Today let’s compare the beginning lines of two books by Stieg Larsson for Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. After you’ve published, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!
We start reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest next week for The Bestseller Code 100 challenge, which means the computer algorithm picked the third book of a trilogy as the best. Karen and I decided we should read the books in order, so we will be reading three books this time. Wish us luck!
Book 1:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*
Summary: This is the first book in the trilogy. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and prodigy Lisbeth Salander team up to investigate the disappearance of a woman forty years before.
First sentence of the Prologue:
It happened every year, was almost a ritual.
First sentence of Chapter 1:
The trial was irretrievably over; everything that could be said had been said, but he had never doubted that he would lose.
Book 2:
The Girl Who Played with Fire* by Steig Larsson
Summary: In the second book in the trilogy, Mikael Blomkvist tries to clear Lisbeth’s Salander’s name after she is implicated in a murder.
First Sentence of the Prologue:
She lay on her back fastened by leather straps to a narrow bed with a steel frame.
First sentence of Chapter 1:
Lizbeth Salander pulled her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose and squinted from beneath the brim of her sun hat.
Discussion:
Looking at all the first lines, I was struck how different they are from one another.
Between the two books, it looks like the first chapter has shifted focus from Mikael Blomkvist (the reporter) to Lizbeth Salander.
What do you think of the first sentences of the prologues versus the first sentence of chapters? Should the first sentence of a prologue “hook” for the reader or should it be the first chapter, because some readers skip the prologue?
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What are we reading next for the Bestseller Code 100 Challenge?
If you ever have questions about what we are reading next or when we’re starting the next discussion, check the 100 Book List tab in the navigation bar at the top of the blog.
The next book is number 94 on the list, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest by Stieg Larsson (Third in a series, originally published in 2007) -Discussion begins January 30, 2017.
