Opening lines

azewewish pointed me towards a list purporting to be The 100 Best Opening Lines in Literature. I read through it and they lost me when they listed the opening line from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford. Yes, it's the one about "It was a dark and stormy night" which is all iconic and all, but most people don't realize that it keeps going . . .

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

This was the line that inspired the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, where people compete to come up with the worst possible opening line for a theoretical novel. And here it is, listed as one of the best opening lines ever, most likely because Snoopy kept using the first seven words to open his own literary efforts.

So I pose a question--what, in your opinion, are the best opening lines in literature?

My personal favorite is and remains "My friend Hergal had killed himself again." (From Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun, my favorite book ever.)

What are your favorites?

Today I took pleasure in a proper lemon Coke.

Today I learned you can rent a truck from Home Depot for an hour for about twenty bucks.