Some Favorite Firsts

First impressions are important. They are often the glue by which we stick to something. At times they are Super Glue (the strength of which should not be underestimated) and other times they are the generic brand glue sticks that, upon removing the cap, you find empty.

What follows is a list of first lines (or two) from a sampling of some of my favorite books. To say that they ARE my favorite books would be wrong. Like when I tell James he is my favorite boy (something he loves to no end). I do not love him more than his brother. It is just that, simply put, he happens to be my favorite boy that I can see at that moment. So it is with these books. They, like the fruit of my womb, do not appear in any sort of ranked order. They just so happen to be books that I love that I can see at this moment.

1. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

2. "When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him."

3. "My suffering left me sad and gloomy. Academic study and the steady, mindful practice of religion slowly brought me back to life."

4. "The library is cool and smells like carpet cleaner, although all I can see is marble."

5. "A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

6. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

7. "My father’s name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip."

8. "It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs. Shears’s house."

9. "My brain was drowning in grease."

10. "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

There is something special about seeing these lines out of the context of the story. They are both wholly representative and entirely wrong. Some of them I want to change, to say, "No, that's not how the story goes!" Others I want to cuddle like a baby (which, in case you were wondering, is the time when Griffin gets to hear about how HE is, indeed, my favorite boy). But they are what they are--an entrance to a strange and wonderful land where you just never know what will happen next.

An Answer Key (what's that? You didn't know this was a quiz?)
1. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
2. McCormac, The Road
3. Martel, Life of Pi
4. Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
5. Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
6. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
7. Dickens, Great Expectations
8. Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime
9. Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
10. Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird