What is your favorite opening line from a novel?

1. 73

   wayne barrettposted 11 years ago

   What is your favorite opening line from a novel?
   
   My favorite is, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed." From "The Gunslinger" by Stephen King.

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2. 60

   MickSposted 11 years ago

   'It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen'.
   
   Orwell - 1984

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   1. 73

      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Classic! It was lines like that that showed me as youngster that I could think outside the box.

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3. 61

   embarrett91posted 11 years ago

   Well you just gave away my answer, Dad!

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      bizarrett81posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I was going to say the exact same thing!!!

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      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I guess great minds think alike  :-)  (that would be you and Beth, of course)

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4. 94

   FatFreddysCatposted 11 years ago

   "In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a great deal of people angry and is widely considered to be a bad move." - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams

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   1. 73

      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I've seen this movie but never read the book. I have seen other quotes from it lately so was thinking I might check it out.

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5. 68

   Theater girlposted 11 years ago

   "Happy families are all alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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   1. 73

      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This is one of those that I have told myself to read many times but just never got around to it. Now I have further inspiration.

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      Theater girlposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Go for it! It is so worth it!!!!

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      Beth Beardallposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I love that novel. It's a great read. Tolstoy is wonderful.

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6. 58

   baygirl33posted 11 years ago

   My favorite is " It was the best of times;it was the worst of times"
   Dickens.

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   1. 73

      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Another great classic!

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7. 86

   ajwrites57posted 11 years ago

   
   
   "Call me Ishmael."--Moby Dick!
   
   Photo: By I. W. Taber
   commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMoby_Dick_final_chase.jpg

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   1. 73

      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      ( ; I've been waiting for this one! Almost used it myself.

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      ajwrites57posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      It was the first line that popped into my head! "Marley was dead: to begin with." - A Christmas Carol, was the second one and the line from Tale of Two Cities was third.

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8. 60

   duffsmomposted 11 years ago

   "It was a dark and stormy night."
   
   First line of Wrinkle in Time by M. L'engel.  A great kid's book but I still read it and love it!

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   1. 73

      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I've heard of it but never read it. I will have to check it out.

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9. 60

   Sunny Riverposted 11 years ago

   "In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three."
   Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

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      wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Sunny. Another one that I have heard of but have not read.

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10. 92

    Music-and-Art-45posted 11 years ago

    Two immediately come to mind:
    
    "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude
    
    "A screaming comes across the sky." - Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow

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    1. 73

       wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you for the imput, and I would really like to check out your Hub since I am a fellow artist and musician.

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11. 69

    uNicQueposted 11 years ago

    This isn't so much a "line" but it is my favorite opening two paragraphs. It is from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, and I always found it so vivid and powerful:
    
    "He stood naked at the edge of a cliff. The lake lay far below him. A frozen explosion of granite burst in flight to the sky over motionless water. The water seemed immovable, the stone flowing. The stone had the stillness of one brief moment in battle when thrust meets thrust and the currents are held in a pause more dynamic than motion. The stone glowed, wet with sunrays.
    
    The lake below was only a thin steel ring that cut the rocks in half. The rocks went on into the depth, unchanged. They began and ended in the sky. So that the world seemed suspended in space, an island floating on nothing, anchored to the feet of the man on the cliff."

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       wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       That is a great opening...but I think you were just captured by, "He stood naked..."   : )

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12. 60

    Dog Maposted 11 years ago

    "It all started with the new television." opening line of "She's Come Undone" By: Wally Lamb. Love the book.

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    1. 73

       wayne barrettposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Hm, this is a new one on me. I'll have to keep it in mind.

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13. 0

    Beth Beardallposted 11 years ago

    My favourite right now is from Dante's Divine Comedy. 
    
    "Halfway along the road we have to go, I found myself obscured in a great forest, bewildered, and I knew I had lost the way."
    
    I have to admit I didn't read the whole book, but the first line caught my attention!

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14. 82

    annartposted 10 years ago

    'It was the day my grandmother exploded.'  The Crow Road, Iain Banks.  Grabs you at the start and is a great read.  What a good question!

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