Books With Our Favorite First Lines
- List of the Month
- Juin 2023 (see all)
- Description
- First impressions are powerful, and the first lines of the books we read can pack quite a punch. Our List of the Month this June is devoted to the books with our favorite first lines. Each participant may vote on ten titles. Please do not downvote titles, as judgment in these matters is subjective.
1
de Jane Austen
80,707 membres
1,369 critiques
½ 4.4
Score 85.94
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 03:36 PM
- 25 Members
- rosalita, anglemark, LadyUndomiel, magnetgrrl, mldg, dewasus1, lizzy50usa, saskia17, amanda4242, merrystar, victoriapeak, sturlington, kleh, susanbooks, michigantrumpet, ahef1963, AbigailAdams26, barefootsong, asiralh, Boand, steller0707, teesamai, loulourevisited, PeanutNoir, PureChaos
- Explications
- amanda4242: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
2
94,469 membres
1,189 critiques
½ 4.3
Score 61.76
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 03:30 PM
- 19 Members
- scampus, LadyUndomiel, kleo, yoyogod, abbottthomas, dewasus1, sharder, amanda4242, masterdeski, merrystar, perennialreader, ahef1963, flying_monkeys, timetunnel, msjudy, msemmag, barefootsong, mirryi, PeanutNoir
- Explications
- amanda4242: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
3
- 17 Members
- rosalita, Cecilturtle, magnetgrrl, dewasus1, sturlington, kleh, perennialreader, Porua, souloftherose, tina1969, ahef1963, msemmag, Boand, steller0707, HH_Library, loulourevisited, PeanutNoir
- Explications
- rosalita: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again"
4
36,686 membres
456 critiques
3.9
Score 52.16
Ajouté 2023-06-08, 06:04 AM
- 17 Members
- LadyUndomiel, paradoxosalpha, lahochstetler, dewasus1, PitcherBooks, merrystar, kleh, perennialreader, Tess_W, Boand, CharlesTheB, TMCTX, Tosta, HH_Library, loulourevisited, PeanutNoir, PureChaos
- Explications
- paradoxosalpha: 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, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
5
- 16 Members
- lorax, Cecilturtle, paradoxosalpha, kleo, sturlington, souloftherose, susanbooks, katemcangus, al.vick, ahef1963, AntonioGallo, asiralh, steller0707, CharlesTheB, tekitora, PureChaos
- Explications
- al.vick: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."AntonioGallo: Phrases such as "Big Brother is watching you" and "doublethink" have entered the lexicon and are often used to describe similar situations in modern times.
6
38,814 membres
720 critiques
4.2
Score 47.68
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 09:12 AM
- 16 Members
- LadyUndomiel, paradoxosalpha, yoyogod, abbottthomas, elenchus, Porua, al.vick, ahef1963, kristilabrie, timetunnel, SandraArdnas, asiralh, steller0707, DoomLuz, PeanutNoir, PureChaos
- Explications
- al.vick: "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."
7
de C. S. Lewis
25,423 membres
258 critiques
4
Score 45.13
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 03:44 PM
- 16 Members
- scampus, LadyUndomiel, sharder, lizzy50usa, saskia17, amanda4242, masterdeski, merrystar, sturlington, EMS_24, al.vick, ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda, asiralh, steller0707, slimikin
- Explications
- ManWithAnAgenda: There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it
8
24,714 membres
525 critiques
4.1
Score 42.09
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 03:15 PM
- 13 Members
- hipdeep, anglemark, magnetgrrl, masterdeski, merrystar, dougb56586, souloftherose, Debashis.book, barefootsong, Boand, steller0707, HH_Library, slimikin
- Explications
- merrystar: "Marley was dead, to begin with."
9
- 14 Members
- rosalita, Cecilturtle, LadyUndomiel, magnetgrrl, sturlington, RBeffa, katemcangus, Tess_W, barefootsong, steller0707, DoomLuz, slimikin, PeanutNoir, PureChaos
- Explications
- rosalita: "IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN."
