Top Ten Tuesday – Opening Lines
When I saw the topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post, I knew I had to do it. I love sharing the opening lines of books in the hopes that it will encourage someone to try a new, different book. Regular readers will know I have a fortnightly First Lines Friday series, in which I choose a book and share the opening paragraph.
Today’s post is all about my top ten opening lines. To avoid regurgitating content and boring you all to death with a blog post thousands of words long, I’ve decided to be selective about my books and pick the best one (or two!) liner beginnings that appeal to me. I have read most of these books, but there are a couple that are still on the TBR.
Shall we dive in?
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Goodreads – The Name of the Wind
It was night again. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.
Dear Child – Romy Hausmann
On the first day I lose my sense of time, my dignity and a molar.
1984 – George Orwell
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Goodreads – The Handmaid’s Tale
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
The Gunslinger – Stephen King
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
If We Were Villains – M L Rio
Goodreads – If We Were Villains
I sit with my wrists cuffed to the table and I think, But that I am forbid / To tell the secrets of my prison-house, / I could a tale unfold whose lightest word / Would harrow up thy soul.
Blackwing – Ed Mcdonald
Somebody warned them that we were coming.
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood
Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.
IT – Stephen King
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.
Vox – Christina Dalcher
If anyone told me I could bring down the president, and the Pure Movement, and that incompetent little shit Morgan LeBron in a week’s time, I wouldn’t believe them. But I wouldn’t argue.
So, what do you think of this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post? Do any of these catch your eye? What are your favourite opening lines? Let me know in the comments!
