Favorite literary opening lines

Never heard of that, thanks for the clue.

Philip Wylie described himself as a Class B celebrity. This book was never wildly successful. In fact, I just read a review that gave it one of five stars. But it is one I like enough to have read three times.
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It happens to millions.
They sit in the doctor's offices trying to hide nervousness in the pages of magazines. Wondering what germs their predecessors have deposited in Life and Harper's Bizarre or Action Comics.

The nurse calls:
Mr. So-and-so. Mrs. So-and-so. Miss So-and-so.
They go in.
"Doctor," they say, "just lately I've begun to notice . . ."
They have begun to notice death.
And now the doctor notices too.

Millions of us, in this century, find out before angina curls us like insects in flame. Before the stone is lodged in its screaming cavity. Before the final, involuntary issue of bowel or bladder or foamy lungs.

It is one of the marvels of science.

"Tom," I said, for the doctor is an old friend, "lately I've noticed a fullness in my nasal passages. And this morning, before I flew down from the country, I looked at the back of my throat. Up behind the uvula. Something is - growing there."

"Let's take a squint."

Apaches, by Lorenzo Carcaterra, who also is the author of Sleepers.

Carlo and Anne Santori wanted nothing more than to be alone.

They had planned this weekend getaway for six months, their first one in fifteen years. No kids, no phones, no work, nothing but music, dance, and a little bit of romance at the Jersey shore.

They left behind their fifteen-year-old son, Anthony, to care for the house and his twelve-year-old sister, Jennifer. They felt that both children were old enough to be trusted, allowing them to enjoy a short respite from the daily grind of parental responsibility. Carlo handed Anthony the house keys and three simple instructions --- don't stray from the neighborhood, set the burglar alarm and lock the house, and never let Jennifer out of your sight. The boy stared at his father and swore to obey all three.

Anthony, however, had his own plans for the weekend.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Carcaterra

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
~Douglas Adams

Summer's here.
Not just summer, either, not this year, but the apotheosis of summer, high green perfect central Ohio sumer dead-smash in the middle of July ,white sun glaring out of the fabled faded Levi's sky, the sound of kids hollering back and forth through the Bear Street Woods at the top of the hill,thetink! of Little League bats from the ballfield on the other side of the woods, the sound of lawnmowers, the sound of muscle-cars out on Highway 19, the sound of Rollerblades on cement sidewalks and smooth macadam of Poplar Street, the sound of radios-Cleveland Indians baseball(the rare day game) competing with Tina Turner belting out "Nutbush City Limits", the one that goes "Twenty-five is the speed limit, motorcycles not allowed in it"-- and surrounding everything like an auditory edging of lace, the soothing,silky hiss of lawn sprinklers.

The Regulators- Stephen King (As Richard Bachman).
I normally despise overly long single sentence book openings but this one is a keeper.

Sleepers, by Lorenzo Carcaterra, Ballantine Books

I sat across the table from the man who had battered and tortured and brutalized me nearly thirty years ago. I had imagined him to be in his sixties---he had seemed so old to me back then---but, in fact, he was in his late forties, less than a decade older than me. His thinning hair was combed straight back, and his right hand, trembling and ash white, held a filter tip cigarette. His left hand clutched a glass of ice water. He looked at me from behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses, his brown eyes moist, his nose running, the skin at its base red and flaky.

"I don't know what you want me to say," he said in a voice devoid of the power it once held. "I don't know where to start."

The Tattoo Murder Case, by Akimitsu Takagi; 1998, Soho Crime Series (I bought every Soho Crime book I've run across, about 50, and only disliked one.) This one is a translation.

It was the summer of 1947, and the citizens of Tokyo, already crushed with grief and shock over the loss of the war, were further debilitated by the languid heat. The city was ravaged. Seedy-looking shacks had sprung up on the messy sites of bombed-out buildings. Makeshift shops overflowed with colorful black-market merchandise, but most people were still living hand to mouth.

Even in formerly posh neighborhoods around the Ginza, the same pathetic scenario was being played out.

Another from Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

It was a time before human progress and modern machines, time of dragons and mystical beings of all kinds.

Just made that up. lol

Oh...

...I see....

Hows about ya get that published so we can all read (and of course critique) your epic tome?

So far it seems most mildly interesting but sounds like a Republican speech about how grand life was before dinosaurs and dragons were obliterated by Democratic hokey. Are you employed by old orange skin?

No it was actually a take off of J.R. Tolkien but paraphrased in my own words.

I don't think Tolkien had Donald Trump or flat earth religious freaks in mind.

People are often good at putting their own bias into someone else's innocent intent.

Please stay on topic, folks. There are a bunch of politics topics. This is not one of them.


- Don Quixote

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
~Junot Díaz

—Catch-22

In shirt sleeves, the way I generally worked, I sat sketching a bar of soap taped to an upper corner of my drawing board. The gold-foil wrapper was carefully peeled back so that you could still read most of the brand name printed on it; I'd spoiled the wrappers of half a dozen bars before getting that effect. This was a new idea, the product to be shown ready for the accompanying copy called "fragrant, lathery, lovelier you" use, and I had the job of sketching it into half a dozen layouts, the bar of soap at a slightly different angle in each.

from Time and Again by Jack Finney

New to me, thanks for intro,

"Like many cosmopolises, London is heterogeneous and multilayered, complex and contradictory. According to a 2000 United Nations census, London's greater metropolitan area included around seven and a half million inhabitants, making it the 26th largest city in the world."

From Style City London by Thames & Hudson I purchased the book for $3 at the local library.

London used to be my favorite city to visit in my youth. I was introduced to London when I was stationed in Morocco with the USAF for one year in the late fifties. They have some of the best museums and theater district. For visitors to London, they should also include Greenwich to visit the time meridian and clock museum, and the maritime museum.

@InfraBlue,
Nice!

There was nothing easy about it.

Ah, I may just know which book that is ....