Favorite opening line from a 📔book

[Firiel23]

The quote I am about to present is from The Singer Trilogy by Calvin Miller. It is a mythic retelling of the New Testament, and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. The writing is exemplary and so very beautifully poetically prosaic. I truly do liken it to Tolkien... And it was published two years before The Silmarillion was. I note this intentionally.

O my gosh no one else has ever known about this book! I love it! And the other two- The Song (Acts), and The Finale (Revelation). I ran across it as a 12 year old, and it did so much for my understanding of what faith is, and what christ did

 

[Deimos]

It took me about a month to read it, but not because I deliberately paced myself. I usually read at bedtime and often only get through a few pages before I fall asleep. It was slow-paced, but I was surprised at how I got drawn in to the story. I was especially wondering about what happened to Ludovico.

IIRC he eventually marries Annette, Emily's hilariously ditzy (yet very loyal and even brave) lady's maid.
In the story it was obvious they were in love.
And I think they settle near Emily and Valencourt (on her old family estate La Vallée, in Gascony, France) and she rewards them with high positions on the house-hold staff.

 

[Starbrow]

“Marley was dead: to begin with. “
From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. 🎄

 

[Ugluk]

"Call me Ishmael" - Moby Dick, Melville

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" - 1984, Orwell

" In the Beginning God created the sky and the land" - Genesis, Anon

 

[Deimos]

"It was a pleasure to burn." -- Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." --Pride and Prejudice, Austen

"Lot ninety-seven," the auctioneer announced, "A boy." -- Citizen of the Galaxy, Heinlein

 

[Backyard Professor]

Other than The Hobbit, which I’d say/hope we all know, what are some of your favorite opening lines from books? Those lines that capture your attention and lead you off to new, known worlds, those lines that lead to either an authors masterpiece or drivel.

I would have to say the Bible. God invented baseball. It says In the Big Inning.........

 

[Ugluk]

O my gosh no one else has ever known about this book! I love it! And the other two- The Song (Acts), and The Finale (Revelation). I ran across it as a 12 year old, and it did so much for my understanding of what faith is, and what christ did

I read them a long time ago. Liked them, though they also puzzled me greatly. It'd be great to re-read them with a few decades more understanding of theology and eschatology. Though I am still a neophyte in both areas.

 

[Idril Celebrindal]

So there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians.

-Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians, Brandon Sanderson

 

[herlig9]

Gonna go with a classic

 

[Halasían]

There were prodigies and portents enough, One Eye says. We must blame ourselves for misinterpreting them. One Eye's handicap in no way impairs his marvelous hindsight.​

- Opening paragraph of Glen Cook's The Black Company.

In late 2000, on a reading list suggestion on an old EZBoard forum called 'DarkStarr', a TORc friend (who I'm still in touch with on Linkedin of all places) Posted the cover of The Black Company and raved about it. I just happened to see the paperback at a used bookstore and paid the buck to get it. I read that first two sentences, and I immediately wanted to know more about 'One Eye'. The start was a bit rough but once I got to the 3rd chapter, the story really started to take off. I read all ten books over the next couple years. It's not Lord of the Rings, but a lot of it could be within the setting as a view from the common foot-soldier be they Gondorian, Rohirrim, Dunlending, Haradian, or Easterling going to war.

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