She Sings AND She Reads! Guest Blogger Soprano Karen Urlie weighs in on her favorite first lines

I was kind of excited that Anjie (hope she wasn't joking…) suggested that I guest blog about some of my favorite books' first lines. I'm definitely not a writer, but I've always been an avid reader.

Over the past year, I've been trying to assemble my lifetime reading list, but it's nowhere near comprehensive. I truly wish that I had, like Anj, kept a lifelong list of books I've read. I'll admit that this is most likely because I seem to only ever recall stories (yes, and people) that, at some point, I actually liked. Reading is absolutely an escape for me, an oasis for my busy mind and fully scheduled day to day existence.

Generally I choose my books this way: first, if recommended to me by a trusted reader friend; second, I prefer my books to be FAT, with small print - I read fast, so I want big bang for my buck and the fatter the better; and third, I want to be captured in the first page, so I always read it before I buy or borrow.

What I notice from the list below, though not a complete surprise, is that I want a strong and vivid description to carry me instantly away from my real world and into the story. This list of first lines from a few favorite books (that span my reading life) has been a great reminder of what were some incredibly good stories, which I recommend you read, if you haven't already.

When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.

-The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton

Even in high summer, Tintagel was a haunted place; Igraine, Lady of Duke Gorlois, looked out over the sea from the headland.

-The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

“When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing."

-Geek Love, Katherine Dunn

Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.

-Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund

In the shade of the house, in the sunshine of the riverbank near the boats, in the shade of the Sal-wood forest, in the shade of the fig tree is where Siddhartha grew up, the handsome son of the Brahman, the young falcon, together with his friend Govinda, son of a Brahman.

-Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

The wind being fierce and the tides unobliging, the ship from Harwich has a slow time of it.

-Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire

She woke at midnight.

-Palace Walk (book one in the Cairo Triology), Naguib Mahfouz

In a broad valley, at the foot of a sloping hillside, beside a clear bubbling stream, Tom was building a house.

-The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett

For the first fifteen years of our lives, Danny and I lived within five blocks of each other and neither of us knew of the other's existence.

-The Chosen, Chaim Potok

Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs.

-Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

-Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

In 1972 I was sixteen – young, my father said, to be traveling with him on his diplomatic missions.

-The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

I could hear a roll of muffled drums.

-The Other Boleyn Girl, Philipa Gregory

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Now you know Karen can read! Listen to Karen sing here.