# 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:** 122
**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 4, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2431 "2023-04-04T22:07:48Z")
“I try not to breathe as the last corset hook is yanked into place.” _Four Aunties and a Wedding_ by Jesse Q. Sutanto. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2023, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2432 "2023-04-04T22:14:51Z")
> He fed the canaries and the geese and the dogs and the cats’ -From a story named _Massinello Pietro_ by Ray Bradbury, in the anthology _We’ll Always Have Paris_ ---
**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 6, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2433 "2023-04-06T18:24:41Z")
“I asked my father, once, why he chose to curse us before we were born.” _Arch-Conspirator_ by Veronica Roth ---
**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 7, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2434 "2023-04-07T20:10:17Z")
“On a night like any other, pinned somewhere along the dreary timeline of another cold, endless Pittsburgh winter, two men entered Montefiore Hospital and changed the trajectory of John Moon’s life.” _American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics_, by Kevin Hazzard. ---
**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:** [April 7, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2435 "2023-04-07T22:42:56Z")
THE IRON TRIANGLE Autumn, 533 AD Belisarius watched Eusebius and his crew as they carefully slipped the mine off the deck of the _Victrix_, using a ramp they’d set up in the stern for the purpose. _The Dance of Time_ (Belisarius #6), by Eric Flint and David Drake ---
**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 9, 2023, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2436 "2023-04-09T19:53:43Z")
In the late morning of August 29, 1939, James H. Williams stood at the center of the upper concourse at Grand Central Terminal, waiting for a writer he’d agreed to talk to." _Boss of the Grips: The Life of James H. Williams and the Red Caps of Grand Central Terminal_, by Eric K. Washington. ---
**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:** [April 10, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2437 "2023-04-10T01:39:23Z")
“The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry.” – _Jude the Obscure_, by Thomas Hardy ---
**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 10, 2023, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2438 "2023-04-10T22:43:42Z")
“Lorne Trumley had called dispatch to report a dead moose on his ranch. Since it was two weeks after the close of moose-hunting season in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, Joe Pickett had responded.” _Shadows Reel_ by C.J. Box ---
**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 10, 2023, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2439 "2023-04-10T23:41:50Z")
“A young fellow, a tobacco peddler by trade, was on his way from Morristown, where he had dealt largely with the Deacon of the Shaker settlement, to the village of Parker’s Falls, on Salmon River.” _The Best Crime Stories of the 19th Century_, edited by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, and Martin H. Greenberg. (Note that the above is from the first story, “Mr. Higginbotham’s Catastrophe”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.) ---
**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 12, 2023, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2440 "2023-04-12T20:54:21Z")
“Years and years ago the late British philosopher Isaiah Berlin floored me by saying ‘You should write your autobiography.’” _Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author_, by Herman Wouk ---
**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:** [April 12, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2441 "2023-04-12T21:10:25Z")
“The fact that the other planets of our solar system were not likely abodes for life was becoming obvious even by the early middle of the twentieth century to anyone who kept up with science – which usually includes science-fiction writers” _Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future_ (edited by Gardner Dozois) ---
**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 13, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2442 "2023-04-13T18:56:31Z")
“If you read nothing else we’ve sent home, please at least read this.” _To Be Taught If Fortunate_, by Becky Chambers ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2443 "2023-04-13T21:36:27Z")
I wish Eric Flint hadn’t died. ---
**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 14, 2023, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2444 "2023-04-14T00:55:52Z")
“Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States without knowing it, at 2:15 in the morning of 14 September 1901.” _Theodore Rex_, by Edmund Morris ---
**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, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2445 "2023-04-14T14:47:57Z")
“A nurse held the door open for them.” _The Optimist’s Daughter_, by Eudora Welty ---
**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:** [April 15, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2446 "2023-04-15T21:59:05Z")
I hope his wife gives permission for some of the 1632 authors to continue the series… ---
**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:** [April 15, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2447 "2023-04-15T22:01:26Z")
_Pech Merle Cave, southwestern France, Late Ice Age, 24,600 years ago._ _The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History_, by Brian Fagan (italics in original) ---
**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 16, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2448 "2023-04-16T20:01:07Z")
“This is not an abstract book about God and theology.” _When Bad Things Happen to Good People_, by Harold S. Kushner ---
**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, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2449 "2023-04-17T20:23:32Z")
“Phryne Fisher was trying to read Chaucer.” _Death by Water_, by Kerry Greenwood ---
**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 18, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2450 "2023-04-18T16:27:00Z")
“Sitting about the cowcatcher, on an observation bench rigged for him by British East Africa Railway officials, he feels the thrust of the locomotive pushing him upland from Mombasa, over the edge of the parched Taru plateau.” _Colonel Roosevelt_, by Edmund Morris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=121) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=123)