[habosa]

If you live in SF, go to the Booksmith on Haight street and look up on the walls on the left side of the store. They have the first line of many famous novels, printed without context. I was shocked at how many I knew, even though if it had been posed to me in reverse (How does {book x} begin?) I would have had no idea.

I'm not even a very attentive reader, but I guess some of these really great opening lines will stick with you forever.

Two of my favorites:

  * "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

  *  “I’ve been cordially invited to join the visceral realists. I accepted, of course. There was no initiation ceremony. It was better that way.”