10
- 13 Members
- Cecilturtle, LadyUndomiel, lahochstetler, dewasus1, saskia17, Cecrow, PitcherBooks, kleh, perennialreader, katemcangus, Tess_W, CharlesTheB, HH_Library
- Explications
- perennialreader: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
11
de Dodie Smith
9,207 membres
294 critiques
4.1
Score 33.85
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 03:43 PM
- 12 Members
- dewasus1, lizzy50usa, saskia17, merrystar, EMS_24, perennialreader, souloftherose, ManWithAnAgenda, steller0707, HH_Library, PeanutNoir, PureChaos
- Explications
- ManWithAnAgenda: I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.
12
2,328 membres
38 critiques
4
Score 33.68
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 11:49 AM
- 12 Members
- anglemark, pitjrw, abbottthomas, dewasus1, elenchus, victoriapeak, kleh, RBeffa, susanbooks, Boand, steller0707, loulourevisited
- Explications
- susanbooks: The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
13
- 10 Members
- rosalita, pitjrw, sturlington, Porua, ahef1963, msemmag, ManWithAnAgenda, asiralh, steller0707, DoomLuz
- Explications
- ManWithAnAgenda: No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.
14
- 9 Members
- hipdeep, kleo, GuyMontag, Cecrow, elenchus, souloftherose, vwinsloe, timetunnel, Mguod
- Explications
- Cecrow: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
15
de Karl Marx
15,098 membres
137 critiques
½ 3.5
Score 23.07
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 11:55 AM
- 8 Members
- paradoxosalpha, pitjrw, elenchus, kleh, susanbooks, ahef1963, elahrairah, PureChaos
- Explications
- susanbooks: A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism.
16
39,462 membres
961 critiques
4
Score 22.57
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 11:07 PM
- 8 Members
- Aquila, Cecilturtle, LadyUndomiel, dewasus1, masterdeski, TMCTX, Tosta, PureChaos
- Explications
- Aquila: "It was a dark and stormy night."
17
- 7 Members
- scampus, dewasus1, saskia17, Tess_W, al.vick, AbigailAdams26, barefootsong
- Explications
- AbigailAdams26: “All children, except one, grow up."
18
44,433 membres
696 critiques
4.2
Score 20.18
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 12:04 PM
- 6 Members
- lorax, pitjrw, kleo, perennialreader, SandraArdnas, CharlesTheB
- Explications
- SandraArdnas: Many years later as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. (...) The world was so recent that many things lacked names
19
- 6 Members
- paradoxosalpha, magnetgrrl, elenchus, AntonioGallo, barefootsong, slimikin
- Explications
- paradoxosalpha: When I had journeyed half of our life's way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.AntonioGallo: I prefer "Inferno" since it is known for its exploration of moral and ethical issues. Dante uses the sins and punishments of the various characters to comment on the nature of sin, justice, and divine retribution. This gives the book a timeless quality that continues to resonate with readers today. Life, sometimes, is just like Inferno
20
de Sylvia Plath
28,103 membres
503 critiques
4
Score 16.23
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 03:42 PM
- 6 Members
- lahochstetler, susanbooks, msemmag, ManWithAnAgenda, Tosta, HH_Library
- Explications
- ManWithAnAgenda: It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.
21
de Martha Wells
5,507 membres
345 critiques
4.1
Score 16.09
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 11:25 PM
- 5 Members
- lizzy50usa, souloftherose, asiralh, Tosta, slimikin
- Explications
- souloftherose: "I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module..."
22
de Donna Tartt
20,345 membres
556 critiques
4.1
Score 14.96
Ajouté 2023-06-12, 06:15 PM
- 5 Members
- lahochstetler, sturlington, msemmag, teesamai, jsclar
- Explications
- sturlington: 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.
