tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post7683341079228766427..comments2023-09-16T12:49:54.607+01:00Comments on The Sell! Sell! Blog: 100 Best First Lines from NovelsSell! Sell!http://www.blogger.com/profile/10702354938890218799noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-86095432002435822792011-02-21T00:49:41.745+00:002011-02-21T00:49:41.745+00:00"Many years later, as he faced the firing squ..."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."<br /><br />– 100 Years of Solitude<br /><br />It's a wonder: the expanse over time, the odd verb tense, the coincidence of the remarkable and simple nature of frozen water. My favourite.Jameshttp://adhack.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-7364731303971445552011-02-15T13:28:32.702+00:002011-02-15T13:28:32.702+00:00"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge..."We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."<br /><br />- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las VegasDannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-90184426929961511032011-02-03T10:39:17.581+00:002011-02-03T10:39:17.581+00:00Call me IshmaelCall me IshmaelAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-56819595954656436582011-02-02T07:47:15.719+00:002011-02-02T07:47:15.719+00:00I am partial to #38
"All this happened, more...I am partial to #38<br /><br />"All this happened, more or less."<br />- Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Fivejeff kwiatekhttp://jeffKwiatek.posterous.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-62721813097036869072011-02-01T22:26:44.348+00:002011-02-01T22:26:44.348+00:00Everyone loves the first line of 'Pride and Pr...Everyone loves the first line of 'Pride and Prejudice'. But for my money, Austen's Emma is a much better book with a great opener.<br /><br />"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home<br />and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of<br />existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her."MARK HILL - writer guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12236121345582617671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-25177438892941672802011-02-01T18:57:03.642+00:002011-02-01T18:57:03.642+00:00Oh, and this brilliant one from One Of Us, by my f...Oh, and this brilliant one from One Of Us, by my favourite author: <br /><br />"I was in a bar in Ensenada, drinking a warm beer quickly and trying to remind myself that I hadn't murdered anyone, when my alarm clock caught up with me. Little bastard."<br /><br />(technically, it's two lines, but I love it anyway)<br /><br /><br />P.S. The captcha is "prostic" for this post - what the hell is prostic?Johnnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06960902479917322733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-73401739780318152832011-02-01T18:44:17.773+00:002011-02-01T18:44:17.773+00:00"The man in black fled across the desert, and..."The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." <br /><br />The simple, beautiful opening line to Steven King's epic Dark Tower series, which also happens to be the synopsis of the first book. Love it.<br /><br />MASSIVE list here too: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Opening_linesJohnnyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06960902479917322733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-90255480254671166902011-02-01T14:12:47.508+00:002011-02-01T14:12:47.508+00:00I looked it up because I didn't know it by hea...I looked it up because I didn't know it by heart. But I remember reading it well. Tibor Fischer - The Thought Gang.<br /><br />The only advice I can offer, should you wake up vertiginously in a strange flat, with a thoroughly installed hangover, without any of your clothing, without any recollection of how you got there, with the police sledgehammering down the door to the accompaniment of excited dogs, while you are surrounded by bales of lavishly-produced magazines featuring children in adult acts, the only advice I can offer you is to try to be good-humoured and polite.<br /><br />It's hardly short and snappy though is it?Jim Pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-28599288281702595712011-02-01T13:45:10.789+00:002011-02-01T13:45:10.789+00:00I always like Hemingway's six words: “For sale...I always like Hemingway's six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” Not so much of an opening line, as a whole story.David Byrnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16578189057176495894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-51564191656424309672011-02-01T11:35:57.540+00:002011-02-01T11:35:57.540+00:00Maybe the most famous first sentence is the one in...Maybe the most famous first sentence is the one in Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy: <br />"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."Milosnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-32349505619461121172011-02-01T11:33:48.139+00:002011-02-01T11:33:48.139+00:00Marley was dead, to begin with.Marley was dead, to begin with.john p. woodshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04338283092165705431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4169807398234019196.post-27158593609558469212011-02-01T11:29:47.713+00:002011-02-01T11:29:47.713+00:00Totally agree with The Crow Road, poss one of the ...Totally agree with The Crow Road, poss one of the best 1st Chapters ever.<br /><br />But Dickens gets on my wick. It's a fantastic book but the rest of the first chapter gets tiresome, he might have just ended with it was a rabbit, it was a carrot.<br />Great first line but let down by the ramble afterwards.<br /><br />How about some Auster . . .<br /><br />'It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.' - City of Glass<br /><br />Great graphic comic version http://tiny.cc/y626vVue Representshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01581199481112521252noreply@blogger.com