<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 A Tale of Two Cities<\/em> by Charles Dickens
\nA poetic contrast that speaks to universal dualities.<\/p>\n\u201cCall me Ishmael.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Moby-Dick<\/em> by Herman Melville
\nSparse, mysterious, and undeniably iconic.<\/p>\n\u201cAll happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Anna Karenina<\/em> by Leo Tolstoy<\/p>\n\u201cIt is a truth universally acknowledged\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Pride and Prejudice<\/em> by Jane Austen<\/p>\n\u201cOnce upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Back When We Were Grownups<\/em> by Anne Tyler<\/p>\n<\/span>Modern Fiction That Nails the First Sentence<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cThe snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Secret History<\/em> by Donna Tartt<\/p>\n\u201cWe were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas<\/em> by Hunter S. Thompson<\/p>\n\u201cI write this sitting in the kitchen sink.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 I Capture the Castle<\/em> by Dodie Smith<\/p>\n\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a very likely place for disappearances\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Outlander<\/em> by Diana Gabaldon<\/p>\n\u201cI became what I am today at the age of twelve\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Kite Runner<\/em> by Khaled Hosseini<\/p>\n<\/span>Opening Lines in Science Fiction & Fantasy<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cIn a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Hobbit<\/em> by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/p>\n\u201cThe man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Gunslinger<\/em> by Stephen King<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 1984<\/em> by George Orwell<\/p>\n\u201cWhen he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em> by Harper Lee<\/p>\n\u201cThe sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Neuromancer<\/em> by William Gibson<\/p>\n<\/span>Great First Lines from Mystery & Thriller Novels<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cThe last camel collapsed at noon.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Key to Rebecca<\/em> by Ken Follett<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a pleasure to burn.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Fahrenheit 451<\/em> by Ray Bradbury<\/p>\n\u201cI was arrested in Eno\u2019s Diner.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Killing Floor<\/em> by Lee Child<\/p>\n\u201cFirst the colors. Then the humans. That\u2019s usually how I see things.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Book Thief<\/em> by Markus Zusak<\/p>\n\u201cLying on the slab, Henry Palace had time to reflect.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Last Policeman<\/em> by Ben H. Winters<\/p>\n<\/span>Young Adult & Coming-of-Age Favorites<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cIf you\u2019re reading this, then I\u2019m already dead.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Thirteen Reasons Why<\/em> by Jay Asher<\/p>\n\u201cAll this happened, more or less.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Slaughterhouse-Five<\/em> by Kurt Vonnegut<\/p>\n\u201cMr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/em> by J.K. Rowling<\/p>\n\u201cMy name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Lovely Bones<\/em> by Alice Sebold<\/p>\n\u201cI am an invisible man.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Invisible Man<\/em> by Ralph Ellison<\/p>\n<\/span>First Lines That Pack an Emotional Punch<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cMother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can\u2019t be sure.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Stranger<\/em> by Albert Camus<\/p>\n\u201cThey shoot the white girl first.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Paradise<\/em> by Toni Morrison<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Hunger Games<\/em> by Suzanne Collins<\/p>\n\u201cI am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Water for Elephants<\/em> by Sara Gruen<\/p>\n\u201cIn the town, there were two mutes and they were always together.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Heart is a Lonely Hunter<\/em> by Carson McCullers<\/p>\n<\/span>Humorous or Quirky Opening Lines<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cThis is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Princess Bride<\/em> by William Goldman<\/p>\n\u201cMarley was dead, to begin with.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 A Christmas Carol<\/em> by Charles Dickens<\/p>\n\u201cAll children, except one, grow up.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Peter Pan<\/em> by J.M. Barrie<\/p>\n\u201cFar out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy<\/em> by Douglas Adams<\/p>\n\u201cThe building was on fire, and it wasn\u2019t my fault.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Skin Game<\/em> by Jim Butcher<\/p>\n<\/span>Romantic & Poetic First Lines<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cYou better not never tell nobody but God.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Color Purple<\/em> by Alice Walker<\/p>\n\u201cLast night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Rebecca<\/em> by Daphne du Maurier<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2014for there could be no doubt of his sex\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Orlando<\/em> by Virginia Woolf<\/p>\n\u201cIt was love at first sight.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Catch-22<\/em> by Joseph Heller<\/p>\n\u201cI loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Great Expectations<\/em> by Charles Dickens<\/p>\n<\/span>Notable Lines from Memoirs and Non-Fiction<\/span><\/h2>\n\u201cThey say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Wide Sargasso Sea<\/em> by Jean Rhys<\/p>\n\u201cI was born in a crossfire hurricane.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Life<\/em> by Keith Richards<\/p>\n\u201cIn the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Bible<\/em> (Genesis 1:1)<\/p>\n\u201cThis is not a book about the Holocaust.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Everything Is Illuminated<\/em> by Jonathan Safran Foer<\/p>\n\u201cI come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Lost Continent<\/em> by Bill Bryson<\/p>\n\u201cThere was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader<\/em> by C.S. Lewis<\/p>\n\u201cShips at a distance have every man\u2019s wish on board.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Their Eyes Were Watching God<\/em> by Zora Neale Hurston<\/p>\n\u201cJustice?\u2014You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 A Frolic of His Own<\/em> by William Gaddis<\/p>\n\u201cThe sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Murphy<\/em> by Samuel Beckett<\/p>\n\u201cI am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 A Prayer for Owen Meany<\/em> by John Irving<\/p>\n\u201cThey threw me off the hay truck about noon.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 The Postman Always Rings Twice<\/em> by James M. Cain<\/p>\n\u201cI wish Giovanni would kiss me.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/em> by James Baldwin<\/p>\n\u201cHe was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u2013 Scaramouche<\/em> by Rafael Sabatini<\/p>\n