Posted by The Broke and the Bookish, this is a weekly feature in which I and several other awesome book bloggers get to geek out about our favorite books. This week’s topic:

Top Ten Favorite Beginnings/Endings of Books!

Top Five Beginnings:

The Fifth Wave: This one had quite possibly the most incredible prologue I’ve ever read – and it only got better from there!

A Shadow in Summer: I picked this one up randomly at the bookstore and started flipping through it. Thirty minutes later I had to force my nose out of it long enough to let the cashier ring me up – I couldn’t put it down!

A Devil in the Details: This one survived the annual book purge of my library, saving itself with this stellar opening paragraph: “There’s a certain sound the human head makes when it hits the trunk of the tree. Meatier than a “crack”; not quite as hollow as a “thunk” – it’s unmistakable. And when it’s my head, I tends to take offense.” I died, I was laughing so hard.

The Wizard Hunters: This one also survived the purge with a great opening line: “it was 9 o’clock at night and Tremaine was trying to find a way to kill herself that would bring in a verdict of natural causes in court when someone banged on the door. ‘Dammit.'” Apparently, if you can make me laugh within the first paragraph, I’m hooked. This one gave me a giggle fit. 

Sword Dancer: What started out as slightly chauvinistic soon developed into a hilarious clash of man versus woman. I found it incredibly engaging.

Top Five Endings:

 I don’t think this section really needs a lot of extra commentary – I wouldn’t want to spoil the ending for anyone. ;) Suffice to say these endings were so profound that I’m still reeling from them years later – I love it when books can do that to me!

What top ten books made your list? :-)

by Niki Hawkes