Books First Lines

They say to not judge a book by its cover.  I don't, but, I do judge it by its first lines.

First lines printed on a page.  It can capture or lose readers.  

Reading a good one is like receiving an embrace and welcoming words from a new friend.  Encountering a bad one is like listening to a stranger with bad breath talk gibberish or hearing nails scratching on chalkboards.

Here are some first lines that I find arresting:
"It was love at first sight."
~Catch 22, Joseph Heller

"Woof!  Woof woof!  Woof!  Woof!  

Barking in the night.  Barking, barking.  I shriek but no one answers.  I scream but there's not even an echo."

~Nexus, Henry Miller

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.  My sin, my soul.  Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.  Lo.  Lee.  Ta."
~Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

"In the middle of the twentieth century three men were charged with the task of removing the tension between minute and vast things."

~Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, Lydia Millet

"Who is John Galt?"
~Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand




What are your favorite first lines?

♥

Bastardizing the Classics: Why oh why?

Today's mass market consumerism has affected the literary world as some authors and publishers are riding on the success of literary giants by combining their books with the taste current readers have for the paranormal.

Every time I browse in book stores and see shelves stacked with such books I am filled with awe (not the good kind).

Why oh why, talented authors and publishers of today, have you decided to do this...

and this...

 and this?

Your "co-authors" are dead by now.  They cannot agree or disagree with your actions.  It is unfair.  It is treason.

Talented authors and publishers of today, I am sure you have more creative juices flowing in you.  You can do better than this.  Please labor for genius to produce awesome books that will stand the test of time.


Not only with the undead are the classics being butchered.  Following the baffling popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, the classics has been bastardized for the adult fiction readers.  Shame shame shame.

Anna Karenina

I've read the book a couple of times.  Each time I read I get to see and feel differently for the characters.

Anna is one of those types I would love to hate.  But seeing things from her perspective I felt compassion for her.

Alexei Karenin is the character, who at first, I felt compassion for but in the end disliked.

As for Vronsky,  I hated him from beginning to end.

In the chaos of affairs Levin and Kitty are the only ones who emerged well from their struggles.

And then the movie... trailer.

Doesn't it look dazzling?

I can't wait to see how they will portray all those anti-heroes and how they will interpret the values, or lack of it, that buzz around them.

Have you read the book?  Are you excited to see the movie?

♥