The beginning of a book is crucial in getting the reader hooked. It can leave you with an impression of the book which lasts throughout and it can plant a seed that lasts with you long after you’ve finished. These are the best first lines (maybe 2) of books which do exactly what a first line must do; make you want to read the rest of the book.

10 Best First Lines Of Novels

1. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta; the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.” – Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

2. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

3. “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendi­a was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” – One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

4. “All this happened, more or less.” – Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut

6. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – 1984 – George Orwell

7. “This is not for you.” – House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski

8.”There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” – The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis

9. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel….” – Neuromancer – William Gibson

10. “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” – David Copperfield – Charles Dickens