Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. A full list of prompts, past and upcoming, can be found here. This week’s prompt: Opening lines
It has been over seven months since I last made a Top Ten Tuesday post, so I think I’m long overdue! So today I’m going to talk about opening lines!
This prompt was a fun one to come back with because I got to look back through books I’ve read and remember how each started. Since I don’t currently have access to all the books I’ve ever read—darn pandemic closing my library—I also looked through some books I own but haven’t read for this post. I don’t think that’s cheating…
Typically, I like to add a brief explanation or add to my choices. But for this prompt, I’d like my selections to stand on their own. After all, the words that should follow them are the words in the rest of the story, not mine. The prompt was purposely vague, which means I have to figure out which direction I want to take. I didn’t come up with any official criteria for this. I just went with my gut and compiled a list of opening lines I really like. Actually I tried not to think too hard about why I liked each because this is a blog post, not a literary essay.
Now, here are ten super great, cool, funny, awesome opening lines.
“It all started as a dare. Of course, at the time I didn’t know the dare would change my life.”
— Date Me, Bryson Keller by Kevin van Whye
“Riding a bike in the rain with a broken arm is never a good idea, but I’m the kind of guy who likes to make life more difficult, so that’s exactly what I do.”
— This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender
“Life is bullshit.
Consider your life for a moment… Think about the absurdity of life.”
— We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
“As far as he knew, she had come from the water. But even about that, he couldn’t be sure.”
— When The Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
“I’d read enough stories to know how they worked. You had your faraway settings and swoon-worthy characters (extra points for tossing in a manic-pixie-dream-girl or stubbly-faces bad boy.) Great books give us spine-tingling plots or twists that reach right into your lungs and snatch your breath… I knew about stories. Enough to realize I was sitting in the middle of one and already hated the ending.”
— The Library of Lost Things by Laura Taylor Namey
“It was clearly his fault I’d punched him in the face.
It was still the man’s fault when I did it again, and when I did it a third time, and when I did it the next twenty-one times. I lost count after that—his fault too, because I’m the kind of woman who keeps score.”
— The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco
“This is how I kill someone.
I learn his habits, I know his schedule. It is not difficult. His life consists of quick stops to the dollar store for the bare minimum of things required to keep this ragged cycle going, his hat pulled down over his eyes so as not to be recognized.
But he is. It’s a small town.”
— The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
“There was nothing quite like the first tick of a new heart.
The silver TICCER stuttered to life in Anna’s palm, its metal pulse a metronome moving in time with her own clockwork heart.
Tick. Tick. Tick.”
— Tarnished Are The Stars by Rosiee Thor
“The first time I went ice skating I absolutely fucking hated it. I was about five years ols and had begged my parents to take me to Montage Mountain, a small ski resort in Scranton, Pennsylvania. At the bottom of the mountain was the field for the Scranton Red Barons, the local minor league baseball team. In the winter they would turn the field into an ice skating rink to those who didn{t want to rick their lives on the bunny hills of the mountain could instead risk their lives on this makeshift pond, with at least fift people who would be wearing knives on their shoes and had no idea what they were doing.”
— Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon
“Once upon a time, Chloe Brown died.
Nearly.
It happened on a Tuesday afternoon, of course. Disturbing things always seemed to happen on Tuesdays. Chloe suspected that day of the week was cursed.”
— Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Do you have any favorite opening lines? Share them down in the comments!
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