Subject: the best first phrase in a book
Posted by: diade68
Date: Oct 10 12
what first words in a book made you stick whith it to the end?
Posted by: diade68
Date: Oct 10 12
what first words in a book made you stick whith it to the end?
26 replies. On page 1 of 2 pages. 1 2
postcards2go 
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"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." I stuck it out until the end. Very well written, but overall, I didn't like the book :-( This is a great question... I'm interested to see the responses :-) Reply #1. Oct 10 12, 6:36 PM |
adams627
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Two of my favorites: "On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on". --Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Perhaps I could have saved him, with only a word, two words, out of my mouth. Perhaps I could have saved us all. But I never spoke them." --Too Late the Phalarope, Alan Paton (honestly, the only interesting part of this book to me was the first paragraph...!) Reply #2. Oct 15 12, 9:57 AM |
paulmallon
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"When I was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow". "To Kill a Mockingbird", Harper Lee's only novel. Reply #3. Oct 15 12, 3:06 PM |
Aussiedrongo
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"Unemployed at last!" from 'Such is Life' by Tom Collins (Joseph Furphy). Can't wait for the day when I can say the same thing. Reply #4. Oct 16 12, 9:42 PM |
george48
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'Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again', from 'Rebecca', by Daphne De Maurier. I was hooked from those first words, and rest did not come for me until i finished the book. Tragic, depressing and i never looked at housekeepers the same way since. Reply #5. Oct 16 12, 10:16 PM |
| Aussiedrongo
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"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." - 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' Douglas Adams. I cheated by using the first two paragraphs but neither works without the other. Reply #6. Oct 20 12, 9:33 PM |
weissmarc
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"The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail." It may not be "Moby Dick", but Peter Benchley knew how to catch a reader in "Jaws". Reply #7. Oct 22 12, 12:54 AM |
Dagny1
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(The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft) During the winter of 1927-28 officials of the Federal government made a strange and secret investigation of certain conditions in the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Innsmouth. Reply #8. Oct 22 12, 6:43 AM |
Ceistenna
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"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 by Jane Austen Reply #9. Dec 19 12, 8:06 AM |
diade68
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I agree with you Ceistenna, I enjoy Jane Austen. Reply #10. Dec 20 12, 1:26 PM |
rayven80
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"Turn Coat" by Jim Butcher. I like the Dresden Files series but few books have the hook like this one. "The summer sun was busy broiling the asphalt from Chicago’s streets, the agony in my head had kept me horizontal for half a day, and some idiot was pounding on my apartment door. I answered it and Morgan, half his face covered in blood, gasped, “The Wardens are coming. Hide me. Please.” " Reply #11. Dec 20 12, 1:50 PM |
eyhung
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"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..." Reply #12. Dec 20 12, 5:39 PM |
| adams627
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(First sentence of chapter 1) "This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast." -"Breakfast of Champions", Kurt Vonnegut Reply #13. Dec 25 12, 7:44 PM |
Caseena
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I don't know about "best," but these two come to mind: "They threw me off the hay wagon at noon." (The Postman Always Rings Twice) "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." (I Capture the Castle) Reply #14. Feb 21 13, 9:21 AM |
tiye
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"Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday, I can't be sure." Alber Camus, The Stranger. Reply #15. Nov 09 13, 1:57 PM |
Skyflyerjen
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"Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red.” Opening line from “Books of Blood” by Clive Barker. Reply #16. Jan 25 14, 10:44 AM |
| rockinsteve
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"It was a pleasure to burn." Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury It's POSSIBLY his best book, I like so many of his works! Reply #17. Mar 13 14, 12:48 AM |
| Caseena
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At the library the other day I plucked "Mortal Danger" off the new books shelf and read the first line: "I was supposed to die at 5:57 a.m." Yup, gotta read a book that starts like that. And it has been quite interesting so far. Sometimes you just have to pull out a book at random to find something intriguing. Reply #18. Sep 27 14, 7:45 AM |
BeeMan21
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The End Begins When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere. The Day of the Triffids = John Wyndham Reply #19. Jan 06 15, 11:00 PM |
| hansdelbruk
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Dear Penthouse Forum Reply #20. Feb 05 15, 2:24 PM |
26 replies. On page 1 of 2 pages. 1 2
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