First sentences from my stash

I began an exercise today in taking note of how authors began their book, to see what it was about a first sentence that engaged a reader. Interesting results, so I thought I’d share them from my eclectic collection (not all, just ones that grabbed me). Here they are (book cover first, then first sentence from that book):

“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

“This book is largely concerned with Hobbits, and from its pages a reader may discover much of their character and a little of their history.”

” ‘We should start back,’ Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. ‘The wildlings are dead.'”

“It was an odd-looking vine.”

“”When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”

“Rek was drunk.”

“I awake every morning with ink on my hands.”

“The woman struggled through the knee-deep snow, the bundle of dead wood she had tied to her back almost as great a burden as the weight of the child in her belly.”

“She came out of the store just in time to see her young boy playing on the sidewalk directly in the path of the grey, gaunt man who strode down the centre of the walk like a mechanical derelict.”

“In the hall of light, they reminded her of her destiny.”

“I’d never given much thought to how I would die…”

“Miss Alexia Tarabotti was not enjoying her evening.”

“Dear Diary,

Something awful is going to happen today.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

“Stealing eggs is a lot harder than stealing the whole chicken.”

“Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal light is you have to die.”

“I felt her fear before I heard her screams.”

“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.”

Post your favourite line in the comments.