Best Book Opening Lines

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andy57
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Re: Best Book Opening Lines

Post by andy57 »

Korkki wrote:"It was a dark and stormy night."

Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
It has to be, doesn't it?

My vote goes to one of my all-time favorite books:
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.
But it has always been the last line that gets me every time:
After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.
A Farewell To Arms, Ernest Hemmingway
Omega ref 3570.50, ref 2908.50.38, ref 233.32.41.21.01.001
Rolex ref 16750, ref 6422, ref 114300, ref 1680
Breitling Navitimer Montbrillant
Longines Triple-date Moonphase
Christopher Ward C9 JH Mark II, C11 MSL Vintage
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craigski
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Re: Best Book Opening Lines

Post by craigski »

Some pics of the cheapest most expensive watch in the world:

Great pictures!

But why is the date 3 days ahead??
Not a physical book, but they are opening lines:

http://www.christopherwardforum.com/vie ... hp?f=1&t=2
Lochaber
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Re: Best Book Opening Lines

Post by Lochaber »

'The first time I smelt Jap was in a deep dry-river bed in the dry Belt, somewhere near Meiktila. I can no more describe the smell than I could describe a colour, but it was heavy and pungent and compounded of stale cooked rice and sweat and human waste and…Jap'.

From 'Quartered Safe Out Here' by George MacDonald Fraser.
rambothejambo
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Re: Best Book Opening Lines

Post by rambothejambo »

"It was the day my grandmother exploded".

The Crow Road by Iain Banks, a brilliantly funny and black humoured story about a family on the West Coast of Scotland. The BBC did an adaption of the book a while ago and this too was superb. Sadly Iain Banks passed away earlier this year. He also wrote (amongst many others) The Wasp Factory.
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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Re: Best Book Opening Lines

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Not the opening lines of a book, but the first lines of a character, Sourdust from Mervyn Peake's "Tius Groan". Looking out of the window just now made me think of it.
“I, Sourdust, lord of the library, personal adviser to your lordship, nonagenarian, and student of the Groan lore, proffer to your lordship the salutations of a dark morning, robed as I am in rags, student as I am of the tomes, and nonagenarian as I happen to be in the matter of years”.
Steve
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