The BEST Opening Lines in Books

There's probably few things more difficult for a writer than figuring out exactly how to start a book. Afterall, the first line of a novel is essentially a "hook." If you don't reel people in, they'll likely put it down and pick up something else instead. Think about some of the most famous opening lines, like Charles Dickens in a Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Or Melville's Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael". In this episode, Andy and I dive into some our favorite opening lines, passages, and pages. What are some of your favorite book openers? Here are the books mentioned in this episode: Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781590173244 Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson https://amzn.to/3xCGfIC Angels by Denis Johnson https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780060988821 Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781646052028 Memed My Hawk by Yashar Kemal https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781590171394 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781417735983 The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781590173466 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781982147174 Hamas: From Resistance to Regime by Paola Caridi https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781644211892 Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780316066525 Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780143039945 Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780679728757 It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781501110368 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780345816023 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780141439600 Jorge Luis Borgs Collected Fictions https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780140286809 The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781455540013 The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781250033314 Something Happened by Joseph Heller https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780684841212 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781451626650 The Recognitions by William Gaddis https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781681374666 Moby Dick by Herman Melville https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780142437247 The Stranger by Albert Camus https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780679720201 The Brother by Rein Raud https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781940953441 The Instructions by Adam Levin https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781952119736 Pay as you Go by Eskor David Johnson https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9781952119743 East of Eden by John Steinbeck https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780140186390 Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon https://bookshop.org/a/103053/9780312423209