Literary Pick up Lines

by Donna MacMeans

A good book is a bit like a date. You browse the bookshelf, looking for those attributes that speak to your inner passions. If you like the look of the book, you might sample a few pages to see if you can invest a couple of hours with this guy...er...story. Does it interest you? Stimulate, maybe? Makes you linger over your latte to slip in a few more pages?

Following my dating analogy, the first couple of lines would be the pick up lines - engineered to spark your interest, engage your attention, encourage you to take the book home to curl up with between the sheets. (And they wonder why the sale of romance novels is booming (grin)).

Writers (and lounge lizards) know that first lines are really important. Authors tend to rewrite them, trying to get just the right cadence, the right tone to hook your interest. My first line for The Seduction of a Duke inspired the rest of the story. Unusual for me, but true. I'm been to Newport Beach in Rhode Island and could vividly see this scene. Here's what I wrote for the beginning of Chapter 1 - the prologue came later:

"With all the malice she could muster, Francesca Winthrop whacked the wooden croquet ball beneath her foot, sending her mother's ball careening across the manicured lawn, over the edge of the Newport cliffs, and possibly into the blue gray waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Pity, it wasn't her mother's head."

Can you tell I was going for a chuckle, a smile, a bit of curiosity as to why Francesca was ticked?

Here's another first line - not mine - but one of my favorites.

"Thursday, March 17, I spent the morning in anxiety, the afternoon in ecstasy, and the evening unconscious." Dick Francis, Risk (1977)

How about this one? "It was understood throughout the great Northern Continent of Zantalia that assassins were invariably male. Clutching
the marriage contract in one hand, Kalena stood on the wide threshold of the Traders' Guild Hall and considered what it meant to be an exception to that rule." Jayne Anne Krentz, Crystal Flame (1994)

One more - this from fellow bandita Kate Carlisle :

"My teacher always told me that in order to save a patient you'd have to kill him first." Homicide in Harcover (2009)

About ten years ago, I asked other authors to send me their favorite first lines in books they had read. Being the basically anal accountant that I am, I kept track of how many first lines opened with humor, suspense, dialogue, description etc. and kept that information duly filed. I'd like to revisit that study and see if times and first lines have changed. I'm thinking I can incorporate this into other statistics I've accumulated about well-written books. So I'm asking for your help.

Tell me your favorite first lines from any book. Be sure to include the title and author. If you don't have any favorite first lines from books, pick up lines will do (grin) but I'd really prefer lines of a more literary nature. I'll compile the lines submitted and report back about 11:00 PM EST the results for any interested participants. Of course, prizes (yes - that's plural) will be awarded.

So hit me with your best literary pick up.