Top 5 Wednesday: Favorite First Sentences

I have not done a top 5 Wednesday post in a while simply because I have not seen any topics I liked lately. I do really like this week's topic though - favorite first sentences. Below are the five that I chose. As usual, if you'd like to know more about Top 5 Wednesday, it is a Goodreads group and the link to the page is here.

1. Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen's beloved classic tale famously begins with: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." I just love this beginning. I think it is the epitome of Austen's humor and sets the tone for the entire novel.

2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

This is another favorite of mine. It opens with: "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." She goes on to describe a rainy cold day which sets a wonderful gloomy tone for this Gothic romance.

3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I know it is popular to criticize this book, but even haters have to admit that Meyer's epic vampire love story reinvented the entire YA paranormal romance literature as we know it and got scores of teens into reading. I also think most people will recognize the first line in this book: "I'd never given much thought to how I would die..."

4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This is one of my favorite sci-fi novels, and the first line definitely gives you a taste of what is to come: "Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest."

5. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

This is not the first sentence in the book because there is a one-page intro. But it is the first sentence of Chapter 1 in Part 1: "Aliens are stupid." I just love this line.