# 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:** 126
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2511 "2023-06-05T09:00:47Z")
As I left the Kenya Beanstalk capsule he was right on my heels. He followed me through the door leading to Customs, Health and Immigration. As the door contracted behind him I killed him. _Friday_ by Robert Heinlein ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2512 "2023-06-05T13:28:40Z")
Oh, I recognized _Friday_ before I read the name. Heinlein was my first scifi author that I searched out to read. He’s been gone for thirty five years, and I still have a newspaper article somewhere announcing his death. ---
**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:** [June 5, 2023, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2513 "2023-06-05T21:15:45Z")
“Sanzi had broken yet another rule, but she didn’t care.” _Freewater_, by Amina Luqman-Dawson ---
**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:** [June 6, 2023, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2514 "2023-06-06T16:59:26Z")
Americans have been taught to think of the European settlement of the continent as having progressed from east to west, expanding from the English beachheads of Massachusetts and Virginia to the shores of the Pacific. _American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America_, by Colin Woodard The elephant was the last straw. _Queen of the Flowers_, the 14th Phryne Fisher mystery, by Kerry Greenwood ---
**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:** [June 6, 2023, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2515 "2023-06-06T22:15:46Z")
“Both John D. Rockefeller (JDR) and John D. Rockefeller Jr. (Jr.) loved beautiful views and had an inherent sense of the land and its spirit, although they might never have expressed it in quite that way.” _Kykuit, the Rockefeller Family Home_ by Ann Rockefeller Roberts and Mary Louise Pierson “The days of sloth and malfeasance under my predecessors are gone, and so are all of you. You’re dismissed.” _Miskatonic_ by Mark Sable and Giorgio Pontrelli ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2516 "2023-06-07T02:53:20Z")
“It had snowed lightly in the night and her frozen hair was gold and crystalline and her eyes were frozen cold and hard as stones.” _The Passenger_ by Cormac McCarthy ---
**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:** [June 7, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2517 "2023-06-07T16:06:10Z")
“Prior to the invention of California, the uncontested center of the music industry universe was a five-block stretch of Broadway in New York City.” _Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards – Memoirs of a Rock ‘N’ Roll Survivor_ , by Al Kooper ---
**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:** [June 7, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2518 "2023-06-07T18:05:04Z")
“There was a dead girl in my aunt’s bakery.” _A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking_, by T. Kingfisher ---
**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:** [June 7, 2023, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2519 "2023-06-07T20:07:22Z")
Oooo, another Kingfisher. I’ll have to get it. “She doesn’t know about us, does she?” asked Georgie. _The Severed Head_ Iris Murdoch It’s my first Murdoch. I’d been slightly avoiding her, because I felt she was supposed to be good for me. But I really enjoyed this book ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2520 "2023-06-08T04:19:53Z")
The priest’s hand rested on the small, carved handle that controlled the pitch of the window’s nyawood shutters. _Star Trek: Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers_ ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2023, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2521 "2023-06-08T15:58:32Z")
_In a hoile in the ground there lived a hobbit._ Do I really have to say what the above book is? I first had it read to me when I was in sixth grade. It was my class’ intro to fantasy. I’m going to go through all four books again. ---
**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:** [June 9, 2023, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2522 "2023-06-09T15:40:14Z")
“The story begins on a pile of sheep manure the size of a yurt.” _Truck: A Love Story_, by Michael Perry ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2023, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2523 "2023-06-11T00:22:00Z")
_It will happen again._ “The San Francisco Earthquake” I know I said I was starting another book but this one finally came in the mail. ---
**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:** [June 11, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2524 "2023-06-11T16:52:35Z")
“When the Civil War began in the spring of 1861, Raphael Semmes hoped to become captain of a ship.” _To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth: The Epic Hunt for the South’s Most Feared Ship – and the Greatest Sea Battle of the Civil War_, by Phil Keith and Tom Clavin. ---
**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:** [June 11, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2525 "2023-06-11T20:53:08Z")
“No one had any doubt that the bombers would come.” – _The Splendid and The Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz_, by Erik Larson ---
**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:** [June 12, 2023, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2526 "2023-06-12T20:57:39Z")
“Vance Panzer was feeling lucky as he stepped from the casino’s ornate shopping esplanade into the psychic’s stylish studio.” _Stolen Thoughts_, by Tim Tigner ---
**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:** [June 12, 2023, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2527 "2023-06-12T21:22:00Z")
“On and off, all that hot August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages.” _The Greengage Summer_ by Rumer Godden ---
**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:** [June 14, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2528 "2023-06-14T02:32:45Z")
“I sent one boy to the gaschamber at Huntsville.” _No Country for Old Men_ by Cormac McCarthy ---
**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:** [June 14, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2529 "2023-06-14T20:49:17Z")
“In 1797, a Yorkshire woman named Jane Smithson began to write quotations in a book of her own, creating a commonplace book.” _How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information: Commonplace Books, Scrapbooks, and Albums_, by JIllian M. Hess ---
**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:** [June 16, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2530 "2023-06-16T12:43:29Z")
“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” _Scaramouche_, by Rafael Sabatini [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=125) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=127)