Saturday, March 22, 2014

The 13 Greatest Opening Lines from Novels of the 1960s

Here's a little light reading for you. Found this article on whizzpast.com and thought we'd share it:

Publishers sometimes say that getting someone to pick up a novel is half the battle won. But once that book is held in the palm of a potential reader’s hand, it’s up to the first line to grab their attention and never let it go. Arguably, (other than maybe the closing line), there’s no sentence more important than the opening line. A book, of course, won’t stand or fall on the very first line of prose, but a really good opening tells the reader what to expect in terms of language, plot and character. It should be compelling, mysterious, poetic or shocking. It should make the reader want to immediately sit down in the middle of the aisle and carry on reading.

It’s no surprise then that writers and readers...(continue reading)

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