Dear Readers,
“Call me Ishmael.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
These three quotes are among some of the most recognizable in literature…which got me thinking. As recognizable as some first lines are, there are others which are just as intriguing, but not necessarily as well known. This month, I scoured the internet and various lists to compile first lines that sounded intriguing to me, even if they weren’t the most famous. I’m sure that like me, some you’ll recognize, while some you won’t.
The first lines featured below span a plethora of genres and formats. If one of them snatches your attention, we hope you’ll stop by and check it out. Let’s hope the rest of the book lives up to the hype.
Until next month,
-Julie, Communications & Outreach Librarian
PS: I’m also the one who pieces together our monthly newsletter and we’d love for you to subscribe! Click here to sign up!
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“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” |
| From 1984 by George Orwell |
| Available at WPL |
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“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” |
| From The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Available at WPL and on Libby |
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“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” |
| From Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston |
| Available at WPL |
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“People disappear all the time. Ask any policeman. Better yet, ask a journalist. Disappearances are bread-and-butter to journalists.” |
| From Outlander by Diana Gabaldon |
| Available at WPL and on Libby |
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“Jeevan’s understanding of disaster preparedness was based entirely on action movies, but on the other hand, he’d seen a lot of action movies.” |
| From Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel |
| Available at WPL and on Libby |
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“First the colors. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.” |
| From The Book Thief by Markus Zusak |
| Available at WPL and on Libby |
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“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.” |
| From The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold |
| Available at WPL |
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“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.” |
| From The Secret History by Donna Tartt |
| Available on Libby |
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“History has failed us, but no matter.” |
| From Pachinko by Min Jin Lee |
| Available at WPL |
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“All this happened, more or less.” |
| From Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut |
| Available at WPL and on Libby |
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“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.” |
| From The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern |
| Available at WPL and on Libby |
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“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years — if it ever did end — began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.” |
| From It by Stephen King |
| Available at WPL |
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“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.” |
| From The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen |
| Available at WPL |
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“Lightning has struck me all my life.” |
| From Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier |
| Available at WPL |
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“Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits.” |
| From Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver |
| Available at WPL |
