Richard Bradley, a long-time friend and colleague, has thought a lot about killer opening sentences of novels. He shares them in a post, Opening Lines, in his entertaining and educational blog, A Rock in My Shoe.
Richard mentions opening sentences from 11 famous novels that either turned him on or off with explanations of what makes them tick. You'll likely recall some of those openers, among them Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Lolita. Reading this piece inspired me to pick up One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, which also had me at hello. Check out Richard's own attention-grabbing opening sentence. And thank you, Rich, for recommending a decade ago Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I could not put down.
Richard mentions opening sentences from 11 famous novels that either turned him on or off with explanations of what makes them tick. You'll likely recall some of those openers, among them Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Lolita. Reading this piece inspired me to pick up One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, which also had me at hello. Check out Richard's own attention-grabbing opening sentence. And thank you, Rich, for recommending a decade ago Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I could not put down.
