We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

Ah yes, the opening lines to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If this were an article for 'Favourite book opening lines' this too would win out. No one has ever set you up for a story like Hunter S. Thompson does here in this paragraph. Hell, I could just put up the first sentence and that would convey what is to come. You are instantly transported to an insane scene that you, more than likely, have never been a part of. Is that not the point of stories? I believe it is.

But in this one paragraph you get the idea of the whole story to come. Drugs, fear, Las Vegas, high speeds, irresponsibility, hallucination and reality becoming one warped sense of what is around you. It will instantly compel the interesting people of this earth to continue with the story, and make the boring retreat to their holes. You can not hope for accomplishing much more in so few words.

Learn more about this author, Matt Yeoman.
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