The first line of a book is arguably the most important line in the text. A truly great author can tell the whole story in one line without the reader knowing it at the time. Here are my favorite opening lines in literature.

1. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." -- Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice"

Austen, you've certainly outdone yourself with this opening line. You've told the whole story in one sentence, and yet readers don't realize it until the end of the book. I love how Austen has used the first line of the book to present her opinions on traditional gender roles in the 19th-century Regency era.

2. "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were stricking thirteen." -- George Orwell, "1984"

I'm not a fan of this book (at the moment), but the opening line is intriguing. "Bright" and "cold" aren't words you typically find together to describe something, and, of course, clocks don't typically strike thirteen. Things are about to get interesting, folks. Dystopian, even.

3. "Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo." -- James Joyce, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

Stream of consciousness. Joyce does an incredible job of showing growth in his protagonist, particularly with age. This first sentence sets the tone: The young man is a young child at the beginning of the novel.

4. "You better not never tell nobody but G-d." -- Alice Walker, "The Color Purple"

This sentence gives me chills. You learn a lot about the narrator from this first sentence alone. First off, she is speaking in a traditional African-American vernacular, which helps us visualize what the character looks like, as well as what time period we're in. Second, she clearly has strong faith in a higher being, which represents how she views different things in her life. Third, clearly something traumatic has happened. She's setting a somber tone right from the beginning.

5. "When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." -- Franz Kafka, "Metamorphosis"

Kafka knows how to start a novel. Instantly, the reader has the protagonist's conflict thrown at them. It's as if Gregor's previous physical form isn't of importance. (Hmm, could that play into the novel? You should read it and see for yourself.)

Go read opening lines of books!