First Lines: Philip Baruth

In the rare event that one man must follow two others without being observed, follow them closely from first light to summer dusk, certain conditions are best met.

The Brothers Boswell

Philip Baruth

First Lines: Biblical authors

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Bible

First Lines: John Barth

George is my name; my deeds have been heard of in Tower Hall, and my childhood has been chronicled in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Giles Goat-boy

John Barth

First Lines: Anita Brookner

Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.

A Start in Life

Anita Brookner

First Lines: Ray Bradbury

It was a pleasure to burn.

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury

First Lines: Jim Butcher

I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual. He didn't sound right. His footsteps fell more heavily, jauntily, and he whistled. A new guy. He whistled his way to my office door, then fell silent for a moment. Then he laughed.

Storm Front

Jim Butcher

First Lines: Saul Bellow

I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.

The Adventures of Augie March

Saul Bellow

First Lines: John Berendt

The air still smelled of charcoal when I arrived in Venice three days after the fire.

The City of Falling Angels

John Berendt

First Lines: Bill Bryson

I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.

The Lost Continent

Bill Bryson

First Lines: Saul Bellow

What made me take this trip to Africa? There is no quick explanation. Things got worse and worse and worse and pretty soon they were too complicated.

Henderson the Rain King

Saul Bellow

First Lines: Anita Brookner

Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.

The Debut

Anita Brookner

First Lines: Samuel Butler

When I was a small boy at the beginning of the century I remember an old man who wore knee-breeches and worsted stockings, and who used to hobble about the street of our village with the help of a stick.  

The Way of All Flesh

Samuel Butler

First Lines: Iain Banks

Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you’re told you deserve whatever you get.

Transition

Iain Banks

First Lines: Benjamin Black

It was not the dead that seemed to Quirke uncanny but the living.

Christine Falls

Benjamin Black

First Lines: T.C. Boyle

She was running late, always running late, a failing of hers, she knew it, but then she couldn't find her purse and once she did manage to locate it (underneath her blue corduroy jacket on the coat tree in the front hall), she couldn't find her keys.

Talk Talk 

T.C. Boyle

First Lines: Jim Butcher

The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.

Blood Rites

Jim Butcher

First Lines: Peter Benchley

The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.

Jaws

Peter Benchley

First Lines: Richard Bausch

They went on anyway, putting one foot in front of the other, holding their carbines barrel down to keep the water out, trying, in their misery and confusion--and their exhaustion--to remain watchful.

Peace

Richard Bausch

First Lines: Gabrielle Burton

Imagine all the roads a woman and a man walk until they reach the road they’ll walk together.

Impatient with Desire

Gabrielle Burton

First Lines: John Buchan

I returned from the City about three o'clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life.

The Thirty-Nine Steps

John Buchan