Great Opening Lines - Lines that make me wonder, ponder, gag, smile and laugh.(part 2)

10. "It was a pleasure to burn."
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
WHAT?!

9. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great advice from a father. I have since added it to my list of wise sayings.

8. Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard. "Stop!" cried the groaning old man at last, "Stop! I did not drag my father beyond this tree."
The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein
Karma!

7. "You could see the blood. It was darker than you thought. It was all on the ground outside Chicken Joe's. It just felt crazy... You wanted to touch.....If you cross the line you'll turn to dust...The dead boy's mamma was guarding the blood."
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
The entire first page is brilliant.

6. "The story so far: In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Tell me how you can drop this book now.

Great Opening Lines - Lines that make me wonder, ponder, gag, smile and laugh.(part 1)

There are so many great opening lines in literature that it took me several days and many nights to pick 15 of the ones I like best. I could give you a thousand and one of them, but that's quite a lot and deserves to be in a book of its own, not a blog post. So here I'll just list 15 of my absolute favourites that drew me into the books they opened.

15. "In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines."

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Because it makes me think of Paris and then what are twelve little girls doing in straight lines?  Altogether a wonderful children's classic.

14. "Call me Ishmael."
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Okay I will.

13. "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling
A very fun opening.


12. "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
One of the truest statements I know.

11. "Master was a little crazy; he had spent too many years reading books overseas, talked to himself in his office, did not always return greetings, and had too much hair."

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Go on...