11.03.2015

ten things tuesday

Linking up with Ten On Tuesday this week.

This week's topic is Write 10 Sentences That You Think Would Make Great Opening Lines for a Novel. Ok, I don't have the creative juices to write 10, so I'm choosing 10 of my favorites from literature I've read.

1) “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

2) “Don’t look for dignity in public bathrooms.” Victor LaValle, Big Machine (a book that was recently an answer to another meme question found here.)

3) "I'm pretty much fucked." Andy Weir, The Martian

4) “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

5) “The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.” Stephen King, The Gunslinger

6) “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.” Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

7) “The final dying sounds of their dress rehearsal left the Laurel Players with nothing to do but stand there, silent and helpless, blinking over the footlights of an empty auditorium.” Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

8) “My name is Kathy H. I am thirty-one years old, and I’ve been a carer now for over eleven years.” Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

9) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

10) "To start with, look at all the books." Jeffrey Eugendies, The Marriage Plot

5 comments:

Patty said...

The only book I've read there is The Metamorphosis in 11th grade! Probably worth a re-read!

Bonny said...

I loved The Martian, and the first line is a great lead-in. The Marriage Plot wasn't one of my favorite books, but I do love the opening line. Great list!

Honoré said...

Great selection. I just started The Martian and I have to agree, an opening line that really gets one's attention....

Cheers~

Paula said...

Loved this post. I pretty much have uttered the words to #3 many times myself. I will have to look into that book

The Gal Herself said...

Love these! I've never read Revolutionary Road, but having been so moved by the movie I can see how it fits. And yes, that line from Never Let Me Go really does set the stage, doesn't it?

Here's my fave first line: They threw me off the hay truck about noon." (James Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice)