Here are the first lines from a few of the 26 books sitting on my TBR shelf:
First Line: If there had ever been such a thing as a Miss Muslim contest, all but one of the women in my family would have won it.
Title: Salaam, Paris by Kavita Daswanit
Genre: Chic Lit/Women's Fiction
First Line: She was a young woman in a plaid coat and cap, neither tall nor short, dark nor fair, not quite pretty enough to turn a head: the sort of woman who could, if necessary, lose herself in a crowd.
Title: Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman
Genre: Non-fiction biography about Nelly Bly's race around the world.
First Line: It is always my opinion, that fewer women were undone by love than vanity; and that those mistakes the sex are sometimes guilty of, proceed, for the most part, rather from inadvertency, than a vicious inclination.
Title: The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless by Eliza Haywood
Genre: Classic Fiction
First Line: Purity Drake tried to struggle as the long needle of the syringe sank towards her arm, but the leather straps on the restraining table were binding her down too tight.
Title: The Rise of the Iron Moon by Stephen Hunt
Genre: Steampunk Science Fiction
First Line: That year at Christmas time, every morning dawned laced with frost under leaden skies.
Title: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Genre: Literary Fiction
Which would you read first?
I hope everyone has a happy Fourth of July!
And Happy Reading!
Great first sentences, I can imagine this does not make it easier to choose! (good luck with that :-) )
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
Yeah, it's hard having so many good books to choose from. ;-)
DeleteThe Rise of the Iron Moon! Wow. That's one hell of a first sentence.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? I really liked the last Stephen Hunt book I read, so I'm hoping this one is just as good.
DeleteI love this idea! I keep track of first sentences and post them all at the end of the year, but this is more fun. :-) I love a first sentence that grabs me right away.
ReplyDeleteEighty Days would get my vote of all of these. I actually started to read that one once, but got distracted and never got back to it. Nelly Boy is one of my favorite women in history.
First sentences can make or break a book for me; nothing beats a really good one. I love Nellie Bly, too. I've read a few books about her, but I still couldn't resist buying this one. :)
DeleteMy choices are exactly in the order you have listed them. That first one is terrific, and I like the title, too. Nellie Bly has long been of interest in fact and fiction. :)
ReplyDeleteThose are my top choices, too. It's doubly nice that one's fiction and one's non-fiction. Makes a nice combination if I decide to read them both. :)
DeleteInteresting first lines! I find that first line from The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless the most intriguing. I love first line that grabs my attention. Sometimes you can just tell if the story is good based on that, isn't it? :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree!
DeleteI love first lines! It's true what they say about first impressions.
ReplyDeleteI'd read the Nelly Bly book first.
It sounds good, doesn't it?
DeleteI would probably go with the Zafon, since I've been meaning to read that series for forever!
ReplyDeleteI loved his other two books, but I read them so long ago I keep thinking I should reread them before I read this one. But that obviously hasn't happened, so maybe I should just read this one. :)
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