Book lovers questions Archives

On JPC Allen Writes this month, we’re all about how to write the beginning to your novel. So my bookish question for Monday Sparks is what are the best opening lines from your favorite novels?

When I look at the first page of my favorite novels, it’s a bit of shock to realize that most of them don’t have memorable first lines. Most of my favorite novels are older, so there wasn’t the push that there is now to grab readers’ attention with the first sentence. Authors could take a couple of chapters to slowly reel in readers.

First line of the The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is the one memorable line among my favorite novels:

“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.”

But here some other opening lines from my favorite novels:

“It was an old plane, a four-engine plasma jet that had been retired from active service, and it came in along a route that was neither economical nor particularly safe.” fromFantastic Voyageby Issac Asimov

“The primroses were over.” from Watership Down by Richard Adams

“Grant lay on his white cot and stared at the ceiling.” from The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

“Don’t talk droopy talk,” Archie Carstairs said. “Mother can’t have lost a twelve-pound turkey.” from Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice.

These are all great novel, but they don’t have the hooks contemporary novels expect. So let me hear from you. What are the best opening lines from your favorite novels? And if your favorites don’t have a great opening line, tell me why you like the novel despite a less than stellar hook.

Here are more bookish questions for avid readers.

What have been your rescue reads? These are books that helped you through a difficult time. As a Christian, the Bible is my ultimate rescue read, but I’d like today’s prompt to focus on fiction. What works of fiction rescued you?

Shortly after I was married, moved to a new city, and began looking for a new job, I was dealing with severe anxiety. The funny, domestic stories of Erma Bombeck were able to lift my mind out of its anxious rut and make me smile or laugh. When I’m depressed, I love to lose myself in the humor stories of P.G. Wodehouse. In his unique, wacky world, a character’s biggest worry is getting jailed thirty days for stealing a police man’s helmet or battling the relatives of the girl he loves because they think he doesn’t have enough money. And in P.G. Wodehouse stories, love always triumphs over snobs, cads, and obstructive aunts and guardians.

So what fiction has been your rescue reads?

What books did you fall in love with second time around? I have read some books that I couldn’t stand, and then after the passage of time, I’ve given them a second chance and fell in love with them.

When I was twenty, I was working my way through classic mysteries. I’d already read Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, and Nero Wolfe, so I decided to try the Father Brown short stories. And I hated them. They seemed so unrealistic, and worse, weren’t fair play mysteries. In most of the stories, Father Brown solves the mystery because of a special insight that the reader had no opportunity to learn.

Twenty years later, I tried them again, although I don’t remember why. And I fell in love with them. I realized that not all mysteries have to follow the fair play formula. The Father Brown stories are more like morality plays or fairy tales for adults with elements of mystery rather than realistic crime stories.

At forty, I could appreciate G.K. Chesterton’s writing better. At his best, Mr Chesterton’s prose has a bounce and rhythm that makes it a breeze to read. I would love to be able to write that well some day.

Let me hear from you. What books did you fall in love with the second time around, maybe after a year or a decade or two had past?

For more bookish questions, click here.

Tag: Book lovers questions

Best Openings Lines from Your Favorite Novels

Rescue Reads

What Books Did You Fall in Love With the Second Time Around?

JPC Allen Writes

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