Top Ten Tuesday : Opening Lines
26 May 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Opening Lines, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday
IMAGE CREDITS: Flaming phoenix by Sujono Sujono | Decorative phoenix by Tanantachai Sirival
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic is :
Opening Lines
So, this is fairly self explanatory. Gripping opening lines. These are my choices:
“It’s important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.”– Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
“When I was seven, I found a door.” The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow
“Dogs were with us from the very beginning.” A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by CA Fletcher
“Itami Cho woke to the screams of her own death. “ Never Die by Rob J Hayes
“Carolyn had been kidnapped twice in the past month, which was twice more than most people in a lifetime.” Sworn to the Night by Craig Schaefer
“When a welcome to a city comes in the form of being chased through it’s streets by a bloodthirsty mob, you might assume you’ve done something wrong.” Chasing Graves by Ben Galley
“My right arm is made of metal.” Fortune’s Fool by Angela Boord
“Two weeks before everyone died and the world changed forever, Finnbogi the Boggy was fantasising about Thyri Treelegs.” You Die When You Die by Angus Watson
“Of course, a sensible woman would never have accepted the invitation in the first place.” Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis
“The old spellmasters like to say that magic has a taste.” Spellslinger by Sebastien deCastell
Books and travelling with Lynn 
These are all awesome, and I’ve read many of these as well without realizing what great opening lines they had. I need to pay attention more 🙂
Yeah, I had to go and look through some of my favourite books to be honest – I don’t tend to save first lines and quotes too often but I enjoyed looking these up.
Lynn 😀
I loev the first sentence of Red sister, it immediately had me interested!
Great list!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Yeah, I love that sentence, it really is very dramatic!
Lynn 😀
I’m sure these are all really wonderful books and you loved them, but… for me, some of these opening lines well… sorry… nope! (Although one was so bad it was funny.)
Actually, they were all very good books and I really enjoyed them. Do you have some particular opening lines that you love??
Lynn 😀
Yes, but there are only a few. That’s why I didn’t do this TTT.
These are powerful beginnings, indeed, and the one that drew my attention more than the others was the one for Never Die (a book I already eyed with great interest…): a sentence about waking up to the screams of one’s own death is guaranteed to keep me reading! 😀
Yes, I thought that was a great opening for a really good book.
Lynn 😀
Great list of opening lines, Lynn 😀
Thanks Jessica 😀
I think the best first lines are the simple, short ones, and you’ve managed to find some good ones😁
It’s a lot more difficult finding opening lines than you would think. Unless you revert to trusty favourites.
These are all great choices!
Thanks 😀
You’re welcome!
Some great lines here – especially the ones about dogs and doors. I have always loved the cover of Sworn to the Night. I find it so mesmerizing!
It is a bit of an eye catching (and eye keeping) cover.
Lynn 😀
That opening line to Red Sister is great! It’s been on my TBR for years. I need to get to it.
It really is a fantastic quote and the book is full of lots more amazing and highly quotable writing.
I hope you love it.
Lynn 😀
I’m looking forward to getting to The Ten Thousand Doors of January here soon. In addition to other reading I’m trying to get to all the books I either got at Christmas for gifts or shortly bought thereafter, and this is one of them.
Hi Carl. Great to hear from you. I definitely recommend The Ten Thousand Doors, it’s a solid read. And, I hear you, I need to start reading some of my own books, I keep stocking up on them after all.
Lynn 😀
I have that and so many books just in the little bookshelf next to my recliner that keep taunting me, including Erin Morgenstern’s latest. It’ll happen.
The opening sentence of Red Sister has me immediately intrigued! 😀
My favorite opening line in your selection is the one for The Ten Thousand Doors because it set up the tone of the book perfectly! 🙂
It really does doesn’t it. When I was checking out first lines I was so happy when I read this one.
Lynn 😀
I particularly like the opening line of Red Sister – that made me laugh 🙂
It is a good opening line 😀
These are all fantastic. It’s interesting to see what authors choose to go with for opening a book too. They say (they being whoever my high school english teacher was talking about) that you gotta grab your audience from the get-go! 🙂
Yeah, I’ve also heard that although I’m not entirely convinced it’s true. I looked at a lot of favourite books for this, trying to come up with something different that the norm and you’d be surprised how many of the opening gambits are less than amazing, and yet the book then went on to be fantastic.
Lynn 😀
That’s true too!