Favourite first lines from book?

Rebecca for me too. But also Lolita, I listened to the audiobook with Jeremy Irons reading. His lazy hypnotic voice draws you in. Disturbing and awful!

netflixfan I’ve only seen (a long time ago) the original film with James Mason and tbh, didn’t know there’d been a re-make with JI or an audio version. I’ve just had a quick Wiki read and apparently the two films take a different approach from each other to the book. I disliked the original, and know I wouldn’t like the re-make any better.

There was no possibility of a walk that afternoon

Lixy and Bluesky's choices for me.

At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin.

The Secret Life of Bees

Marley was dead, to begin with.

A Christmas Carol.

Esmay

Callistemon - I enjoyed A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian because Valentina burst into their lives a " fluffy pink grenade "

Yes, I was going to quote it all but deleted the second sentence.

I must re-read it.

An aside, grannydarkhair - my granddaughters know me as yellow hair nana and the other nana is black hair nana!

Callistemon -you are very well read .

I had to smile when I opened this thread. The first two replies were those that I would have given. The one I use most often is a slightly garbled version of ‘there was no possibility of taking a walk that day’

‘I exist’ Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson. Direct and to the point. My favourite book.

Esmay

Callistemon -you are very well read .

Lot of books but probably all the "wrong" ones ? Esmay

Esmay I've been lent a book or three by a friend who said "You'll enjoy this, the prose is beautiful. It received critical acclaim"

Having persevered through the first chapter I've abandoned them although I don't like doing that, usually struggling through to the end.

“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf……”

The one that really sticks in my mind though and for which I have absolutely no use is:
“Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres…..”!
Latin O level has a lot to answer for!

Thanks, Katek, your post reminded me of this:
Arma virumque cano qui Troia primus ab oris...
The beginning of the Aeneid. Not a lot to show for seven years of Latin!

Troia Troiae

From Out of Africa
"I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”

Also from the film.

Callistemon -
I also have had a few books ,which have been highly recommended and I've not been able to get into them . If I' m not enthralled by the end of the third chapter - they get abandoned !
It reminds me of some of some of my sewing projects !

There's a huge list of books ,which I've loved and can reread .

I agree - I was thrilled by the opening lines of Lolita ,Rebecca and Out of Africa .

They were books , which lived up to their promise !

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Once upon a time there were three little kittens and their names were Moppet, Mittens and Tom Kitten.

I've remembered that one since I was four. In those days I knew the whole book by heart.