Some books just grab you from the get go. Here are some all-time, world-class examples (some are from memory, so YMMV):

"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." -- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

"It was a bright, cold day in April, and all the clocks were striking thirteen." -- George Orwell (aka Eric Blair), 1984

"He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad." -- Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." -- Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), July 05, 2001

Answers

"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing." -- Norman Maclean, A River Run Through It

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), July 05, 2001.

"I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead." -- Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), July 05, 2001.

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

 --Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Apologies to the Snoopster.

Noone

-- noone (noone@nowhere.xyz), July 05, 2001.

"It is not that I half knew my mother. I knew half of her; the lower half - her lap, legs, feet, her hands and wrists as she bent forward." -- Flann O'Brien, The Hard Life

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), July 05, 2001.

"I didn't mean to die. It just happened that way."

-- Uguess (Uguess@who.this), July 05, 2001.

"These are the times that try men's souls."

--Thomas Paine, The Crisis

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 06, 2001.

l80l.---I have just returned from a visit to my land- lord---the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

cin@cin.cin), July 06, 2001.

oops

more

-- (cin@cin.cin), July 06, 2001.

"Jim Grimson had never planned to eat his father's balls."

Red Orc's Rage by Philip Jose Farmer

Not exactly great, but memorable.

-- dandelion (golden@pleurisy.plant), July 08, 2001.

"Call me Ishmael."

Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"

Busy folks who haven't read Moby Dick can do so in 60 seconds or less here: http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/melville.moby.shtml

"Cigars had burned low, and were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they once believed they had."

James Hilton, "Lost Horizon"

Note that "Lost Horizon" was the first paperback ever published in the US. I am not certain, but it may have been the first paperback published in the world.

-- Already Done Happened (oh.yeah@it.did.com), July 08, 2001.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

-- (@ .), July 08, 2001.

For one of my classes i have to find out the first line of a book its Call me, Ishmael. No it is NOT moby dick. i cant find the book anywhere i'm hoping that maybe someone on this sight might know! if you do please tell meand email me. its driving me crazy not knowing!! thanks

-- Leah Nitucky (lvnhg@aol.com), September 29, 2001.

The systematic and untiring efforts of my enemies, gentlemen, to do me every possible injury, by fair means or by foul, from the very moment of my arrival in this city, are known to almost all of you, and it is unnecessary for me to pursue the subject. Andocides::Speeches::On the Mysteries

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), September 29, 2001.

Concerning "Call me, Ishmael."
I have a vague memory of seeing this in a book (or maybe just an article) about punctuation. As in "Call me, Ishmael. What a difference a comma makes..."

-- dandelion (golden@pleurisy.plant), September 30, 2001.

Thanks for trying to remeber. but hey i have a new challenge for ya guys... the begining is.... "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler..." if you know it please let me know.

-- Leah Naticucky (LVNHG@aol.com), October 21, 2001.

"It was an off-hand remark from a TV news anchor that started the panic." (novel in progress)

-- (Lurker22@key.board), October 21, 2001.

"We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights...." - The Founding Fathers

- Greybear

-- Got Liberty ?

-- Greybear (greybear@worldemail.com), October 22, 2001.

In the beginning GOD

-- (just@for.al), October 22, 2001.

Leah,
Your question contains its answer.
I don't enjoy Italo Calvino's work myself.

-- dandelion (golden@pleurisy.plant), October 22, 2001.

All these people quoting the bible in this thread are unwittingly slamming xtianity. In case you hadn't noticed it, kids, we're all posting great first lines of FICTION novels.

If you want your bible to be viewed as fiction -- which, as far as I'm concerned, is exactly what it is -- then keep it up. You're not converting anyone, and you're just making yourself and your Hokey Babble into a laughingstock.

Bible = Fiction, so thanks for recognizing it.

-- Already Done Happened (oh.yeah@it.did.com), October 27, 2001.

ADH,

Check the title of this thread. Is fiction found in it?

-- bogsworth (running@on.8cylinders), October 27, 2001.

Bogswell: Check the content of this thread. Is anything but fiction found in it? No. Nothing but fiction in this thread.

-- Already Done Happened (oh.yeah@it.did.com), October 27, 2001.

Nothing but fiction in your head

-- (2cents@keep.the change), October 27, 2001.

ADH, and is there anything saying that the books need to be limited to fiction?

-- bogsworth (running@on.8cylinders), October 27, 2001.

ADH, as the one who started this thread, I can verify that it made no difference to me whether the referenced book was fiction or non-fiction. A great opening line is a great opening line, wherever it is found.

However, if it makes you feel any better, I personally rate the Bible as an anthology -- in which fiction, fanatasy, allegory, fable, parable, poetry, political propaganda, and historic fact all appear. Anyone who takes the Bible literally, in every detail, is a sick, sick mind.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), October 27, 2001.

"Nothing but fiction in your head"

If you're going to swallow the Hokey Babble whole, yes, that's right. Nothing but fiction in your head.

"ADH, and is there anything saying that the books need to be limited to fiction?"

How thick can one person's head BE, Bogsworth? EVERY book mentioned here was fiction. If someone wants to post (and repost, because Genesis was quoted more than once) the first line of the bible here, and they want to quote it right along with all the other fiction that was quoted here, then they're only making themselves and their alleged holy book look foolish.

Quote the bible along with fiction, you make it look like fiction. And that's exactly what it is, so far as I can see.

If you think I said "you are only allowed to quote fiction here," then you are cordially invited to show me where I said that. And if you believe that I did say that, then you need to check your timing, because you are most assuredly NOT running on eight cylinders.

"ADH, as the one who started this thread, I can verify that it made no difference to me whether the referenced book was fiction or non- fiction. A great opening line is a great opening line, wherever it is found."

I agree. I was commenting on how amusing I found it that the bible was quoted riiiiiiight along with a bunch of other fiction. Obviously, the xtians here missed the joke. Perhaps that's because the joke's on them, and they pulled the prank *themselves.*

"However, if it makes you feel any better, I personally rate the Bible as an anthology -- in which fiction, fanatasy, allegory, fable, parable, poetry, political propaganda, and historic fact all appear."

My feelings are really beside the point. I think it's funny that xtians were inadvertently associating the Hokey Babble with fiction. And I think the gyrations that Bogsworth is going through are even funnier yet.

"Anyone who takes the Bible literally, in every detail, is a sick, sick mind."

On this matter, Nipper, we are in agreement. I raise my coffee cup in salute to you.

-- Already Done Happened (oh.yeah@it.did.com), October 28, 2001.