends...."

(Ruby -the conceived one, tells the story of her family from when Alice abandons it for a french photographer through to her own growing up above a pet shop in York. Ruby is born, to mother Bunty, while her father is in the Hare and Hounds in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married!!)

For Mavis Cheek -just checked some of my titles and one is "Aunt Margaret's Lover" -could be a good one to try Mrs. P!;):D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling. My mother liked to wrestle."

Oranges are not the only Fruit -Jeanette Winterson

Great start to a favourite book of mine -I really identify with this book as it's set when I was growing up in Accy. I have the video of the dramatisation which is really good too -watch it when I'm feeling homesick!:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I have just been reading the reviews of the books you recommended ...and there are some definite possibilities there for me to try.

Didn't like Jeanette Winterson - Oranges are not the only fruit....it struck me a being a 'mardy' write. I think I only really read it because it was set in Accrington......I was not impressed and can't bring myself to read anything else written by this woman(you never get a second chance to make a first impression).....I know, I should be more forgiving!

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

And if that one doesn't have you giggling, try "Premature Burial" ... you will be rolling in the aisles.;)

Or how about: "Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported - hanging high above us .... ". Harlan Ellison, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" ... if this doesn't tickle your funny bone, nothing will;):D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, I've read it many times and never tire of it.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I couldn't put "Oranges..." down it was really compelling, the writing was excellent - but I agree with you on the 2nd count - I can't read her later stuff.

"This happened in 1932, when the state penitentary was still at Cold Mountain. And the electric chair was there, too, of course."

The Green Mile by Steven King.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

isn't it starnge how one person finds something compelling while another finds it a bit mardy....it wouldn't do for us all to like the same things......variety being the spice of life.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him."

1984 George Orwell.
Also

"Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but
was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. With the ring of light
from his lantern dancing from side to side, he lurched across the yard,
kicked off his boots at the back door, drew himself a last glass of beer
from the barrel in the scullery, and made his way up to bed, where
Mrs. Jones was already snoring."

Animal Farm, also George Orwell.
Neither as dark as Poe:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

One of my favourite first lines of any novel.

One morning when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams,he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.

Metamorphosis Franz Kafka

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Deja vu, BG, Bernard - look at my Post 2. Bernard that must be a different translation. I prefer the word insect, it gives me a better picture.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Sorry about that Susie, I hadn't noticed the early posts. I agree with you insect is a better word. As you say it gaves you a better picture.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon." William Golding Lord of the Flies. When we read this at school I remember being the only one out of the class who said she'd enjoyed it at the end -same with Animal Farm!

I have another of Golding's books "the Paper men" in my bookshelf and th opening lines make me think of Eric for some reason (no offence Eric -it's a bit autobiographical on his part i think;))
"I knew at once it was one of those nights. The drink, such as it had been, was dying out of my brain and leaving a kind of sediment of irritation, vague discomfort and even remorse. It had not been - no, indeed-a bender or booze-up. By the excercise of special pleading I could have persuaded other people that my evening's consumption had been no more than reasonable with regard to the duties of a host: an English author entertaining a professor of English Literature from overseas." :D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

This is another one i was thinking might be up Margaret's street short-listed for Booker Prize 1995: Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

"It was death that began it all and another death that led us on."

Late 14th century, war and plague, Nicholas Barber, a young wayward cleric joins a group of travelling players -murder and mystery -brilliant!

This is my 2000th post -fanfare?!!:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Lord of the flies....now that takes me back.
loved it

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Last one , then i have to take the car to be MOT'd!
(Am supposed to have been working on my own writing but have been side-tracked and am in need of inspiration or a kick up...)!

"The woman walked round the corner of the house and saw a snake consuming a large Tuscan toad.
The victim was motionless, looking about it only slightly puzzled, blinking, whilst the snake attacked it's leg. The toad had the apearence of a fat busineesman being done some sexual service by a hard-faced girl on the make and doing his best not to notice. The snake, with it's sleek, shiny head and curled body, was long and smartly patterned in grey and black."
John Mortimer: Summer's Lease (from 1988)
(And summer's lease hath all too short a date Sonnet XVIII, Shakespeare is the epigraph)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Bit savage! Most of the books they make you read at school are hated by students - i was one of the luckier ones who liked most of them -hated Dickens though because the teacher (traditional Miss Bailey) wanted you to memorize passages and i was never good at that. Made it hard work but the stories are really good.
A lot of teachers kill Shakespeare but we were lucky to have a Mrs Bradshaw who was a fantastic teacher and brought it alive. ::)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Takes me back to 5R, Accy Grammar. JAB trying to keep us under control. Always had problems with the book's ending though.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Hated books at school - loved plays and poetry. Books were mainly Dickens, Austen, Jane Eyre - still can't stand Dickens or Bronte. Nothing 20th century at all. Fortunately our O level text was Northanger Abbey - nice and short, managed to read that otherwise I wouldn't have passed. Got my lowest O level mark in Eng Lit, highest in Eng Lang! Love all Austen now though.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I can't stand Dickens, not fond of Jane Austen, Bronte sisters leave me cold...in fact all of the traditional writers I find hard to read....I think I must be a philistine.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

During the 1970s and 80s I read nothing but the classics. During that period I think I must have bought everything published by Penguin English Library and Penguin Classics. For space reasons, and because the room they were kept in smelled like a musty old book shop, I have now given most away to charity; however, I have kept my Dickens books.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

No ... not a philistine ... just born and raised in a different time. In terms of the novel .... it doesn't really come on the scene until 1740, with "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded", which presented major problems for the reader, ones which were brilliantly ridiculed in "Shamela" (1741), probably written by Fielding, although he never admitted authorship. Like modern prose fiction, works from earlier periods follow certain "parochial rules", satisfy various expectations. Some, of course, like some works of pictoral art, or some musical works achieve a sort of timelessness, their popularity sometimes underlined by their survival. If we look at Chaucer, for example, his works survive because he somehow transcends the limitations of his age. One would think that the only guy writing in the late Middle Ages was Chaucer ... well, maybe Langland, and whoever it was who wrote "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" ... but this, of course, isn't true. I think it's time to stop this ramble before I get into a discussion of Cervantes and Aphra Behn:eek::D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Thank you Professor Slater! I liked the Green Knight...

I've got lots of unread books on my shelves, filed in with the ones I have read (I never get rid of books!). I've turned them upside down so I know where they are. One day I might get round to reading Chaucer, Malory etc etc. Trouble is I keep buying new books - well not new, usually secondhand, but you know what I mean...

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I liked Henry Fielding's Tom Jones........and Miguel Cervantes Don Quixote.........so I don't quite know why I can't get into these other classics.

I hate parting with books too......although I have given quite a few away(most of my text books have now been passed on).

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I like the "Green Knight" too ... it reminds me of "Star Trek" ... but I won't get into that. Chaucer is fun ... well the "Tales" are ... always reminds me that we humans haven't changed much since the fourteenth century. Well, maybe they smelled worse ... but their football games were more fun:D Even Langland points to a world with which we are familiar, if one looks at it in a certain way (and, it gets me back on topic, with first lines;)).

A feir feld full of folk fond I ther bitwene,
Of alle maner of men, the mene and the riche,
Worchinge and wandringe, as the world asketh.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"Tom Jones" ... apart from "Pamela", maybe ... was the first great mega hit. Today they would be marketing t-shirts and stuff ... and the movie rights:eek: ... so, it's not a surprise that you would like it. It has that time-transcending quality. The first printing run was 10,000 copies! And there are some fascinating textual problems which arose from the high demand. (However, I doubt there is the same demand for a discourse on them;):D). The reason you can't get into the "other classics" is because they were not written for someone living in the twenty-first century. It's not that you are a philistine (altho' Matthew Arnold might disagree), it's that the works are inaccessible, fit only for pedants and students.;)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Still got all my chemistry text books from uni! How sad is that - but a lot of the info will be out of date now so I doubt if anyone will want them.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I was born into the twentieth century...and I do like books set in the times of the tudors(maybe I lived back then and have been reincarnated).......and Tom Jones isn't set in the twenty first century.......I suppose it is set in the times that some of the traditional classics were set.(maybe I have got the wrong angle on what you are trying to point out to me)

Funnily enough, though I am not overkeen on dramatisations of books...I thought the film of Tom Jones(with Albert Finney and Sussanah Yorke)lived up to my own imaginings of the characters......Squire Allworthy was spot on for me too. It could have had something to do with the fact that I had a soft spot for Albert Finney(it was my bed :D)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I don't think it is important where the story is set ... books, "Dark Fire" (2004) for example, can be set in one time and written today ... or, at least yesterday. "Tom Jones", written and set in the eighteenth century seems, for some reason (suggestions welcome:D) to transcend its age ... timeless. Things in it, resonate with us today. Or maybe it's just a rollicking good story. There are lots of books like that ... I think they call them "classics" ... you get the same thing with music ... listen to any classic rock station and you will hear Eagles, CCR, Three Dog Night, Elvis, Beatles, ... but not too much Bay City Rollers. ;) But this is getting away from the topic. So here is an opening line: "Jeremiah was a bullfrog":D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Back in the 70's when TV was limited, they had excellent ghost stories by MR James shown on Christmas Eve or around that time, still very effective when shown a couple of years ago.

Here is first paragraph of one called "A Warning to the Curios."

"The place on the east coast which the reader is asked to consider is Scaburgh. It is not very different now from what I remember it to have been when I was a child. Marshes intersected by dykes to the south, recalling the early chapters of Great Expectations; flat fields to the north, merging into heath; heath, fir woods, and, above all, gorse, inland. A long sea-front and a street: behind that a spacious church of flint, with a broad, solid western tower and a peal of six bells. How well I remember their sound on a hot Sunday in August, as our party went slowly up the white, dusty slope of road towards them, for the church stands at the top of a short, steep incline. They rang with a flat clacking sort of sound on those hot days, but when the air was softer they were mellower too. The railway ran down to its little terminus farther along the same road. There was a gay white windmill just before you came to the station, and another down near the shingle at the south end the town, and yet others on higher ground to the north. There were cottages of bright red brick with slate roofs... but why do I encumber you with these commonplace details? The fact is that they come crowding to the point of the pencil when it begins to write of Seaburgh. I should like to be sure that I had allowed the right ones to get on to the paper. But I forgot. I have not quite done with the word-painting business yet."....

'Nathaniel Ager is my name and England is my nation,

Seaburgh is my dwelling-place and Christ is my Salvation,

When I am dead and in my Grave, and all my bones are rotton,

I hope the lord will think on me when I am quite forgotton.'


"

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Read the whole short story - "A Warning to the Curios." here;

"A Warning to the Curious" by M. R. James | The Literary Gothic

:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I have kept my copy of Stryer -the biochemistry "bible" it was in the 1980's it will be way out of date now!
When I moved over to Italy in '87 I sold off lots of my books and records -needed the cash and to off-load some weight. I regret it now as I left behind some "old friends" which I've not read since, books like Brideshead Re-visited and I, Clavdivs come to mind, among others.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Watched the film version of A S Byatt's Possession yesterday evening - a lovely treat even though I've sen it several times. The book is brilliant -though possibly one of the hardest i've ever read. It is a kind of literary mystery/love story set in the 1880's and 1980's -there is a lot of poetry woven into it as it follows the discovery of a hidden affair between two Victorian poets. The two modern academics who follow the trail also have their own relationship examined in parallel.
First lines:
"The book was thick and black and covered with dust. It's boards were bowed and creaking; it had been maltreated in it's own time. It was bandaged about and about with white tape, tied in a neat bow. The librarian handed it to Roland Michell, who was sitting waiting for it in the Reading Room of the London Library. It had been exhumed fom locked safe No.5 where it usually stood between Pranks of priapus and The Grecian Way of love. It was ten o'clock in the morning, one day in September 1986. Roland had the small single table he liked best, behind a pillar, with the clock over the fireplace nevertheless in full view. To his right was a high sunny window, through which you could see the high green leavesof St James's Square."

