I saw this at Janet’s Across the Page, who saw it at Deb on the Run — and you can trace it back from there if you’d like. I don’t know who originated it. But I thought it looked like fun.

1. Pick 5 of your favorite books.

2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)

3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

I had to bypass a few favorites because a main character was in the first sentence, or, in a few biographies, the subject was named in the first sentence. And of course, A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorites but has one of the most famous opening lines ever. But here are five.

1. This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.

2. The first picture can scarcely be called a memory; rather, let it be just a family legend.

3. “If you go to China, it will be over my dead body. I will never consent,” was my mother’s bitter remark.

4. In 1815 Monsieur Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne.

5. There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

In a couple of cases there is a verse or quote at the heading of the chapter, but I quoted the first line of the actual text of the book. And in one case the first line is part of the introduction, but the introduction to that book is an essential part of it.

You can leave your guesses in the comments, but you might want to try to bypass looking at the comments if you’re trying to guess.

Let me know if you do this as well. And if you want to test your knowledge of more first lines, I found a fun quiz here. I got a 90% even though I hadn’t read all of the books mentioned.