Favourite first lines from book?

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.

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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 !

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 .

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

Also from the film.

Troia Troiae

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!

“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!

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.

Esmay

Callistemon -you are very well read .

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

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

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’

Callistemon -you are very well read .

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

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.

Marley was dead, to begin with.

A Christmas Carol.

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

Lixy and Bluesky's choices for me.

There was no possibility of a walk that afternoon

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.

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!

“Lovely woman my Mam.”

I knew right away I had to read it with a mental Welsh accent!

Alexander Cordell, The Rape of the Fair Country.

Love some of the above as well.

"The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there."

The Go-Between L P Hartley.

“I was ten years old when I first saw the inheritance and twenty years old when I first saw Janna Roslyn, but my reaction to both was identical. I wanted them.”

Penmarric by Susan Howatch.

I was 14 when I first read this book and the opening lines still stay put in my head. I found it fascinating.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking 13 ( I think ?) ....I did it for English lit o level.... 1984