First Line Of Your Favorite Book?

[Lizzy911]

"It was a dark and stormy night."
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle

I loved all of her books, The Arm of the Starfish, The Young Unicorns, A Ring of Endless Light, A Slowly Tilting Planet, A Wind in the Door, etc.  

[Flynn MacCumhaill]

I have several, and of those I know there are at least two repeats.

"Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians."
-- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell; Susanna Clarke

"The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile abouve the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards."
-- A Wizard of Earthsea, the Earthsea Quartet; Ursula Le Guin

"This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history."
-- The Fellowship of the Ring, the Lord of the Rings; J. R. R. Tolkien

"Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it."
-- Nightwatch; Terry Pratchett  

[Catherine of Aragon]

"It was a dumb thing to do but it wasn't that dumb"-Sunshine by Robin Mckinley  

[Lariren Shadow]

"I hope any of my descendants reading this know exactly what the Covenant and the Code of War are, but there is always the chance that my story has been copied by scribes and taken to another land that wil consider Remalna distant and its customs strange."

Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith

"Kaye took another drag on her cigarette and dropped it into her mother's beer bottle."

Tithe by Holly Black

"Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf's cloak."

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

"Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

"The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry."

Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson

"The summer I was fourteen, my uncle Jaxon took me with him on an expedition to hunt for aliora."

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn  

[queenathena]

"There we were, miding our lives with thesame obedience as a clock ticking."
-Becoming Naomi Leon  

[Tamuril Luniwe]

"Out of a land laid waste/To a land untamed/Monster ridden. The lad Drualt led/A ruined, ragtag band/In his arms, tenderly/He carried Bruce/The child king/First ruler of Bamarre," - From 'The Two Princesses of Bamarre' by Gail Carson Levine.

And of course

"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit," - From 'The Hobbit' by JRR Tolkien  

[Rusien]

"How long will it take the world to end?"
-Nightfall: Rise of the Vampyre  

[gemela_dos]

"How does one describe Artemis Fowl?"
-Artemis Fowl

"Twilight was gathering and Orpheus still wasn't here."
-Inkspell  

[Acesha Coeurl]

Confused, number, her mind refusing to accept what Theseus had demanded, Ariadne stumbled in the sand, sinking to her knees with a sound that was half sigh, half sob.

Opening Line to Hades Daughter, book one of the Troy Game by Sara Douglass.  

[Aeliara]

"Ishmael!" I call as I skip down the gangplank of the Pequod, my seabag on my shoulder. "Good sailing to you!"

-Under the Jolly Rodger, Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber by L A Meyer  

[indian_horse2003]

I have quite a few and even some that I can't look up the first line of. (I know at least 1 that hasn't been said wink )

"A beginning is the time to take the most delicate care that the balances are correct" - DUNE, Frank Herbert

"When is legend legend?" - Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey

"Gramma, is that man following us?" - Into the Land of the Unicorns, Bruce Coville

"The crudely built cart lurched and bounced over the rough coralite terrain, it's iron wheels hitting every bump and pit in what passed for a road." - Dragon Wing, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

"The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened." - The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan

(along with Harry Potter by JKRowling, LOTR by JRRTolkien, His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, The Outstretched Shadow by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, and more)

Last but most dear to my heart: biggrin

"In the beginning there was one universe, one world, one people." - (UNKNOWN), Me!!! I have over 23,000 words and still don't have a name for it sweatdrop , but it's my pride and joy! 3nodding heart  

[Rastinon]

The dying slave lay screaming.
I know that sounds wrong, but that is the first line to the book, "Magician: Master" by Raymond E. Feist, which is the second volume in the Riftwar Saga.

The book starts out with our intrepid hero trapped as a slave on another world. The first book is a must read simply to get the back story. However, the second novel is quite possibly the best of all four novels in the saga.

There's nothing quite like this passage:
[Milamber] swept past the shocked Hochopepa, saying only, "See to the Emporer's safety." Milamber was now reeling with the impact of sudden emotions, bottled up for years, now surging free. A strange and powerful certainty struck him. I am not Tsurani! he acknowledged to himself. I could never be a party to this. For the first time since donning the black robe, his two natures were in harmony. This was a dishonor by the standards of both cultures, something that filled him with a dread purpose free of any doubt.
Save those near the imperial box, the crowd was chanting, "The sword, the sword, the sword," demanding a warrior's death for each man below. The rhythm became a pounding pulsebeat for Milamber, heightening his nearly unchecked fury.
Reaching a point between the magicians and the imperial box, Milamber regarded the soldiers and carpenters rushing onto the arena floor. The stunned Midkemians and Thuril were being bound like animals for slaughter ...
A black flood of anger, loathing, and sorrow poured through Milamber. His mind screamed in outrage, despite his attempts to control it. His head tilted back and his eyes rolled up into his head, and as had happened twice before in his life, letters of fire appeared in his mind's eye. But never before had he the strength to seize the moment, and with a nearly animal joy he dove into the newly opening well of power within. His right arm shot forward and energy exploded from his hand. A bolt of blue flam, scintillating even in the sunlight, hurled downward, to strike the sand amid the Warlord's guards. Living men were swept in all directions, like leaves before the wind. Those just entering with materials for the scaffolding were knocked to their knees by the blast, and those in the lower seats were stunned by its fury ...
Milamber tensed, suffused with anger. Twice before in his life, when attacked by the trolls and when fighting with Roland, he had reached into a hidden reservoir of power and drawn upon it. Now he tore aside the last barriers between his conscious mind and those hidden reserves ...

That's enough to hopefully make your mouth dry and wanting more of an awe inspiring book. The actual scene goes on for almost a chapter and frankly I'm too tired to type in the whole thing. As it is, that's one of the most visually stunning scenes of raw wizardly power that I have ever read. Toward the end of the scene, Milamber has almost leveled an entire coliseum.

Nuff said!
 

[Killer_Cactus23]

"Look where you will, bold adventurer, for as far as the eye can see, there is nothing." Rose of the Prophet 1: The Will of the Wanderer, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Not my all-time favorite book, but one of them, and definitely my favorite opening line.

indian_horse2003

"The crudely built cart lurched and bounced over the rough coralite terrain, it's iron wheels hitting every bump and pit in what passed for a road." - Dragon Wing, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

^THAT is my favorite book (well, series, actually).  

[Rastinon]

Killer_Cactus23

"Look where you will, bold adventurer, for as far as the eye can see, there is nothing." Rose of the Prophet 1: The Will of the Wanderer, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Not my all-time favorite book, but one of them, and definitely my favorite opening line.

indian_horse2003

"The crudely built cart lurched and bounced over the rough coralite terrain, it's iron wheels hitting every bump and pit in what passed for a road." - Dragon Wing, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

^THAT is my favorite book (well, series, actually).

I like Weis & Hickman, though perhaps my favorite series of their's is the Darksword Trilogy. I read the first five books of the Deathgate Cycle and then quit because of my ex-wife (long story - don't ask).