Find your next favourite story now
Login

Opening Line?

last reply
13 replies
9.1k views
0 watchers
0 likes
I bet we've all heard how important the opening line of a book is in hooking the reader. What's the opening line of the book you're reading at the moment?

Mine is:

"One day in 1972, I came home from work and found my wife sitting at the kitchen table with a pair of gardening shears in front of her".

Taken from "Just After Sunset" by Stephen King.
Quote by Rumple_deWriter
It'll be interesting to see the responses.



I agree. I like a clever opening line.
The afternoon of the 9th of September was exactly like any other afternoon.

Agatha Christie - The Clocks
Quote by Rumple_deWriter


Good thread, Lisa. It'll be interesting to see the responses.



I think I've seen something along these lines on another rather famous site...can't recall where at the moment...let me go think about it...

I once knew a drinker who had a moderating problem...

"I am the Vampire Lestat. I am immortal, more or less. The light of the Sun, the heat of an intense fire. These things may destroy me. Then again, they may not."
-Anne Rice

That is the lead in to 'The Vampire Lestat. That single paragraph had me hooked forever and to me stands with any work ever done. Pure literary genius.
"Torak woke with a jolt from a sleep he'd never meant to have."

From Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver... part of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.

“Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.”

His brain was being bombarded by the light from angry headlights, he was growing more tired by the minute and the dashboard clock told him he was falling behind schedule.
It happened every year, was almost a ritual. And This was his eighty-second birthday.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

www.szadventures.com

HEADACHES, VODKA, AND ASPRIRIN; ASPIRIN, VODKA, and headaches. Power Plays by Tom Clancy.
Quote by Milik_the_Red
"I am the Vampire Lestat. I am immortal, more or less. The light of the Sun, the heat of an intense fire. These things may destroy me. Then again, they may not."



And I swear I hadn't even heard of that one.
"The morning of the day I lost her, my daughter asked me to scramble her some eggs."

Taken from Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay.
"Elizabeth Fitch's short-lived teenage rebellion began with L'Oreal Pure Black, a pair of scissors and a fake ID. It ended in blood."

The opening line from "The Witness" by Nora Roberts.
"I come through the gate this morning at 7:30 and I can see it from across the lot: the crimson Mercedes." It's from a business novel *don't roll your eyes!* ~ The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eli Goldratt. It's quite good in a geeky sort of way so if you own some manufacturing organization, or are studying accountancy (lol) check it out. smile
"Noah Fisher needed a double-diamond ski slope, a hot ski-bunny babe, and a beer, and not necessarily in that order."

From Smart and Sexy by Jill Shalvis
"to wound the autumnal city."

First line of Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany.

"Waiting here, away from the terrifying weaponry, out of the halls of vapor and light, beyond holland and into the hills, I have come to"

is the last line.
"International baggage claim in the Brussels airport was large and airy, with multiple carousels circling endlessly." Orange Is The New Black - My Year In A Women's Prison, A Memoir Piper Kerman
"Any book not worth reading twice was not worth reading the first time." Oscar Wilde
Quote by Lisa
"The morning of the day I lost her, my daughter asked me to scramble her some eggs."

Taken from Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay.


Fabulous book!

"It's early September. Jodi Brett is in her kitchen, making dinner" from The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison, which, like the opening line, is just about as exciting after nearly 100 pages! I'll persist with it though; apparently the author is no longer with us which gives the novel a certain poignancy.


Incidentally, I once started a story with the line "Danny Maddison was dead, and he wasn't happy about it" which one reviewer said was the best opening line she had ever come across in amateur fiction! Unfortunately the story is lost...
"I was five when my step dad stole my innocence."

From: "Fifteen Shards of Broken Glass" by Phoenix, published on Stories Space.

I found it through the random story button, a feature I've grown to like more and more. That single line caused my blood to boil and I simply have to read the story now.
If life seems jolly rotten
there's something you've forgotten
and that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing

from Monty Python's "Life of Brian"
"We can't tell you who we are. Or where we live. It's too risky, and we've got to be careful. Really careful. So we don't trust anyone. Because if they find us... well, we just won't let them find us.."


Opening to the animorphs by K. A. Applegate

Love it when I was a kid and read it to my niece's.