I’ve got a nomination for the best first line of 2008. It’s from a short story; Bad Things by Libba Bray in The Restless Dead edited by Deborah Noyes.
It was Brian’s idea to go devil worshipping
Irresistible.
Another one I’ve read this year, though it was published in 2006, is from On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.
My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die. I counted. It happened on the Jellicoe Road.
I listened to this on CD and it was great.
8 January 2009 at 2:53 pm
my favourite of 2008 was:
“Last December a woman entered my apartment who looked exactly like my wife.”
– Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Galchen
8 January 2009 at 4:55 pm
I loved the first sentence in The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
“The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.”
2 February 2009 at 12:23 pm
“On the Jellicoe Road” won the Printz Medal! It was released in Australia in 2006 but only released in America last year – explains why I only read it this year I guess. For other Newbery winners check out
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/LiteraryPrizes/NationalBook/