You've just picked up a novel from that thrifty and obscure bookstore that nobody else knows about. This is the moment that decides everything, the moment where you decide if that book stays in your hand or if it goes back to the shelf, rejected. You open to the first page, and the first line feels like literal hands that have penetrated your chest and gripped your heart. Don't know what I'm talking about? Here are some noteworthy first lines of books that do exactly this:

1. "I am a sick man . . . I am a spiteful man."

— "Notes from Underground" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

An immediate statement of self deprecation, the beginning line of Dostoyevsky's marvelously existential masterpiece throws the reader into a continuous spiral. It makes you begin to question morals, self worth, and the overall human condition. Usually, the protagonist is one to be rooted for; in this case, there is an initial understanding that the character is, in fact, his own antagonist. Within the very first sentence, a lesson is taught. We are all a reflection of this "sick" and "spiteful" individual, and we are all our own adversaries.

2. "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins."

— "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov

A lot of people find this novel excessively creepy and altogether inappropriate. However, for those of you that feel that way and are reading this, let's just take a moment to appreciate this first sentence. This line is so good that Lana Del Rey uses it all throughout her lyrics. This line is sensual. It's on fire. It's passionate, and it draws you in -- whether you want to read about detailed pedophilia or not.

3. "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."

—"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

Every angsty teenager has probably read these lines and related to them, suddenly finding that who they are as a person was written in fiction years ago by a man named Salinger. The reader gains so much insight into who the main character is from this one run-on sentence. He is blunt, fed up, had a "lousy childhood," carries disdain for his parents, and is a generally pessimistic person. This book is a hit or miss with most people, but it is undeniable that this first sentence is golden in terms of its subtle implications and stylistic means of communicating to the reader.

4. "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo."

—"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce

Upon reading this opening line, one might automatically put this book down and proclaim, "This makes absolutely no sense." What one might really be saying, though, is "I do not have the energy to find out why this does make sense." James Joyce is a genius among writers, and his words cannot be prized simply for their ambiguity alone. This line can only be properly appreciated given the context of the information that follows. This is a story that the protagonist's father has told. As this is the very first line in a book about someone other than that father, one might gather that the aforementioned protagonist cannot yet identify himself with words of his own. He begins his narrative with the words of his father, and thus details the lack of security within his existence.

5. "It was a pleasure to burn."

—"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

This is, perhaps, the most simple example of an intriguing first sentence, intended to draw the reader's attention and provoke them to continue reading. This is frankly because it is a somewhat uncommon and illogical statement. "Burn" is a negatively-connotated word, so why would it be linked to the positively-connotated "pleasure?" When given the rest of the context, the reader realizes that this is in reference to the burning of books and the overall notion of conformity and complacency -- meaning an ignorant mind is a presumably content mind. Though this knowledge is contained in the lines that follow, they are all relative to this first sentence.

6. "It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York."

— "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

First of all, if you are an angsty teenager, I suggest you stick with "The Catcher in the Rye" to aid you during your search for identity. This book is a beautiful work of art. So beautiful that it is dangerous. My advice is to only read it when you are in a stable mindset so as not to be affected by its contagious air of inescapable depression.

Even so, Sylvia Plath is the master of condensed brilliance. After all, that is the skill of a poet. This opening line is beautiful, and perhaps that is all it needs to be. It is quirky, tragic, and uncertain, which is also a pretty good synopsis of the book and its author in a nutshell.

7. “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.”

—"The Stranger" by Albert Camus

Again, uncertainty strikes in the first sentence of a revolutionary text. It is deplorable, precarious, and hesitant. The groundwork is laid in a tone that stays consistent throughout the book. It is also interesting that this particular work of existential angst is initiated by a mention of death as well as ambiguity.

So the next time you're using an opening sentence to determine whether or not to invest your time into a few hundred pages of story, just remember that the author probably predicted that you would be doing just that and has tailored that one line to pique your interest, perhaps in the most peculiar of ways.