# 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:** 116
**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:** [December 15, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2310 "2022-12-15T21:32:31Z")
“Winter’s first kiss tingled Twig’s cheeks as the fine, dry snow dusted down from the grey afternoon sky.” _Happy Holiday Historicals_, edited by Lyn Worthen (Note that this is a short story collection; the above sentence is from the first, “Green Girl” by Brenda Carre.) ---
**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:** [December 17, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2311 "2022-12-17T18:54:58Z")
“Check Eugene Wyatt’s calendar on any given year and you’ll find a giant X on the first Monday in March.” _Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool_, by Clara Parkes ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2312 "2022-12-18T02:00:20Z")
On a cloudy October night, a motorcar with one passenger in the rear seat was proceeding along the road which skirts the coastal lands on the western side of the island of Tahiti. _NO MORE GAS_ - Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall ---
**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:** [December 18, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2313 "2022-12-18T20:02:14Z")
“I’m sure I can tell this story.” – _Fairy Tale_, by Stephen King ---
**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:** [December 18, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2314 "2022-12-18T22:07:50Z")
“It had been raining in the valley of the Sacramento.” _American Christmas Stories_, edited by Connie Willis (Note: The above sentence is from the first story, “How Santa Claus Came to Simpson’s Bar”, by Bret Harte.) ---
**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:** [December 22, 2022, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2315 "2022-12-22T19:46:49Z")
“Nobody climbed the mountain beyond the war-shrine.” _Elder Race_, by Adrian Tchaikovsky ---
**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:** [December 22, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2316 "2022-12-22T21:35:37Z")
“I am a cat, but I have not yet been given a name.” I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2317 "2022-12-22T21:58:13Z")
Lucy wrote “Fucking animals!” on a piece of notebook paper, and around those words she drew arrows pointing in every direction. _The Loop_, by Jeremy Robert Johnson There is a prologue of sorts in the form of a transcript of a podcast commenting on an incident relevant to the plot, but this is the start of chapter one. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2318 "2022-12-23T01:08:00Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > There is a prologue of sorts in the form of a transcript of a podcast commenting on an incident relevant to the plot, but this is the start of chapter one. When I post in this thread I usually skip forewords and prologues. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2022, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2319 "2022-12-23T01:14:21Z")
I only skip them if they mention right off the bat that there are spoilers in the intro. But then I go back and read them after I finish the book. I’m a completist. I even read the author’s thanks. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2022, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2320 "2022-12-23T23:02:04Z")
“This is Ares Launch Control, Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center.” _Voyage_, by Stephen Baxter ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2321 "2022-12-25T20:19:57Z")
First paragraph (not sentence) but too irresistible not to quote: “Anna Halsey was about two hundred and forty pounds of middle-aged putty-faced woman in a black tailor-made suit. Here eyes were shiny black shoe buttons, her cheeks were as soft as suet and about the same color. She was sitting behind a black glass desk that looked like Napoleon’s tomb and she was smoking a cigarette in a black holder that was not quite as long as a rolled umbrella. She said “I need a man.”” - Trouble Is My Business, by Raymond Chandler ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2322 "2022-12-26T21:55:09Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > When I post in this thread I usually skip forewords and prologues. > [@carrps](#): > > I only skip them if they mention right off the bat that there are spoilers in the intro. But then I go back and read them after I finish the book. I do read them; I generally just don’t quote them in this thread unless their first sentence is particularly interesting. I quote the first sentence from chapter one. **Author’s Note** : I switched off the radio, made my way slowly up the stairs, shut the bathroom door and shed a tear. **Introduction** : The Cold War, deep under the North Atlantic. **Chapter 1** : HMS _Raleigh_ is a naval establishment on the banks of the River Tamar in Cornwall, where all new recruits commence their Part 1\* training. \* Naval training is split into three parts: Part 1 is basic training; Part 2 is shore-side specialist training; Part 3 is at-sea training. _Under Pressure: Living Life and Avoiding Death on a Nuclear Submarine_, by Richard Humphreys ---
**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:** [December 27, 2022, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2323 "2022-12-27T18:09:50Z")
“An hour after dawn on Christmas morning in 1941, a lone PB2Y-2 Coronado flying boat circled slowly over the fleet anchorage at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at the end of a seventeen-hour flight from San Diego.” _The Battle of Midway_ by Craig L. Symonds “In [the] true spirit of the widespread Soviet economic practice of counter-planning, my first encounter with the USSR took place a little earlier than expected.” _Soviet Visuals_ by Varia Bortsova ---
**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:** [December 28, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2324 "2022-12-28T21:00:30Z")
“What makes summer and winter?” _Science in a Nanosecond: Illustrated Answers to 100 Basic Science Questions_, by James A. Haught. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2022, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2325 "2022-12-30T00:03:39Z")
“Every Swiss-village calendar instructs as to how stone gathers the landscape around it, how glacier-scattered thousand-ton monuments to randomness become fixed points in finding home.” _The Best of It: New and Selected Poems_, by Kay Ryan (Note that this is from the poem “Odd Blocks”.) ---
**Author:** ![Inyournamepoemsbegin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ea5d25/32.png) [@Inyournamepoemsbegin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inyournamepoemsbegin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2326 "2022-12-30T03:56:09Z")
A barefoot padre wearing the gray robe of the Franciscan order arrived one day in May, 1539, at the summit of a hill overlooking a valley in what is now Western New Mexico. **On Desert Trails** , Randall Henderson, 1961. ---
**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:** [January 1, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2327 "2023-01-01T14:49:33Z")
“The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness.” _Our Wives Under the Sea_, by Julia Armfield ---
**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:** [January 2, 2023, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2328 "2023-01-02T01:21:32Z")
“She was aware first of the scent of the hotel shampoo, a Middle Eastern aroma reminiscent of anise, and then–when she opened her eyes–the way the light from the window was different from the light in the rooms of the hotel where the crew usually stayed.” _The Flight Attendant_ by Chris Bohjalian ---
**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:** [January 3, 2023, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2329 "2023-01-03T22:33:27Z")
“I thought it was the neighbor’s cat, back to clean the clock of the fledgling robins low in their nest stuck in the dense hedge by the house, but what came was much stranger, a liquidity moving, all muscle and bristle: a groundhog slippery and waddle-thieving my tomatoes, still green in the morning’s shade.” _The Hurting Kind: Poems_, by Ada Limon. (This is from “Give Me This”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=115) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=117)