# What is the first sentence from the book you are currently reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 20, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858 "2017-04-20T16:51:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1 "2017-04-20T16:51:33Z")
“I think it was my love of wrestling that first took me to the dance hall.” -from _Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink_ by Elvis Costello mmm ETA: Requested forum change to Cafe Society ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2 "2017-04-20T17:16:11Z")
_The primroses were over._ **Watership Down** , by Richard Adams. It was the one book I was forced to read in school that I liked, and after his death this year I wanted to read it again. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3 "2017-04-20T17:27:16Z")
[QUOTE=Raymond Carver] It’s August and I have not read a book in six months except something called _The Retreat From Moscow_ by Caulaincourt. [/QUOTE] From the poem compilation “All of Us: The Collected Poems”. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/4 "2017-04-20T17:33:20Z")
“Like most forms of corruption, it began with men in suits.” Real Tigers, (Slough House) third book in the series. Mick Heron ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/5 "2017-04-20T17:40:05Z")
How did the Marquis de Lafayette win over the stingiest, crankiest tax protestors in the history of the world? from\* Lafayette in the somewhat United States\* by Sarah Vowell mc ---
**Author:** ![Unabashed\_Fascist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c2a13f/32.png) [@Unabashed\_Fascist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unabashed_Fascist)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/6 "2017-04-20T17:56:15Z")
“Quantitative Finance is a highly complex interdisciplinary field, which covers mathematics, finance, and information technology; navigating it successfully requires specialist knowledge from many sources, such as financial derivatives, stochastic calculus, and Monte Carlo simulation.” - _Advanced Quantitative Finance with C++_ by Alonso Pena I try to read a technical book ever quarter, and I choose this one because I was interested (and super ignorant) regarding the techniques behind high frequency trading. The programs which do HFT need to make predictions and arbitrages really, _really_ fast, as billions of dollars are being moved around every minute. It’s some of the most optimal code around. The fiber optic cables which they use to connect the servers in the NYSE are all measured to be the exact same length, as even a foot of difference adds an additional 1.5 microsecond delay, which could be the difference between making or losing money. It’s like an enormously complex game of undeterminable size and dimension, with millions of moves made daily, all by highly efficient programs. It’s honestly kind of scary. I mean this is the backbone of the \*\*world’s \*\*economy we’re talking about here. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/7 "2017-04-20T17:56:43Z")
> [@](#): > > My favorite author, Edith Wharton, wrote in her autobiography, “My last page is always latent in my first, but the intervening windings of the way become clear only as I write.” So it has been with me as I have undertaken to make sense of my own path. - _All That is Bitter and Sweet: a Memoir_, by Ashley Judd. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/8 "2017-04-20T17:59:46Z")
“A large, clear plastic ball rolled across the Atlantic Ocean off Miami Beach.” **Clownfish Blues** , by Tim Dorsey. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/9 "2017-04-20T18:12:13Z")
> [@](#): > > That other book, which I made before, was named “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Maybe you remember about it. But if you don’t, it don’t make no difference, because it ain’t got nothing to do with this one. _Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians_ by Mark Twain ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/10 "2017-04-20T18:16:41Z")
“I’m not sure why I feel compelled to tell you this straightaway, for it was a plan I abandoned thoroughly long ago.” – **In Nevada** by David Thomson ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/11 "2017-04-20T18:24:51Z")
“To Athene then. Young Gnossos Pappadopoulis, furry Pooh Bear, keeper of the flame, voyaged back from the asphalt seas of the great wasted land: oh highways U.S. 40 and unyielding 66, I am home to the glacier-gnawed gorges, the fingers of lakes, the golden girls of Westchester and Shaker Heights.” – _Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me_, by Richard Farina ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/12 "2017-04-20T18:32:46Z")
“When word got about that Richard Jewell had been found with the greater part of his head blown off and clutching a shotgun in his bloodless hands, few outside the family circle and few inside it, either, considered his demise a cause for sorrow.” A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/13 "2017-04-20T18:42:34Z")
“It has been said that every great man deserves a biographer.” “Phule’s Company” by Robert Asprin. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/14 "2017-04-20T18:51:57Z")
I love reading Christmas stories, and this is a good time to do it. This is from Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis. There was a Christmas tree in the lobby when Lauren got to work, and the receptionist was sitting with her chin in her hand, watching the security monitor. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/15 "2017-04-20T18:54:25Z")
“The handsome dining room of the Hotel Wessex, with its gilded plaster shields and the mural depicting the Green Mountains, had been reserved for the Ladies’ Night Dinner of the Fort Beulah Rotary Club.” _It Can’t Happen Here,_ by Sinclair Lewis (First Edition) ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/16 "2017-04-20T18:55:52Z")
[& then the murders began](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=821085) **mmm** , which first sentence? [ul] [li]Forward[/li][li]Introduction[/li][li]Chapter 1[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/17 "2017-04-20T19:03:09Z")
“About five hundred years ago there was fighting in Kham, in eastern Tibet, and many refugees fled.” - \*Tigers of the Snow: How One Fateful Climb Made the Sherpas Mountaineering Legends \* by Jonathan Neale ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/18 "2017-04-20T19:17:52Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > [& then the murders began](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=821085) > **mmm** , which first sentence? > [ul] > [li]Forward[/li][li]Introduction[/li][li]Chapter 1[/li][/ul] Chapter 1 ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/19 "2017-04-20T19:19:32Z")
“Myth is a notoriously slippery term.” [_From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths_](https://www.amazon.com/Asgard-Valhalla-Remarkable-History-Norse/dp/1845118294) ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/20 "2017-04-20T19:23:10Z")
Tess sways with the night breeze, wet grass between her toes, remnants of old drinking songs at her back. Tress - Larissa Brown [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=2)