None-the-less here is a list of my favourite first lines. They may not be the most well-known (or not) but for some reason or other they grabbed my interest.
“Once upon a time…” which is in pretty much any fairy tale.
“If you’re going to read this, don’t bother.”
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
“We were somewhere around Barston on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
“They’re out there, black boys in white suits before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.”.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” 1984 by George Orwell.
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“Mother died today.”
The Stranger by Albert Camus
“All this happened, more or less.”
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
“They shoot the white girl first.”
Paradise by Toni Morrison,
No One Thinks of Greenland by John Griesemer
I was born twice; first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August or 1974.”
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
“His eyes were metallic blue jewel beetles peering out from underneath a pair of furry black caterpillars…..just looking at him, you’d never guess he was a professional killer.”
Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh.
“I was left back when I was twelve because I had a baby for my fahver.”
Push by Sapphire (also know as Precious after the movie adaptation).
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. “
Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
The Crow Road by Iain M. Banks
The Shack by William Paul Young
“I do not want to remember her last hour.”
Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff.
And for the last line of this blog I challenge/request you to send me your favorite first lines, or if you choose last lines. Maybe you can inspire me to write a blog about that.