Scott Hotes: February 2008 Archives

The other day I was discussing famous first lines (from novels that is) with a friend. Here are my top 5:

When I was young, I used to think of ways to kill my daddy.
  -- Kaye Gibbon, "Ellen Foster"

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in it's own way.
  -- Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenina"

Call me Ishmael.
  -- Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"

This is the most beautiful place on earth.
  -- Edward Abbey, "Desert Solitaire"

A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.
  -- John Kennedy Toole, "A Confederacy of Dunces"