Book Tuesday

Yesterday I posted the closing lines of Ulysses here, today my Book Tuesday is about Opening Lines.
How long does it take for a book to hook you? A whole chapter? The first fifty pages? Or just a few lines? Some books will grab us right from the beginning , you may not read much Dickens anymore but nobody will forget lines such as " It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." . Other books will need much more of our time until they can claim to be part of us. I have a little challenge for you, let's share our favourite opening lines.

Here are some of my favourites:

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ( from Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy)

Midway on our life's journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost. ( from The Divine Comedy, The Inferno, by Dante)

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.( from Emma, by Jane Austen)

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I've been turning over in my mind ever since. (from The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.(from The Hobbit, by Tolkien)

Have a nice day everybody!