It was the best of times...

[sylvar]

I'm adding opening lines to a database to be selected randomly for the new library catalog.  I'm not planning to spend lots more time on the opening-lines database, but if there are some you'd like to suggest, please go ahead.

See the quotes here: http://bernie.tblc.org/suncat2/demo/

Comments

[segnbora.livejournal.com]

http://www.fatznew.com/First_Sentences/first_sentences.asp, particularly the beginning of Call of the Wild, Paul Clifford, The Catcher in the Rye, The Metamorphosis.

Also: "In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together." The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

"Marley was dead: to begin with." Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, by George Saunders: “It’s one thing to live in a small country, but the country of Inner Horner was so small only one Inner Hornerite at a time could fit inside, and the other six Inner Hornerites had to wait their turns to live in their own country while standing very timidly in the surrounding country of Outer Horner.”

"Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were." Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

[sylvar.livejournal.com]

Ooo, you're making me wish I had easy access to the database tonight so I could add most of these. (Paul Clifford isn't easy for most Sunline borrowers to get, so I'll leave it out.)

[segnbora.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of service. (Actually, I just looked at the 20 or so results of a Google search for: first sentences books )