tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post826128567000325734..comments2023-10-10T20:43:00.969-04:00Comments on Books and Chocolate: Favorite First Lines From BooksKaren K.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13483190930383406559noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-21244705298118646412010-08-27T10:37:33.841-04:002010-08-27T10:37:33.841-04:00The TOTC opening line has always been a favourite ...The TOTC opening line has always been a favourite of mine but here are a couple more that have always stuck with me:<br /><br />1. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."<br /><br />J.R.R. Tolkien - The Hobbit<br /><br />2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."<br /><br />George Orwell - 1984<br /><br />3. "Marley was dead, to begin with."<br /><br />Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol<br /><br />4. "The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."<br /><br />Ian FLeming - Casino RoyaleFalaisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01296217731383114462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-77028614521073257392010-08-25T09:43:39.187-04:002010-08-25T09:43:39.187-04:00I love your first lines as well as the last line f...I love your first lines as well as the last line from TOTC...am tempted to think about and write a post of my own on similar lines, only most of mine would be a copy of yours :)<br /><br />Landed up here on your site from Amanda's Bleak House readalong pageAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-37995141388062114002010-08-20T22:10:00.510-04:002010-08-20T22:10:00.510-04:00JoAnn -- I love the first line of Anna Karenina, b...JoAnn -- I love the first line of Anna Karenina, but the rest of the book made me crazy so I couldn't bring myself to include it. Same with Mrs. Dalloway -- I have a hard time with stream-of-consciousness. <br /><br />Jenny -- I looked back at a lot of my favorites and I was surprised that so many DIDN'T have great first lines.Karenlibrarianhttp://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-11109898583394842122010-08-20T09:18:26.775-04:002010-08-20T09:18:26.775-04:00I love your choices! One very unexpected side effe...I love your choices! One very unexpected side effect of reading book blogs for me has been that I now pay more attention to opening lines. They can really set the tenor of the whole book.Jennyhttp://jennysbooks.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-80569784658678433912010-08-20T09:16:48.807-04:002010-08-20T09:16:48.807-04:00My favorite first lines would definitely include n...My favorite first lines would definitely include numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, and 11. The I'd add Mrs. Dalloway, like Amanda did, and Anna Karenina's<br />"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."JoAnnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13691864361197071517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-52689485232503414312010-08-20T02:49:15.578-04:002010-08-20T02:49:15.578-04:00I enjoyed your choices, although not familiar with...I enjoyed your choices, although not familiar with all of the books.<br /><br />Here is one that is a bit of a cheat since it comes from a first chapter, yet the book has a prologue.<br /><br />''I have been here before,' I said; I had been there before; with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were creamy with meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer; it was a day of peculiar splendour, and although I had been there so often, in so many moods, it was to that first visit that my heart returned on this, my latest.'<br /><br />Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited.<br /><br />It's so long that I don't remember it, but it resonates with me and I remember the 'spirit' of it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-57891763348401012182010-08-19T19:41:02.443-04:002010-08-19T19:41:02.443-04:00Kristen -- I also love the first line of David Cop...Kristen -- I also love the first line of David Copperfield, but I had to limit myself to only one Dickens.<br /><br />Amanda -- I like the one from The Bell Jar also. In library school we played Banned Book Jeapordy, and first lines was one of the categories. The line from the Bell Jar was one of the questions and nobody got it.Karenlibrarianhttp://karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-82282554216998319092010-08-19T16:23:07.265-04:002010-08-19T16:23:07.265-04:00I don't remember first lines any more than I r...I don't remember first lines any more than I remember others, but these stand out for me in particular:<br /><br />1. It was love at first sight. (Catch-22)<br /><br />2. 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)<br /><br />3. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. (Metamorphosis)<br /><br />4. Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. (Mrs. Dalloway)<br /><br />Crap, there was another one, but I can't remember it anymore! I lost it while typing up these others. Ah well.Amandahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07026099426503180472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8027299943447728658.post-39791171759089713002010-08-19T15:08:45.744-04:002010-08-19T15:08:45.744-04:00Great choices! The first lines of Tale of Two Citi...Great choices! The first lines of Tale of Two Cities are wonderful, aren't they? I always find myself reciting them in my head.Kristen M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02335598194501733541noreply@blogger.com