First Lines That Grab You!

I’ve been told that it’s important to start your book with an exciting, or at least intriguing, first line. For fun, here is a list of a few first lines. See if you can name the books they came from and their author. (My next blog will have the answers.)

1. “Where is Papa going with that ax?”
2. “Tom!”
3. The towers of Zenith aspired above the morning mist…
4. “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.”
5. The Mole had been working all morning spring-cleaning his little home.
6. On Friday, June 12th I woke up at six o’clock and no wonder; it was my birthday.
7. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man, in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
8. “That’s torn it!” said Lord Peter Wimsey.
9. Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
10. It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria.

Robin Hathaway