Sandrac and Andasamo blogged about this great topic, and I decided to chime in too with a few opening sentences from books I found here at my house. It's cold and rainy this morning, and it's going to be a loooong day as we wait for the Heels to play tonight at 9 pm, so collecting these was fun!
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott
From the old and pleasantly situated town of Maienfeld a path leads though green, shady meadows to the foot of the mountains which look down from their majestic heights upon the valley below.
Heide
Johanna Spyri
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
J.K. Rowling
I woke up with a start at 4:00 one morning and realized that I was very, very pregnant.
Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year
Anne Lamott
In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon.
Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown
When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
It was a bright, defrosted, pussy-willow day at the onset of spring, and the newlyweds were driving cross-country in a large roast turkey.
Skinny Legs and All
Tom Robbins
There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan Am flight to Vienna and I’d been treated by at least six of them. And married a seventh.
Fear of Flying
Erica Jong
I am a lazy man. Laziness keeps me from believing that enlightenment demands effort, discipline, strict diet, non-smoking, and other evidences of virtue.
The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment
Thaddeus Golas
For anyone even remotely familiar with Jackson, Mississippi, the name “Sweet Potato Queens” instantly evokes sweet memories of beautiful, somewhat augmented female forms enveloped in green sequins, towering red hairdos, provocative dances, and the haunting refrain of “Tiny Bubbles” as only Don Ho could – or would, for that matter – deliver it.
The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love
Jill Conner Browne
Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell
Julip got her name, a mixture of a flower and a drink, by her parents’ design in the first flower of a somewhat alcoholic marriage.
Julip
Jim Harrison
The word Irish is seldom coupled with the word civilization.
How the Irish Saved Civilization
Thomas Cahill
I came across a photograph of him not long ago, his black face with the long snout sniffing at something in the air, his tail straight and pointing, his eyes flashing in some momentary excitement. Looking at a faded photograph taken more than forty years before, even as a grown man, I would admit I still missed him.
My Dog Skip
Willie Morris
Comments (3)
Those are wonderful first lines, Annie! Now, I'm itching to go back and re-read To Kill a Mockingbird.
Actually, I think the movie version of the novel was one of the few that (I thought)was just as good as the book. Gregory Peck was perfect as Atticus and the child who played Scout was wonderful.
Posted by Sandra | March 29, 2008 7:58 PM
Posted on March 29, 2008 19:58
Great lines!
(The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment? How have I not heard of this book, it sounds like my kind of philosphy...)
Posted by Anne | March 29, 2008 9:00 PM
Posted on March 29, 2008 21:00
H'mm... I've read six...
Posted by Leslie | April 4, 2008 6:05 AM
Posted on April 4, 2008 06:05