23
18,463 membres
1,265 critiques
4.1
Score 14.69
Ajouté 2023-06-09, 08:10 PM
- 5 Members
- saskia17, flying_monkeys, msjudy, Tosta, HH_Library
- Explications
- saskia17: The circus arrives without warning.
24
- 5 Members
- rosalita, elenchus, ahef1963, SandraArdnas, Tosta
- Explications
- SandraArdnas: All this happened, more or less.
25
23,794 membres
987 critiques
4.2
Score 14.27
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 09:17 AM
- 5 Members
- chin2chin, masterdeski, Tess_W, al.vick, HH_Library
- Explications
- al.vick: Prologue: "People disappear all the time."
26
de E. B. White
36,151 membres
1,025 critiques
4.2
Score 14.1
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 09:17 AM
- 5 Members
- Cecilturtle, lahochstetler, elenchus, rodwms, PureChaos
27
- 5 Members
- Cecrow, CharlesTheB, Tosta, HH_Library, loulourevisited
- Explications
- Cecrow: "Call me Ishmael."
28
24,862 membres
530 critiques
½ 4.3
Score 13.72
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 01:20 AM
29
12,525 membres
258 critiques
4.1
Score 13.02
Ajouté 2023-06-16, 02:59 AM
- 4 Members
- anglemark, msemmag, CharlesTheB, kay.emme
- Explications
- anglemark: "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, 'If on a winter's night a traveler'."
30
- 4 Members
- al.vick, timetunnel, HH_Library, PatrickBenner
- Explications
- al.vick: "I'm pretty much fucked."
31
de Isak Dinesen
5,232 membres
99 critiques
3.9
Score 11.58
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 05:02 PM
- 4 Members
- otori, kleh, perennialreader, loulourevisited
- Explications
- otori: “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”perennialreader: I had a Farm in Africa.
32
de Henry James
10,831 membres
125 critiques
3.9
Score 11.06
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 03:42 PM
- 4 Members
- PitcherBooks, EMS_24, ManWithAnAgenda, Boand
- Explications
- ManWithAnAgenda: Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
33
- 4 Members
- amanda4242, susanbooks, barefootsong, slimikin
- Explications
- amanda4242: "No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine."
34
- 3 Members
- scampus, ianreads, sturlington
- Explications
- sturlington: The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.
35
478 membres
12 critiques
3.8
Score 9.94
Ajouté 2023-06-08, 12:11 AM
- 4 Members
- paradoxosalpha, magnetgrrl, yoyogod, elenchus
- Explications
- yoyogod: The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
36
37
- 4 Members
- scampus, elenchus, susanbooks, ManWithAnAgenda
- Explications
- susanbooks: Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin.
38
15,973 membres
384 critiques
4
Score 9.4
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 10:55 PM
39
- 3 Members
- anglemark, sharder, loulourevisited
- Explications
- anglemark: μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος / οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί᾽ Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε᾽ ἔθηκε
40
36,215 membres
742 critiques
4.1
Score 9.23
Ajouté 2023-06-19, 06:43 AM
- 3 Members
- sharder, barefootsong, Mark.Milton
- Explications
- barefootsong: "Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen."
41
42
- 3 Members
- Cecilturtle, Boand, CharlesTheB
- Explications
- Cecilturtle: Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.
43
11,142 membres
183 critiques
4.2
Score 8.17
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 11:35 AM
- 3 Members
- Cecilturtle, kleh, susanbooks
- Explications
- susanbooks: For a long time I used to go to bed early.
44
- 3 Members
- anglemark, kristilabrie, msemmag
- Explications
- kristilabrie: "Have you ever tasted a Whitstable oyster?"
45
de Jon Stone
5,168 membres
105 critiques
½ 4.5
Score 7.84
Ajouté 2023-06-15, 11:29 PM
- 3 Members
- hipdeep, EerierIdyllMeme, lahochstetler
- Explications
- EerierIdyllMeme: On the copyright page: "This is a very dull page. What is on the next page?"
