# 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:** 105
**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:** [July 11, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2090 "2022-07-11T18:54:15Z")
“Jamie Gray!” _The Kaiju Preservation Society_, by John Scalzi ---
**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:** [July 13, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2091 "2022-07-13T15:03:55Z")
“It was one of those nights when you hope your biggest responsibility will be uncorking a bottle of wine.” _Downton Shabby: One American’s Ultimate DIY Adventure Restoring His Family’s English Castle_, by Hopwood DePree ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2092 "2022-07-13T16:25:44Z")
“‘You too will marry a boy I choose,’ said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter.” _A Suitable Boy_ – Vikram Seth. ---
**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:** [July 13, 2022, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2093 "2022-07-13T18:37:32Z")
The mushroom’s gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. _What Moves the Dead_, Ursula Vernon as T. Kingfisher ---
**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:** [July 15, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2094 "2022-07-15T13:05:45Z")
“She refused to be triggered by breakfast food, so she went straight for the waffles.” _The Audacity of Sara Grayson_, by Joani Elliott ---
**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:** [July 15, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2095 "2022-07-15T17:32:29Z")
“The tree on which the owl of Minerva sits has many branches.” _The Face of the Third Reich: Portrait of the Nazi Leadership_ by Joachim E. Fest “October 1944. Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise and returns to the Philippines.” _The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors_ by James D. Hornfischer, Doug Murray and Steven Sanders “The first time it happens it’s October, and I’m driving through Utah with the Filipino guy named Liandro.” _Sleepwalk_ by Dan Chaon “The first-quarter rocket from Moonbase put him down at Pied-a-Terre.” _Assignment in Eternity_ by Robert A. Heinlein (from the short story “Gulf”) ---
**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:** [July 15, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2096 "2022-07-15T18:06:03Z")
“It’s been three months since Owen left.” _The Good Sister_ by Sally Hepworth ---
**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:** [July 16, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2097 "2022-07-16T16:35:49Z")
“At mid-afternoon on a dying late summer day, the stunningly beautiful Debra Davis climbed into the snazzy, two-seat Mercedes convertible that her boyfriend had bought for her and drove away from the home they shared in the suburb of Randolph, Massachusetts.” _Whitey – The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss_, by Dick Lehr & Gerard O’Neill ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2098 "2022-07-16T17:41:13Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > The mushroom’s gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. > > _What Moves the Dead_, Ursula Vernon as T. Kingfisher I love her books! ---
**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:** [July 16, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2099 "2022-07-16T17:59:24Z")
As do I! And I’m getting that collector’s edition of Digger from the recent Kickstarter, too. 😍 💕 🤗 ---
**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:** [July 17, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2100 "2022-07-17T14:12:32Z")
“We overlook at our peril the gains to be made from walking, for our health, for our mood, for our clarity of mind.” _In Praise of Walking: A New Scientific Exploration_, by Shane O’Mara. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2022, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2101 "2022-07-18T13:45:05Z")
“Grandpa’s thin, reedy voice wasn’t loud, but we couldn’t shut it out, however hard we tried.” From “And the Band Played On”, the first story in _Reader, I Buried Them and Other Stories_, by Peter Lovesey. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2102 "2022-07-18T20:25:15Z")
“Late on the afternoon of Tuesday the ninth of April in the Year of Our Risen Lord 1468, a solitary traveller was to be observed picking his way on horseback across the wild moorland of that ancient region of southwestern England known since Saxon times as Wessex.” _The Second Sleep_ by Robert Harris ---
**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:** [July 19, 2022, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2103 "2022-07-19T17:47:03Z")
“If you want to stick a proper name on women’s struggle to be accepted as stand-up comedians in American show business, you could call it ‘Moms Mabley.’” _In On the Joke: The Original Queens of Stand-Up Comedy_, by Shawn Levy ---
**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:** [July 22, 2022, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2104 "2022-07-22T14:11:58Z")
“The first time I met Mas, he was sitting on the quayside in Ballyvoloon, carving a nightmare from a piece of linden.” _Clarkesworld: Year Twelve - Volume One_, edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace. (The above sentence is from the first story, "The Last Boat-Builder in Ballyvoloon, by Finbarr O’Reilly.) ---
**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:** [July 24, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2105 "2022-07-24T20:27:47Z")
“I know the name of Turkey’s leading avant-garde publication.” _The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World_, by A. J. Jacobs ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2106 "2022-07-24T20:48:04Z")
“I am a botanist.” _In the Garden of Iden_ by Kage Baker ---
**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:** [July 24, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2107 "2022-07-24T21:11:06Z")
“Marsh is not swamp.” _Where the Crawdads Sing_ by Delia Owens. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2108 "2022-07-25T01:42:02Z")
“Jews settled as far north as the Rhineland after the Romans destroyed the Temple in A.D. 70.” – _The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family_, by Ron Chernow ---
**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:** [July 27, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2109 "2022-07-27T18:05:47Z")
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