I’m that girl who picks up a book in bookstore and turns to the first page, not the back blurb, first. If the book gets me with the first line, I’m sold. Here are my 7 favorite opening lines in books. ( I really have about 1,000 but this is Saturday Seven not Saturday 1,000, so…heehee)
The seven best opening lines in books.
- Call me Ishmael – Moby Dick by Hermann Melville
2. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
—Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. “It was a bright, cold day in April. And the clocks were striking thirteen.” 1984 ~George Orwell
4. “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electricuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” The Bell Jar ~ Sylvia Plath
5. “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.'”
—The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. “We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.”
—The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
7. “It was a dark and stormy night” Snoopy via Peanuts & Charles Shultz
Since this is a progressive blog hop, let’s see what some of the other authors’ seven favs for the week are: SaturdaySeven
Peggy Jaeger, Author 
This is a fun topic, Peggy. You’ve assembled a collection of timeless beginnings.
I just finished a fantastic book by Joanne Harris (who wrote CHOCOLAT), called BLACKBERRY WINE, that had an amazing opening (or so I thought):
Wine talks. Everybody knows that. Look around you. Ask the oracle at the street corner; the uninvited guest at the wedding feast; the holy fool. It ventriloquizes. It has a million voices. It unleashes the tongue, teasing out secrets you never meant to tell, secrets you never even knew.
By the way, my Saturday Seven is here:
https://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2018/04/saturday-seven-seven-things-my.html
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That is a FABULOUS opening line!!! I lovelovelove Chocolat!! this one sounds great, too!
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The Handmaid’s Tale is one of my all-time favorite books. The opening line of it grabbed my attention immediately.
My SS post for this week: http://lydiaschoch.com/saturday-seven-classic-novels-ive-never-read/
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Loved those opening lines! Remember most of them well. And, I’m with you (although I DO read the blurb too)… if the opening of a book doesn’t hold my attention in the store or library, back on the shelf it goes. Here is my Saturday Seven: http://jhthomas.blogspot.com/2018/04/saturday-seven-books-on-my-bedside-table.html
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I’ll give a book about 10 pgs to grab me if I keep reading. It’s a little more than the first line, but not much. I’m pretty sure “Call me Ishmael” is the most famous first line EVER.
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I’ve read 4 out of the 7 of those titles you cited, and “Pride and Prejudice” is one of my favorites. I actually read the blurb first, an excerpt (if there is one) and then the first few pages. Thanks for sharing! My post is here: https://thereadingaddict-elf.blogspot.com/2018/04/saturday-seven-favorite-suspense-series.html
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I love that opening line by snoopy. We just used that for an author event 🙂
I’m late to the game, but here’s my link: https://wendizwaduk.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/saturday-seven-seven-series-i-couldnt-live-without-with-meganslayer-series-satseven-saturday7-books-love-longandshortreviews-lists/
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