46
11,297 membres
157 critiques
4.1
Score 7.69
Ajouté 2023-06-09, 08:08 PM
- 3 Members
- saskia17, PitcherBooks, merrystar
- Explications
- saskia17: Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree.
47
- 2 Members
- vwinsloe, SandraArdnas
- Explications
- vwinsloe: "If this typewriter can't do it, then fuck it, it can't be done."
48
17,466 membres
425 critiques
½ 4.3
Score 6.75
Ajouté 2023-06-12, 06:16 PM
- 3 Members
- merrystar, sturlington, ManWithAnAgenda
- Explications
- sturlington: There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself—not just sometimes, but always.
49
50
- 2 Members
- SavvyScot, amanda4242
- Explications
- amanda4242: "to wound the autumnal city."
51
19,141 membres
347 critiques
4
Score 6.46
Ajouté 2023-06-09, 08:09 PM
52
20,692 membres
276 critiques
4.1
Score 6.4
Ajouté 2023-06-19, 09:45 PM
- 2 Members
- msjudy, PeanutNoir
- Explications
- PeanutNoir: "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."
53
de Isak Dinesen
2,112 membres
22 critiques
4
Score 6.4
Ajouté 2023-06-14, 08:39 PM
- 2 Members
- victoriapeak, RBeffa
- Explications
- RBeffa: I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.
54
1,267 membres
82 critiques
½ 3.5
Score 6.38
Ajouté 2023-06-08, 05:51 PM
- 2 Members
- LadyUndomiel, asiralh
- Explications
- asiralh: “Once upon a time on a small, watery, excitable planet called Earth, in a small, watery, excitable country called Italy, a soft-spoken, rather nice-looking young gentleman by the name of Enrico Fermi was born into a family so overprotective that he felt compelled to invent the atomic bomb.”
55
de H. G. Wells
18,415 membres
309 critiques
3.8
Score 6.25
Ajouté 2023-06-11, 02:14 PM
- 2 Members
- hipdeep, fvenez
- Explications
- hipdeep: No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were being scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
56
10,294 membres
284 critiques
4
Score 6.04
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 01:56 PM
- 2 Members
- rosalita, abbottthomas
- Explications
- abbottthomas: It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills.
57
- 2 Members
- paradoxosalpha, SandraArdnas
- Explications
- paradoxosalpha: There were angels in the glass, two four six many of them, each one shuffling into his place in line like an alderman at the Lord Mayor's show.
58
de Emily Brontë
52,026 membres
704 critiques
3.9
Score 5.92
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 05:27 PM
59
60
61
62
2,361 membres
35 critiques
3.8
Score 5.42
Ajouté 2023-06-20, 05:31 PM
63
1,263 membres
37 critiques
3.8
Score 5.35
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 05:03 PM
- 2 Members
- pitjrw, perennialreader
- Explications
- perennialreader: Take my camel, dear, said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
64
6,532 membres
171 critiques
3.9
Score 5.29
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 02:58 PM
- 2 Members
- rosalita, katemcangus
- Explications
- rosalita: "A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which, to look ahead."
65
de James Joyce
21,214 membres
217 critiques
½ 3.7
Score 5.21
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 12:06 PM
- 2 Members
- Cecrow, CharlesTheB
- Explications
- Cecrow: "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo...."
66
de Harper Lee
78,522 membres
1,434 critiques
½ 4.4
Score 5.13
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 05:13 PM
- 2 Members
- kleo, perennialreader
- Explications
- perennialreader: When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
67
30,525 membres
451 critiques
4.1
Score 5.02
Ajouté 2023-06-14, 12:27 PM
- 2 Members
- CharlesTheB, loulourevisited
68
- 2 Members
- paradoxosalpha, elenchus
- Explications
- paradoxosalpha: Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.
