What is your favorite opening line of a book?

[NoblePhilistineFox]

Even at the end the road, there is a road.

 

[Dok Zombie]

Here are a couple I like...From The Book of General Ignorance, Stephen Fry's foreword is pretty good.
'People sometimes accuse me of knowing a lot. "Stephen," they say, "you know a lot".' (Pretty typical Stephen Fry, really)
'

Foreword by Stephen Fry. Four words by Alan Davies.

"Will this do, Stephen?"

 

[dls182]

Here are a couple I like...From The Book of General Ignorance, Stephen Fry's foreword is pretty good.
'People sometimes accuse me of knowing a lot. "Stephen," they say, "you know a lot".' (Pretty typical Stephen Fry, really)
'

Foreword by Stephen Fry. Four words by Alan Davies.

"Will this do, Stephen?"

All I can do is smile at this. =)

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking Thirteen." - Nineteen Eighty Four.

Also, you sniped me to some extent, so I had to think of some others

 

[Spaghetti]

"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams.

First time I read that line, I fell off my chair from the giggles. Plus it's kind of sort of true, is it not?

 

[AlphaOmega]

I am post-everything, post-me, post-multinational, post-moral, post-us,

Charles den Tex - Cel

 

[Wolfinton]

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

 

[Daemascus]

The explosion, later categorized as in the near equivalent of 60 kilotons of TNT and centered on the University of Central Florida, occurred at 9:28 a.m. on a Saturday in early March, a calm spring day in Orlando when the sky was clear and the air was cool and, for Florida, reasonably dry. It occurred entirely without warning and while it originated at the university the effects were felt far outside its grounds.

Into The Looking Glass, by John Ringo

Starts with quite a bang...

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Listen:
Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.

-Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

 

[Cain_Zeros]

"You *****, you killed me! You suck!"-You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

 

[Fetzenfisch]

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
by Stephen King

Yup thats the best opening

Spoiler

And the best ending for the last of the series i could have imagined

 

[Proteus214]

"Who's there?"
-Hamlet

I list this one only because I did an entire paper on the significance of this line in relation to the rest of the story.

 

[Rob_Zander]

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. He lay on his armour-hard back and saw, as he lifted his head up a little, his brown, arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections. From this height the blanket, just about ready to slide off completely, could hardly stay in place. His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes.
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
It goes downhill from there.

 

[Pompey71]

"This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun".

The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

 

[Dr. Paine]

"If you enjoy books with happy endings than you are better off reading some other book."

Lemony Snicket, The Bad Beginning.

 

[Uncreative]

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

This. Most definitely this.

Jim Butcher is my hero.

 

[el_wezley]

I, Lucifer, Fallen Angel, Prince of Darkness, Bringer of Light, Ruler of Hell, Lord of the Flies, Father of Lies, Apostate Supreme, Tempter of Mankind, Old Serpent, Prince of This World, Seducer, Accuser, Tormentor, Blasphemer, and without doubt Best Fuck in the Seen and Unseen Universe (ask Eve, that minx)

I lucifer
Glen Duncan

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somwhere."

- The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham.

Nice choice

KATHY says
Hiya handsome, how's it going? Haven't seen you on here for AGES! I was starting to worry.

TOM says
Oh, Kathy, my dear. You've forgotten again, haven't you? Sometimes I can't bear it, I really can't.

Corner of the Eye - Steven Moffat

Hitchikers was in there as well, as well as the classic
Call me Ishmael.

 

[Wolfiesden]

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (RIP)

 

[Gingernerd]

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

What a wonderful hook! The Crow Road by Ian Banks.

 

[dls182]

Another one, this time from Watchmen
Rorschach's Journal. October 12th, 1985:
Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face.