There was a poll that stated—Rowling’s opening line in the HP series is one of best in the world. Someone posted about how there are a bunch of other opening statements that are better.
Here’s one of my personal favorites, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez (English translated):
“It is inevitable. The scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
@DocCarms@bookstodon it's on so many lists that it's nearly a cliche at this point, but "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
@DocCarms@bookstodon honorable mention ( because it’s the second sentence from Prisoner of Zenda) “My dear Rose,” I answered, laying down my egg-spoon, “why in the world should I do anything?
“It was a nice day.
All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet. But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one.”
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman #books#bookstodon “OpeningLines #GoodOmens
For bonus points, how many of you have been to Vancouver in the fall? Bc that's what the sky looks like here! An endless expanse of rolling, textured grey. (I honestly love it. Blue is so boring. It's all the same.)
@BashStKid@negative12dollarbill@DocCarms@bookstodon He seems quite content to let it have multiple interpretations. I don’t think any of them harms the reader’s mental image of Chiba City but they do change it a little in interesting ways. Slightly different flavors of desperate and dysfunctional.
@bookstodon@DocCarms
Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday. I can’t be sure - Camus, The Outsider
124 was spiteful. Full of baby’s venom - Morrison, Beloved
The story so far: In the beginning, the earth was created. This has made a lot of people angry and is widely regarded as a bad move - Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide
I decided that Orion Lake needed to die the second time he saved my life - Novik, Deadly Education
I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion - Weir, Martian
@ukaunz@bookstodon@DocCarms
Thank you! I thought of it bc it’s a much, much more interesting, darker and more nuanced portrayal of a school for students with magic than the HP series. The first paragraph is really what hooked me, more than the first sentence.
I’m not really doing the book justice with this description. If you don’t mind a little YA feel to a novel, it’s a creative, fun, engrossing book of its genre. Worth a shot, maybe
@DocCarms@bookstodon "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." from Anna Karenina, of course.
And the one from The restaurant at the end of the universe: "In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." :blobcatcoffee:
@arisu_m@DocCarms@bookstodon I love that the Restaurant line evokes the intro to the Book of Genesis but without mentioning God.
A side thought: it would be totally on-brand for the Douglas Adams universe to have God be a cranky old immortal who lives on an isolated planet and had nothing to do with creating the universe, but took credit for it one time like 3 billion years ago and now can't shake the reputation
@DocCarms@bookstodon “It was a pleasure to burn” from Fahrenheit 451 has got to be up there. But for sheer comfort value my very favorite is “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
@DocCarms@bookstodon "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way– in short, the period was so far like the present period..."
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