69
4,120 membres
83 critiques
4.2
Score 5.02
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 09:13 AM
- 2 Members
- al.vick, SandraArdnas
- Explications
- al.vick: "This isn't at all what I expected. In 1985, by some sort of journalistic accident I was sent to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine to look for an almost extinct form of lemur called the aye-aye. None of the three of us had ever met before. I had never met Mark, Mark had never met me, and no one, apparently, had seen an aye-aye in years."
70
- 2 Members
- EerierIdyllMeme, CharlesTheB
- Explications
- EerierIdyllMeme: There once lived, at a series of temporary addresses across the United States of America, a traveling man of Indian origin, advancing years, and retreating mental powers, who, on account of his love for mindless television, had spent far too much of his life in the yellow light of tawdry motel rooms watching an excess of it, and had suffered a peculiar form of brain damage as a result.
71
72
18,735 membres
884 critiques
½ 4.3
Score 4.77
Ajouté 2023-06-20, 06:06 PM
73
4,729 membres
150 critiques
4
Score 4.76
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 09:15 AM
74
7,536 membres
191 critiques
4.2
Score 4.63
Ajouté 2023-06-09, 08:12 PM
75
- Member
- kristilabrie
- Explications
- kristilabrie: "In eighteenth century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages."
76
13,943 membres
246 critiques
4.1
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-07-02, 10:57 AM
77
- Member
- Micheller7
- Explications
- Micheller7: “It was Wang Lung’s wedding day.” I have remembered this line for about 65 years.
78
- Member
- dud5ers
79
- Member
- sharder
80
12,222 membres
120 critiques
3.9
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-15, 10:13 PM
- Member
- EerierIdyllMeme
- Explications
- EerierIdyllMeme: It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport".
81
10,761 membres
142 critiques
4.1
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-06, 05:07 PM
- Member
- paradoxosalpha
- Explications
- paradoxosalpha: A screaming comes across the sky.
82
de V. E. Schwab
7,406 membres
324 critiques
3.9
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-19, 02:40 PM
83
de Michel Faber
6,747 membres
197 critiques
3.9
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-07, 05:30 AM
84
- Member
- perennialreader
- Explications
- perennialreader: So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration.
85
5,981 membres
97 critiques
3.9
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-08, 04:52 AM
86
87
4,163 membres
232 critiques
4.2
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-15, 12:50 AM
88
- Member
- LibraryCin
- Explications
- LibraryCin: Three days before her death, my mother told me -- these weren't her last words, but they were pretty lose -- that my brother was still alive.
89
3,464 membres
131 critiques
½ 3.7
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-19, 09:31 PM
- Member
- PeanutNoir
- Explications
- PeanutNoir: "They threw me off the hay truck about noon."
90
91
1,794 membres
39 critiques
4.2
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-07-23, 11:04 PM
- Member
- exhocforte
- Explications
- exhocforte: "It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
92
- Member
- abbottthomas
- Explications
- abbottthomas: Mr Salteena was an elderly man of 42 and was fond of asking peaple to stay with him.
93
- Member
- barefootsong
- Explications
- barefootsong: "When I was nine years old, I hid under a table and heard my sister kill a king." This first line has stuck with me since I first read this in sixth grade.
94
95
- Member
- AbigailAdams26
- Explications
- AbigailAdams26: Mr. C'Mere's first line: "Humans were diggers and buriers, the cat thought, like dogs." Zoë's first line: "I'd hoped for better, Henry's being a heart doctor. A job like that, you'd think he might actually have a heart."
96
100 membres
1 critique
4
Score 4
Ajouté 2023-06-13, 03:30 PM
- Member
- prosfilaes
- Explications
- prosfilaes: It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
97
- Member
- EMS_24
- Explications
- EMS_24: 'Except for the man who thought Sarphatistraat was the most beautiful place in Europe, I have never known a more curious fellow than the 'bummer/ deadbeat/ .'' - "Behalve den man, die de Sarphatistraat de mooiste plek van Europa vond, heb ik nooit een wonderlijker kerel gekend dan den uitvreter."
98
100
- Member
- katemcangus