First lines

One thing I always look at when I pick up a book is the first line. No duh, you might say. How else are you going to read it, from the middle? Well, most folks do peruse the back cover copy, and the inside flap if there is one. I don't just read the first line, I study it. Does it have a hook? Is there a hint of things to come? And, of course, is the writing any good?

Here are some great first lines:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Call me Ishmael.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

It was a pleasure to burn.

You better not never tell nobody but God.

I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one.

Those are great lines. Here are a few from some of my own short stories and a few novels I have in progress:


Uri Baeck suffered a rare form of Ediatic memory; complete, vivid, and--as verified by countless scientists--utterly reliable.

Crouched beside a scorched heap of oak limbs, Jason Aves emptied his mother's urn into her favorite cookie tin.

Zack kept everything that mattered locked away, controlled and contained.

Though he'd fought the bloodlust for weeks, Xal craved exuberant life, pristine blood.

So what about you, faithful one or two readers, any favorites?