Beginnings matter. Writers and English professors love to exchange their favorite first lines: “Call me Ishmael,” or “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

A well-crafted first line in an essay or book not only intrigues or “hooks” the reader, it also points to the theme. I had a colleague who loved to trace the structure of the whole book by dissecting the structure of the first paragraph.

Recently, a Facebook friend, Richard Kauffman, challenged his readers with this message: “find a more provocative opening line from a memoir than this: ‘The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.’–Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov. Or just post your favorite opening line/s from a memoir.”

“Being on the move, seeing what you have never seen before, not knowing where you will rest your head when night falls, receiving what comes as it comes, expecting everything and nothing; this is the allure of the canoe country.” Paul Gruchow, Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild.
What opening lines have arrested you? Please add your favorites in the comments section.  In the meantime, here are some fun links:  100 best first lines from novels and a similar list chosen by the editors of American Book Review and here’s one in the form of trivia.