Best opening lines in a book

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acrenda
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Re: Best opening lines in a book

Post by acrenda »

"My mother is a bird. This isn't some William Faulkner stream of consciousness metaphorical crap. My mother. Is literally. A bird"
From The Astonishing Color of After by X.R. Pan, both humorous and striking.
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ajbharrison
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Post by ajbharrison »

“One can never help being born into perfection,”
The Selection by Kiera Cass
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Saqib Zubair
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Post by Saqib Zubair »

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the riverbank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversation?"

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Caroll
Manogna Thumukunta
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Post by Manogna Thumukunta »

'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 anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'

This is the opening line of The Great Gatsby. It has just stuck with me ever since i read this book 2 years ago.
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

”It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”
THE BELL JAR (1963), Sylvia Plath
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

”The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
NEUROMANCER (1984), William Gibson
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

acrenda wrote: 25 Jun 2019, 22:10 "My mother is a bird. This isn't some William Faulkner stream of consciousness metaphorical crap. My mother. Is literally. A bird"
From The Astonishing Color of After by X.R. Pan, both humorous and striking.
Very nice. :lol2:
Thanks for sharing.
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

"In a hole in the ground there 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."
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

"James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death."
Goldfinger - Ian Fleming
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
The War of the Worlds
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13.”
1984, George Orwell
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

“At the end, the bottom, the very worst of it, with the world afire and hell’s flamewinged angels calling him by name, Lee Crane blamed himself.”
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Theodore Sturgeon.
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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LinaMueller
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Post by LinaMueller »

“Since it’s Sunday and it’s stopped raining, I think I’ll take a bouquet of roses to my grave.”
Someone Has Been Disarranging These Roses, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Heart! We will forget him!
You an I, tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging.
I may remember him!

Emily Dickinson
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Nym182
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Post by Nym182 »

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”

Also, Stephen King has an amazing resume concerning opening lines!
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” HST
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Jacqueline Elshabazz
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Post by Jacqueline Elshabazz »

The Courier by GORDON j CAMPBELL


I looked like everyone else But, felt like no one I've met.I didn't mine girlie stuff but, it ranked very low with me. Listening to and playing music under a tree in the woods was way more fun.
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