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Don't ask me why "Backwards Day," (January 31st on my librarian's desk calendar), should make me think about the opening lines of novels, but it does. Call me Contrary...ha ha.
Anyway, some of my favorite opening lines -- the ones that made me really want to continue reading:
1. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1876)
2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
—George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
3. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a
good fortune, must be in want of a wife." —Jane Austen, Pride and
Prejudice (1813)
4. "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." —Zora Neale Hurston,
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
5. "It was a pleasure to burn." —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
6. "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." —Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)
7. "Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come
to learn, is women." —Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)
8. "I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things."-- Lisa Yee, Millicent Min, Girl Genius (2003)
9. "If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it."-- Richard
Peck, The Teacher's Funeral (2004)
10. "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book."-- Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning - A Series of Unfortunate Events (1999)
Anyway, some of my favorite opening lines -- the ones that made me really want to continue reading:
1. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1876)
2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
—George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
3. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a
good fortune, must be in want of a wife." —Jane Austen, Pride and
Prejudice (1813)
4. "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." —Zora Neale Hurston,
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
5. "It was a pleasure to burn." —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
6. "Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person." —Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups (2001)
7. "Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come
to learn, is women." —Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)
8. "I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things."-- Lisa Yee, Millicent Min, Girl Genius (2003)
9. "If your teacher has to die, August isn't a bad time of year for it."-- Richard
Peck, The Teacher's Funeral (2004)
10. "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book."-- Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning - A Series of Unfortunate Events (1999)
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