First lines
Feb. 8th, 2003 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishWhat we have here are the best first lines of books, as culled from my personal library.
Note that this includes only novels. Too much hassle trying to pick good short-story openers, since a good opening line is far more important in a short story. (All lines are far more important in a short story. But that's a rant for another day.) Plays and comics presented their own unique problems, and have been left out as well; otherwise "Nothing to be done" and "Heads" would certainly have made the list.
This also includes only first lines taken in isolation. Ready, Okay!'s opener packs less of a punch without the second sentence; ditto Catch-22. (On the other hand, realising that Lethem is talking about a mood makes Gun, with Occasional Music's opening line less effective.)
They're listed alphabetical by author, and not in any sort of merit order.
"Theo, by occupation, was a devil." --Lloyd Alexander, Westmark
"The Galactic Empire was falling." --Isaac Asimov, Foundation
"No shit, there I was...." --Steven Brust, Dragon
"There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck." --Steven Brust, Jhereg
"I have never seen anything like it: two little discs of glass suspended in front of his eyes in loops of wire." --J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
"I have no intention of setting down the disgusting details concerning Sixth Degree Hosteler Tu." --Barry Hughart, Eight Skilled Gentlemen
"It was there when I woke up, I swear." --Jonathan Lethem, Gun, With Occasional Music
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die." --Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
"The author assures the reader that he will not have to die if he reads this book, as did the user of the 1691 edition, when The Khazar Dictionary still had its first scribe." --Milorad Pavic, Dictionary of the Khazars
"It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton." --Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Eye in the Pyramid
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." --Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
---
Brust is the king of opening lines, but I knew that going into this. I'm surprised that Neil Gaiman and Roger Zelazny didn't make an appearance. (Nine Princes in Amber would probably hold a slot in the eleven to fifteen range, though.) Many authors believe that a hook in the first couple pages is important; but there aren't many who try to catch you with the very first line. The children's books in my collection are as bad about this as the rest (Lloyd Alexander being a notable exception, which may have something to do with why I devoured everything of his that I could find in the library growing up). And "Literature," of course, rarely feels the need to pull you in; if you're going to read "Literature" you're going to do so regardless of how well-written that first sentence is.
Note that this includes only novels. Too much hassle trying to pick good short-story openers, since a good opening line is far more important in a short story. (All lines are far more important in a short story. But that's a rant for another day.) Plays and comics presented their own unique problems, and have been left out as well; otherwise "Nothing to be done" and "Heads" would certainly have made the list.
This also includes only first lines taken in isolation. Ready, Okay!'s opener packs less of a punch without the second sentence; ditto Catch-22. (On the other hand, realising that Lethem is talking about a mood makes Gun, with Occasional Music's opening line less effective.)
They're listed alphabetical by author, and not in any sort of merit order.
"Theo, by occupation, was a devil." --Lloyd Alexander, Westmark
"The Galactic Empire was falling." --Isaac Asimov, Foundation
"No shit, there I was...." --Steven Brust, Dragon
"There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife's blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck." --Steven Brust, Jhereg
"I have never seen anything like it: two little discs of glass suspended in front of his eyes in loops of wire." --J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
"I have no intention of setting down the disgusting details concerning Sixth Degree Hosteler Tu." --Barry Hughart, Eight Skilled Gentlemen
"It was there when I woke up, I swear." --Jonathan Lethem, Gun, With Occasional Music
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die." --Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
"The author assures the reader that he will not have to die if he reads this book, as did the user of the 1691 edition, when The Khazar Dictionary still had its first scribe." --Milorad Pavic, Dictionary of the Khazars
"It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton." --Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, The Eye in the Pyramid
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." --Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
---
Brust is the king of opening lines, but I knew that going into this. I'm surprised that Neil Gaiman and Roger Zelazny didn't make an appearance. (Nine Princes in Amber would probably hold a slot in the eleven to fifteen range, though.) Many authors believe that a hook in the first couple pages is important; but there aren't many who try to catch you with the very first line. The children's books in my collection are as bad about this as the rest (Lloyd Alexander being a notable exception, which may have something to do with why I devoured everything of his that I could find in the library growing up). And "Literature," of course, rarely feels the need to pull you in; if you're going to read "Literature" you're going to do so regardless of how well-written that first sentence is.
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Date: 2003-02-12 07:49 am (UTC)"What really hurts is realising your idol is a complete dick." --unknown waitress, after serving an abusive and drunk John Lennon
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Date: 2003-02-12 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
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