Highly recommend it -not an easy read though!:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Great book, loved it, didn't know there was a film. Have to look out for it.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

It's very good and well cast too:

Jeremy Northam -plays Ash
Jennifer Ehle - Cristobel la Motte
Gwyn Paltrow - Maude Bailey
Aaron Eckhart - Roland Michell

Trevor Eve is also in it...

Worth buying the DVD!:)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Years ago I bought the collected ghost stories of M.R.James from a jumble sale, the stories are all really beautifully written and very evocative of their time.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"There were eight watchers by the beacon on Pendle Hill in Lancashire."

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

:D I love the connection to the poem.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

A Clockwork Orange.

"What's it going to be then,eh?"

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk plus mesto, and you may. O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like...

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Once upon a time....

The choice is yours!:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Short Ghost Stories are excellent - remember the Monkies Paw? Not by MR James though. Do you remember the TV series of them shown at Xmas back in the 70's! :D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Great story:D "When the gods wish to pusnish us, they answer our prayers." That's Wilde, eh.:rolleyes: But I've also heard it somewhere ... I can't be bothered to Google; I try to use my memory sometimes (if you don't use it; you lose it) ... as "When the gods want to punish us, they grant our wishes."

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

This what you're looking for Eric ? :)

Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.Euripides
Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

But there are no gods... :D

That's a bit like the saying - "Be careful what you wish for..." Does anyone know if there is a bit missing from that saying - if so post it.

However that saying by Wilde - is a bit Roman Catholic don't you think? Like nothing good can come to us in life and everything turns sour...

The Monkies Paw though was about a cursed paw that granted a wish at great cost...:eek::eek::eek:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Actually ... I was looking for a Bomber ... found one hiding behind a bunch of Molson Canadian.:D

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

My fridge is Bomberless at the moment, but re-sup will be here in a couple of weeks as Pops is venturing over for his annual ship spotting jaunt up at Cuxhaven. :) In the meantime it's, Gaffel Kolsch/ Spaten Münchner Hell/Draught-flow Guinness (cans) & a wee nippy sweety or several, which quite nicely puts us back on track with the following introduction.

No spirits have stimulated such connoisseurship in recent years as have the Whisk(e)y family.

Michael Jackson, "Whisky the definitive world guide"

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Now I'm into the Canadian ... not a bad brew ... and a couple of shots of Forty Creek .... Now I'm ready for Euripides:cool:

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Have you read Trainspotting? That has a lot of drinking in it... a lot of it's written in Scottish lingo and is hard to read if your not Scottish! ;)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

We have all of the Irvine Welsh books in our house -my eldest son is a big fan and i always buy him the latest one for Xmas or birthday. They are in Italian though -don't know how you translate Scottish to Italian, they must have chosen a dialect - I have never read any of them -not quite my genre.:rolleyes

Now i come to think of it I don't think I've ever watched Trainspotting all the way through either-seen it a bit at a time as my boys have the DVD.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

I didn't have too much trouble with: "Hoo be so ceawnted, sure eno," remarked the forester, who had been listening to their discourse, and who now stepped forward, "boh dunna yo think it. Beleemy, lort abbut, Bess Demdike's too yunk an too protty for a witch.";)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"A gentle knight was pricking on the plain" ... Spenser, "The Faerie Queene". I've had the less than pleasure of introducing undergrads to the joys of Spenser. This always had them giggling.;)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"Lying in bed, I abandoned the facts again and was back in Ambrosia."

The opening sentence of Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse, an excellent book which was filmed with Tom Courtenay playing the title role.

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

Enjoyed the film -never read the book, one to look out for perhaps.

My mum has recently been converted to using the Kindle and keeps telling me I should invest in one! At the moment I'm reading through a lot of DHLawrence and other things for research. When i'm having a moment off I'm reading the companion book to Downton Abbey which is surprisingly interesting and useful!:)

Re: Bookworms:What are the best first lines you've read?
 

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy..." The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Read Billy Liar at school - good book. Elderly people like Kindle because they can increase the font size - which makes it good when your eye sight is decreasing! :eek::rolleyes: