College Students! discussion

"My life might have been so different, had I not been known as the girl whose grandmother exploded."

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant

"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air." - The Maze Runner

"Simon Cardoso had been dead thirty years when his wife, Emilia Dupuy, spotted him at lunchtime in the lounge bar in Trudy Tuesday." Purgatory by Tomás Eloy Martínez

"Call me Ishmael."

My favorite line right now! I read part of the book in high school and was blown away by the line.

I can't believe I've never noticed this post before! One of the most striking openings to any novel I've ever read comes from Savages by Don Winslow. The novel opens with just two words "F**k you".

I can't think of a more attention grabbing way to begin a story. With those two words, Winslow begins his tale of the savage drug trade.
-Ethan
http://e135-abookaweek.blogspot.com/

"Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead." A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

"'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast." Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.” The Princess Bride by William Goldman

"It’s freezing - an extraordinary 0 Fahrenfeit - and its snowing, and in the language that is no longer mine, the snow is qanik - big, almost weightless crystals falling in clumps and covering the ground with a layer of pulverized white frost.” Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

"It wasn't a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance." - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

"My father had a face that could stop a clock." - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

"Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you're dead." - A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air." - The Maze Runner by James Dashner

"The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure if it was worth all the effort." - The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

"Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds's life had reduced itself to the critical imperative of running." - Serenity by Keith R. A. De Candido

"I have sometimes wondered how it might have been if I hadn't opened my door that morning; hadn't said, 'All right, Trouble? Good to see you with your jabbing fingers, swinging fists and no insurance, household or medical.' Isn't that the way a cartoon story like mine's supposed to begin?" - City of Tiny Lights by Patrick Neate

The book I'm currently reading has a pretty good one:

"The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship." - Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach