# 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:** 100
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1990 "2022-04-12T16:29:36Z")
“They left the aqueduct two hours before dawn, climbing by moonlight into the hills overlooking the port - six men in single file, the engineer leading.” _Pompeii_ by Robert Harris ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1991 "2022-04-12T17:55:53Z")
Eight weeks after his election as President - New Year’s Eve, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln telegraphed an invitation to the Ohio Republican Salmon P. Chase to visit him in Illinois. _Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War_ by Roger Lowenstein ---
**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 14, 2022, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1992 "2022-04-14T13:56:56Z")
“It’s pointless going to the furniture stores, all they have to offer is 1946 utility rubbish.” _Goodbye, Curate_ by Fred Secombe. ---
**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 17, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1993 "2022-04-17T18:06:03Z")
“It’s your unique identification number.” _Now I Know: The Soviets Invaded Wisconsin?! And 99 More Interesting Facts, Plus the Amazing Stories Behind Them_, by Dan Lewis. (No, the Soviets didn’t invade. In 1950, a small town in Wisconsin acted out what would happen if they did.) ---
**Author:** ![jadielyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jadielyn/32/8808_2.png) [@jadielyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jadielyn)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1994 "2022-04-19T19:13:45Z")
“In five years, the penis will be obsolete,” said the salesman. _Steel Beach_, by John Varley. ---
**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, 2022, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1995 "2022-04-20T10:53:10Z")
“When I was seven, my parents, my fourteen-year-old brother, Farshid, and I moved from Abadan, Iran, to Whittier, California.” _Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American_, by Firoozeh Dumas. ---
**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 21, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1996 "2022-04-21T20:33:37Z")
“Two little problems with that quote, applied to this situation.” _Far Sector_ by N.K. Jemisin. (Note that it begins with a quote from a different novel, Chinua Achebe’s _Things Fall Apart_.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1997 "2022-04-22T18:27:23Z")
“January 16, 2003. London, England. Drinks and dinner in Fulham with Jane’s friends Allison and Ian.” _A Carnival of Snackery_ by David Sedaris ---
**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 23, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1998 "2022-04-23T14:01:21Z")
“In 1565, the hapless Richard Walweyn, servant of Rowland Bangham, Esq., was arrested for wearing ‘a very monsterous and outraygeous payre of hose.’” _Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History_, by Richard Thompson Ford. ---
**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 25, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1999 "2022-04-25T19:13:31Z")
“Bubba Shackleford got off the train in Wyoming, eager to find some cannibals to shoot.” _Straight Outta Tombstone_, edited by David Boop. (This is an anthology; the above quote is the first sentence of the first story, Larry Correia’s “Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers”.) ---
**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 27, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2000 "2022-04-27T14:10:52Z")
“I made my first public appearance on the stairs up to the school nurse’s room, at St. Peter’s Preparatory School, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, on September 13, 1948.” _So, Anyway_…, by John Cleese ---
**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 27, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2001 "2022-04-27T14:15:10Z")
“Death was common on the Ohio prairie in 1822.” _100 Days in the Life of Rutherford Hayes_, by Eric Ebinger ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2002 "2022-04-27T16:55:21Z")
> The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen. The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires. — Ursula Vernon, _Nettle and Bone_ ---
**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 27, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2003 "2022-04-27T21:10:10Z")
“Children have always been drawn to the doors.” _Where the Drowned Girls Go_, by Seanan McGuire ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2004 "2022-04-27T22:37:40Z")
“The last guy on earth anyone ever expected to end up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Park Row was Denny Malone.” _The Force_, by Don Winslow ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2005 "2022-04-28T12:17:48Z")
“In a hole on the ground there lived a hobbit.” Do I really need to put the title? ---
**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 28, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2006 "2022-04-28T14:10:34Z")
“Nikki and I were enjoying the concert.” _Don’t Give Up the Shop (Bob & Nikki #24)_ - Jerry Boyd ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2007 "2022-04-28T16:29:21Z")
Yes. And quote it correctly, too. [glares in fierce Tolkien fan] (Yes, I’m kidding. Tpyos happen.) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2008 "2022-04-28T16:40:00Z")
“On Thursday 28 January 1790, the Reverend Thomas Puddicombe brushed the dirt from his hands and returned to his vicarage in the village of Branscombe, on the South Devon coast.” _Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to 1789–1830 (p. 1). Pegasus Books. Kindle Edition._ ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2009 "2022-04-28T17:35:20Z")
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