TOP TEN TUESDAY | FIRST LINES

First lines aren’t everything, but they can really set a book up. That said, there are very few that I remember. I’m going back through some of my books to try and find some good ones, but I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot! (Also included a couple from books I haven’t finished yet, but that made an impression!)

Travels by Michael Crichton

“It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw.”

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (because of course)

“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.”

Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

“California, Labor Day weekend… early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levi’s roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur… The Menace is loose again, the Hell’s Angels, the hundred-carat headline, running fast and loud on the early morning freeway, low in the saddle, nobody smiles, jamming crazy through traffic and ninety miles an hour down the center stripe missing by inches… like Genghis Khan on an iron horse, a monster steed with a fiery anus, flat out through the eye of a beer can and up your daughter’s leg with no quarter asked and none given; show the squares some class, give em a whiff of those kicks they’ll never know…”

Naked at the Albert Hall by Tracey Thorn

“I don’t do nostalgia gigs.”

Patient by Ben Watt

“Everyone is shocked by their first real hospital experience.” (This is the first line of the preface, but it’s technically the first line of the book, and it’s the one that reached out and grabbed me, so I’m ruling that it counts.)

The Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson by William McKeen

“He was wired different.”

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak

“My mother was convinced I’d die young.”

May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes

“Do you want my recipe for disaster?”

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

“Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.”

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

“We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life.”

The Martian by Andy Weir

“I’m pretty much fucked.”

Well, I think that about rounds up this post. I mean, where do you go from there? I’d love to hear which books you guys picked this week. Have you read any of these? Any favourites? Have any of these first lines piqued your interest?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.