my favorite opening lines

First impressions seem to matter, even on a subconscious level. When I crack open (I mean, gently open the pages of my fragile paperback, hoping not to crease it too bad), the opening sequence of the book is the most anticipation I feel when reading.

Well, that might be an exaggeration, but having a kick-ass opening line makes me close the book again and think about some things. Then we open the book and dive right back in.

Anyway, I have compiled a list of some of my favorite opening lines that I remember from some of my favorite books. Of course, this is in no particular order:

”Take your clothes off."

R.F. Kuang, Poppy War.

I wasn’t expecting it to be that kind of book (spoilers it’s not), so this line caught me off guard. In a funny way because the next line is, “What?” First lines can be simple yet interesting to the reader to see what the heck is happening to this character and what are we going to get into?

"It was a pleasure to burn."

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

This one is just poetic. Reading it as a pre-teen, it felt edgy and cool. Also raises the question of what we are burning. Read on, dear reader ….

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

George Orwell, 1984

Off-putting or do the people in this world honestly have the thirteenth hour? We could be talking military time, of course, but it makes the average person think. Thirteen is an “unlucky” number, so what disaster is about to occur?

‘Where’s Papa going with that axe?’ said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

There is a pig on the front cover. You’re in third grade and read that line. A sense of oh no because the thrill of our reader journey. Fortunately, this book is a pretty positive one, but hey, you had me in that first line.

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.

Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

I remember laughing while reading this. It felt real and relatable. Not much more was needed to draw me in.

There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

We love an uh oh in the beginning. It’s like that guy who said if you show a gun in the first act, it’ll fire by the end. So I thought, there will be a stabbing at least in this book. Let the chaos begin.

First the colours. Then the humans. That’s how I usually see things. Or at least, how I try. *** HERE IS A SMALL FACT *** You are going to die.

Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Honest, yet, what do you mean the character sees colors and then humans? Intriguing enough that I wanted to know whose perspective we were reading and on we went.

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

There is a bit to unpack here. Do we care about or know these Rosenbergs? (No). Does it ever come up again? (No). What was she doing in New York? That at least, we find out.

All of this happened, more or less.

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughter-House Five

Vonnegut has my whole heart, so I might be biased. There is humor in this sentence, being this book is a fictionalized re-telling of his time as a prisoner of war. Knowing that made the line hit harder, but it is still pretty decent on its own because it makes you think: can we trust this narrator?

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

I just love the rhyme of this mostly. Also, why does drawing blood cause something wicked to come to town? This whole book was low key a fever dream, but certainly worth the read.

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

Stephen King, The Gunslinger

We love a chase. We also love the suspense in not knowing who the good and bad guy are in this sentence, but we at least know we have two characters and one is after the other. Or at least, that is what we think we know…

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Me as a teenager loved reading Holden Caulfield’s perspective. It also was counter to a lot of books I had recently read at the time where we do get that kind of backstory right off the bat for a character, which can seem drab. Here we get personalization and the beginning of the apathetic mask of the character.

I’m pretty much fucked.

Andy Weir, The Martian.

In space, this is not a thought you want to have. It is a great first line in its simplicity and realness as you continue to read and find out how screwed the character really is….

I hope you’re reading this, Mark.

DJ MacHale, The Merchant of Death

Apparently, wanting to know who Mark was was enough to get me to read a nine-book series. There’s a sort of desperation I read in this first line that makes me wonder what this character got into or what possibly have happened to said Mark.

This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.

The Princess Bride, William Goldman

This line is borderline absurd, which is why I love it. How do you know its your favorite if you haven’t read it? Well, read on.

This is a tale of a meeting of two, lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Hello, Vonnegut. His realism and almost uncaring way of describing the two main characters in this book had me buckling in for the ride I knew I was going on. Let’s learn about the American Dream, folks.

At the height of the long wet summer of the Seventy-seventh Year of Sendovani, the Theifmaker of Camorr paid a sudden and unannounced visit to the Eyeless Priest at the Temple of Perelandro, desperately hoping to sell him the Lamora boy.

Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora

There is a lot to unpack here. But in one sentence, we get a ton of world building and it all sounds interesting and different. Why does this man wish to sell a boy?

These are all books I have read, mind you, so there are probably plenty more opening lines that haven’t even graced my eyes yet. But that’s okay. I’ll find them eventually, unless you want to help a girl out and share some of your favorite opening lines?