Best First Lines

[naomi24]

Many readers can identify a book by its opening line, and Amazon Books have conducted a survey of the most recognisable, with Charles Dickens' 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' from 'A Tale of Two Cities' coming out at number one.  I was surprised that Jane Austen's 'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.' from 'Pride and Prejudice' trailed at number thirteen and there are some there I don't recognise at all.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12563537/Charles-Dickens-Tale-Two-Cities-Britains-favourite-start-novel.html

 

What's your number one?

[naomi24]

I haven't tried, piggynose.  I tried watching the film and didn't get far with that.

[Peter Pedant]

10 45 - the building is the ULU bldg opposite the British Museum - also MiniTruth in 1984

[Khandro]

and the winner is ...

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

 

'Earthly Powers'  by Anthony Burgess

[Togo]

Good books Naomi. I read the first of the seriers in 1966/67 just after it was first published and the other 2 parts as they were released. It is now sold as a complete set and was probably one of this first set of stories that I enjoyed after reading Tolkien as a young teen. A bit dated now, as too be expected, but in their time the novels were almost prophetic looking back with hindsight.    

[naomi24]

Togo, 'The Hobbit' was a doddle, but it took me a year to read Lord of the Rings.  I've usually got a few books on the go at once, but with that I had to keep going back to remind myself who was who and what was what.  I really missed it when I finally finished.  A masterpiece!  

[naomi24]

Togo, I don't think I could read 'Trainspotting'.  I only lasted a very short time with the movie.  All a bit too harsh for me.

[Togo]

Trainspotting wasn't me Naomi. 🚂

[Lie-in King]

"She came out of the store just in time to see her young son playing on the sidewalk directly in the path of the grey, gaunt man who strode down the centre of the walk like a mechanical derelict."

"Lord Foul's Bane" by Stephen Donaldson - the first of a series that has always been a favourite of mine & one I think of often.  I confess that I did have to look it up to be precise in the quote as I couldn't quite recall what came after my italics.

[Doof45]

The Mole had been working hard all the morning spring-cleaning his little home 

[naomi24]

Sorry, Togo.  I thought you were talking about 'Trainspotting' and any that might have followed.  What 'good' books were you referring to?

[naomi24]

Doof45, The Wind in the Willows?  I loved that when I was little.

[Barmaid]

It was a cold, grey day in late November.

[naomi24]

I had to google that, Barmaid, but yes, another good book - and the inn makes a living from it. 

[piggynose]

We were somewhere in Barstow on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.

[piggynose]

*around, not in! 

[Tilly2]

 LIK, I'd forgotten about the Stephen Donaldson books. I read them avidly as each one came out. Thank you for the reminder. (How could I forget them???)

[Togo]

@11.14 was Dune. From Frank Herbert Naomi. 

[naomi24]

Oh, I see.  Thanks Togo.

[Togo]

"THIS IS WHERE THE DRAGONS WENT.

They lie...

Not dead, not asleep. Not waiting, because waiting implies expectation."

This book took me on an hilarious journey that I often retake. 

[Toorak]

"Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself"