What is your favorite opening line of a book?

[Orcus The Ultimate]

"Charme de prunelles, tourment des coeurs, lumière de l'esprit, je ne baise point la poussière de vos pieds, parce que vous ne marchez guère, ou que vous marchez sur des tapis d'Iran ou sur des roses."

Zadig - Voltaire.

 

[Dudemeister]

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

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
by Stephen King

Goddamn it, that was what I wanted to use!

 

[zauxz]

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

 

[TheBritish]

Spoiler: Opening to Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel

"I start to get the feeling that something is really wrong. Like all the drugs put together - the lithium, the Prozac the desipramine, and Desyrel that I take to sleep at night - can no longer combat whatever it is that was wrong with me in the first place. I feel like a defective model, like I came off the assembly line flat-out fucked and my parents should have taken me back for repairs before the warranty ran out. But that was so long ago"

Back when I was younger this was my favourite book. I still like the opening passage. You know exactly what to expect

 

[hittite]

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...

...I wanted to use that one...
Oh wait, I have another one.

In the forest, a sparrow died.

The passing of the sparrow was registered and noted. The death of the female sparrow had been anticipated sometime in the next four days based upon increasing wear on her heart. The sparrow was old, had laid many eggs and had raised a higher than average percentage to successful fledgelinghood. The sparrow had contributed to the survival of her species and had passed on her genes. If she had pride, she would be proud.

On the other hand, the individual was not from a species that was listed as rare or endangered so it required no notification of any human.

So Mother, who had never paused in Her myriad duties, logged it and moved on. There were so many other things to do.

There Will Be Dragons, also by John Ringo

 

[Le_Lisra]

"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?

Seconded.

Also:

"Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream but he finished shaving before he did anything about it."

Or:

"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to."

 

[Skoldpadda]

The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort.

"The Light Fantastic", Terry Pratchett