great opening lines

[sojourner]

Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he never washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. He had never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or of Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and which it would have been well if he had never heard.

The water-babies by Charles Kingsley.
My fourth favourite book as a child

It was one of my favourites too

 

[mojo pixy]

Off topic...
this isn't the first line of the book I'm reading but the first line of the chapter in it that I've just started:

Another idea of Hell current during the overwrought period of late antiquity was that people are in it even as they proceed about their daily life.

The History of Hell by Alice K. Turner

 

[Artaxerxes]

See Spot

 

[Wookey]

"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler."

Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler