Opening Lines
I don’t remember how this tradition started, but it’s something I’ve always done: Whenever I buy a new book, I make it a point to find Alison and read her the opening sentence of the first chapter. We also do this while browsing bookstores together, ceremoniously pausing to consider the first few words of a book that snags our attention. Here are a few of my favorites:
“Now in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world I came to myself in a grove of young pines and the question came to me: has it happened at last?”
-Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins
“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”
-Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
“It was a dark and stormy night.”
-Madeline L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
-Stephen King, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger
What about you? What are some of your favorite sentences, opening or otherwise?
Other Stuff
Currently Watching:
Silo (season 2)
Severance (obviously)
Currently Reading:
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process, Joe Fassler
Florida, Lauren Groff
Have a great weekend,
-GW
“Wild nights are my glory.” - L’Engle (good line)
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” - Tolstoy (first line)
I keep thinking about these two particular lines from My Antonia:
“She lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true.”
And:
“I wondered whether the life that was right for one was ever right for two.”
I’m trying to be better about writing down my favorite lines and quotes, so I love this!