What are your favourite first sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its first sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the first line?For me, there is one truly memorable first line:
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano BuendÃa was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."It is one first line that really sticks with me.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
It was also the first line of one of my college application essays. When I was applying to college, one of the essay options for the University of Chicago was an improv piece. We were given a number of different things that we had to incorporate into the essay (I can't remember them all off the top of my head, but one was The Complete Works of Shakespeare) including that line. It was a wonderful challenge and the fact that the school had an essay option like that left no doubt in my mind that Chicago was my first choice school.
It's funny, I haven't read One Hundred Years of Solitude but after reading that quote I was sure it was Garcia Marquez.
ReplyDeleteNice choice.
That's probably my favorite first line from a book I've never read!
ReplyDeleteI adored that book. Simply loved it.
ReplyDeleteBut... did you go to Chicago for school? I don't think I know the answer to that!
It's cheesy, but I always like "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again".
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteThe answer is "yes" ;)