[maxbendick]

You've found the right market. There's an awful lot of tech folk who don't read but want to feel like they do.

I gotta rep my favorite though, even if it's typical. "Call me Ishmael." It's not the narrator's actual name - he just feels like an outcast. It sets the pace for the mythic and worldly talk throughout the book. A high bar with complete follow-through. I'm a total sucker for it.

[gabriel666smith]

I'm with the pedants on this one, in that I'd argue the prologue is inseparable from the novel, and the first line would be either be:

"(Supplied by a late consumptive usher..."

or:

"The pale Usher-threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now."

But straight fire either way. And, when it comes down to it, that "Call me Ishmael" is considered so consistently as the novel's opening line makes it the opening line. A testament to its power :-)

[maxbendick]

Can't argue with that! And what a prologue it is.