Best Opening Scene Ever

Best opening scene EVER!

Let’s step back in time for a second. Little Baby Nova was living in Japan. Just out of college, in a dream job, living it up.

As an expat living abroad, books become a hot commodity. You have to leave your library behind. I mean, there’s only so much you can fit in your two allotted suitcases. And I, foolishly brought no books with me.

See, I double majored, double minored in college. I was also dorm president and worked two jobs. My last year in college, I had to write 10 25-page papers, my two senior projects and my reading list for classes had me clocking 50 page reads every night just to keep up.

So, as I was packing to leave for Japan, books were not top of mind. Japan has great bookstores, with decent selections of English language books even in the smaller cities. I knew I could get by.

AND… expats inherit books. It's like an underground floating library. When you’re getting ready to leave, boxes of books get packed up[ and handed off to whoever stays behind.

This also means you read some questionable shit.

(yes, that is me at 16 in my school uniform)

The first time I lived in Japan, I was 16, on my own, the only white girl in a private high school in the country (think like the boondocks of Iowa). And yet, my school had a whole aisle of dusty English language paperbacks. That year I read all the Stephen King novels published before 1990 and the ENTIRE original 1950s Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys series. Every single book.

Did I want to read Nancy Drew and her adventures in her little roadster? Absolutely not, but when that’s all you got, that’s what you read.

Now as an adult back in Japan, same situation. I remember being given a copy of Bridget Jones’ Diary, rolling my eyes, and shouting at the book as I read. But I read it four times before passing it on.

Back then, I was a bit of a snot with my reading choices. I was very much into reading the Japanese classics translated into English like Yukiguni (Snow Country), Silence, Musashi.

I was huge into Banana Yoshimoto, reading the English translation alongside the original Japanese. (My spoken Japanese was great, my reading level was OK. My writing was for shit though).

My best friend at the time, Steve, had been hounding me, HOUNDING, to read his favorite book. Literally, every time we were drinking at his house, he’d try to make me go home with it. Back then, I’d read pop chick lit before I would even think about touching science fiction.

Steve stopped by my house on his way out of town for a quick 5 day trip and proceed to absolutely read me to filth for not reading this book. He shoved it in my hands and laid down an ultimatum - If I didn’t finish the book by the time he came back, I would not be allowed over for another game night until I did.

Fuck me.

I was reading science fiction then. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

I rolled my eyes, poured myself a beer and curled under my kotatsu and cracked open my first science fiction book.

I think it was two pages before I was totally blown away.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson has perhaps the best opening scene I have ever read in any novel. Period.

This was pretty much my reading experience.... 

The Deleverator? What the fuck was that? Arachnofiber? Made of spiders? "Gritty Jello". Huh, interesting choice of words? Ugh, Steve, what have you got me into?

I'm sorry, what? Pizza delivery? You can't mean...

JFC the Deliverator is a pizza delivery guy? I like the name Hiro. I was dating a guy named Hiro.

Hold on... the mafia runs pizza delivery?

I dive into the rest of the chapter. I was moved, enthralled, scared, excited, The first 10 pages are a thrill ride like nothing I had read before. Technical, minute details of pizza deliver are handed to you and you are scared out of your mind about what happens when the pizza deliver is late.

The SECOND I learn the characters name is Hiro Protagonist I'm done for. I don't sleep again until I finish the book. And I read it twice more before I have to give it back to Steve. Neal Stephenson becomes one of my favorite authors and I become totally entralled by how he crafts a whole world for you to get lost in.

It was then that I knew I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to take people on the same kind of journey.

My worlds however, are a lot smuttier.

So, tell me... what was the best opening scene of a book you've ever read?

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