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