Will You Buy These Books Based on the First Lines?

Buying books is a personal thing. What one person loves the next one hates. Why you buy this book instead of that one isn’t the same reason I buy those books. Covers, descriptions, reviews, word of mouth are all used to make buying decisions. But will you buy these books based on the first lines?

Image of an open book with a pirate on an island standing on one page and a pirate ship on the other page--but will you buy these books based on the first lines?

First Lines

The alley was dark and stank of piss and vomit. It was home for quick-footed rats and the bony, hungry-eyed felines who hunted them.

J.D. Robb, Rapture in Death

He, or very possibly she, was known as The Rose Thief. 

 Claire Buss, The Rose Thief 

Gramp Stevens sat in a lawn chair, watching the mower at work, feeling the warm, soft sunshine seep into his bones.

Clifford Simak, City

I was loving this. First day on the job and I was off to a possible location of the vamp killers.

Rose Montague, Jade

book cover The Left Hand of Darkness

I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness.

Kamakzi.

The word looped in my head, and I tasted it. Kamakzi.

Elin Peer, The Ruler (Men of the North Book 2) 

“Everywhere I turn, all I see is black. My vision drowns in cascading waves of darkness.”

Stella Fitzsimmons, The Plantation 

Note

All these books are available on Amazon. Interested? Copy the author name and title and paste it in the search bar of your favorite book selling site. 

There are no affiliate links in this post. These quotes caught my attention. I thought maybe they’d catch yours too. If you’d like more reading recommendations check out “Which Great Line Would Make You Read the Book?, my  Going to Mars Word-by-Word book reviews, and my Story Time Reviews series. And don’t forget to take a look at my own books, My Soul to Keep and Fellowship.

Will You Buy These Books?

Based on the First Line, these books sound interesting. I hope there’s at least one that spoke to you. Will you buy these books based on the first lines? Please share a favorite first line from a science fiction book you’ve bought and loved.

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