# 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:** 101
**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 28, 2022, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2010 "2022-04-28T18:11:17Z")
“Two straws–one dream–all for a dime on Mainstreet, U.S.A.!” _Remembering Woolworth’s: A Nostalgic History of the World’s Most Famous Five-and-Dime_, by Karen Plunkett-Powell ---
**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 29, 2022, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2011 "2022-04-29T10:08:44Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > “In a hole on the ground there lived a hobbit.” > > Do I really need to put the title? “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking? ---
**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 29, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2012 "2022-04-29T18:10:48Z")
_Moby-Dick_, innit? ---
**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 30, 2022, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2013 "2022-04-30T12:13:37Z")
“The battle for women’s right to vote–suffrage–began in a much different world from the one we inhabit.” _All Stirred Up: Suffrage Cookbooks, Food, and the Battle for Women’s Right to Vote_, by Laura Kumin ---
**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:** [May 1, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2014 "2022-05-01T16:17:57Z")
“When we were new, Rosa and I were mid-store, on the magazines table side, and could see through more than half of the window.” _Klara and the Sun_, by Kazuo Ishiguro ---
**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:** [May 2, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2015 "2022-05-02T16:24:31Z")
“Once everyone who’d be attending this meeting of the inner circle of the Habsburg court in the Netherlands had arrived, King Fernando invited them to sit with a gesture of his hand.” _1637: The Coast of Chaos_ - Eric Flint, et al ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2016 "2022-05-03T00:56:27Z")
**silenus** , I have now recieved five copies of the RoF series that were damaged by my previous dog. So my collection is complete and up to date. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2022, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2017 "2022-05-03T01:02:41Z")
Good job! I’m still missing a few of the outlier books that have come out recently. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2018 "2022-05-03T01:31:36Z")
“This… is ‘audible.’” 😉 ---
**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:** [May 3, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2019 "2022-05-03T16:19:49Z")
“One gray winter day, I was cross-country skiing, head down, through the snowy woods outside Breckinridge, Colorado, when luckily I looked up.” _Look Big: And Other Tips for Surviving Animal Encounters of All Kinds_, by Rachel Levin ---
**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:** [May 4, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2020 "2022-05-04T14:43:19Z")
“The dead human was lying on the deck, on their side, half curled around.” _Fugitive Telemetry: The Murderbot Diaries_, by Martha Wells ---
**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:** [May 5, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2021 "2022-05-05T18:33:19Z")
“More than two hundred years ago, scientists began a quest to order and name the entire living world–the whole squawking, scuttling, blooming, twining, leafy, furry, green and wondrous mess of it.” _Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science_, by Carol Kaesuk Yoon ---
**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:** [May 6, 2022, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2022 "2022-05-06T16:14:15Z")
“Down in the basement of an old firehouse at the end of Central Avenue, on the edge of the North Saskatchewan River, are stacks of books and maps that tell the untold story of how it all began.” _Bower, a Legendary Life,_ by Dan Robson ---
**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:** [May 8, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2023 "2022-05-08T16:55:40Z")
“At ten o’clock of a rainswept morning in London’s West End, a young woman in a baggy anorak, a woollen scarf pulled up around her head, strode resolutely into the storm that was roaring down South Sudley Street.” _Silverview_, by John Le Carré ---
**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:** [May 8, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2024 "2022-05-08T18:45:52Z")
“Darling–The kids are good, but they miss you.” _Alternate Peace_, edited by Steven H Silver and Joshua Palmatier. (Note that this is an anthology; the above sentence is from the first story, “O-Rings”, by Elektra Hammond.) ---
**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:** [May 9, 2022, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2025 "2022-05-09T17:21:30Z")
“What might be the three most expensive words ever spoken were uttered on October 15, 1987.” _Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex And How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple_, by Jeffrey Kluger ---
**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:** [May 11, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2026 "2022-05-11T15:55:37Z")
“Gunnar Heim halted in midstride.” _The Star Fox_, by Poul Anderson ---
**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:** [May 11, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2027 "2022-05-11T17:05:48Z")
“‘What the hell goes on here?’ Whitey Ardmore demanded.” _Sixth Column_ by Robert A. Heinlein ---
**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:** [May 12, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2028 "2022-05-12T22:51:54Z")
“It’s been a jackpot year for catching reruns of old historical riffs.” _Making Book_ by Teresa Nielsen Hayden ---
**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:** [May 14, 2022, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2029 "2022-05-14T13:27:56Z")
“Gaius Publius Marcellinus galloped his horse along the marching line of his Sixth Cohort, racing toward the site where two of his men had been slain by skulking Iroqua warriors.” _Clash of Eagles_, by Alan Smale [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=100) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=102)