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.
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.
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
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.
