# 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:** 127
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2023, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2531 "2023-06-18T01:37:12Z")
The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction was offered at Christie’s in London on December 5, 1985. _Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks_ by Patrick Radden Keefe ---
**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 18, 2023, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2532 "2023-06-18T20:22:40Z")
“Being a murderer myself, I was very interested in the statement recently made by a well-known reviewer of murder stories that 'the best and most stimulating detective stories being written today are those that stress the puzzle of ‘why’ at least co-equally with ‘who’ and ‘how’.” _Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories They Wouldn’t Let Me Do On TV_, edited by Alfred Hitchcock. Note: This is an anthology, and the above quote is from the first story, “Being a Murderer Myself” by Arthur Williams. ---
**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 20, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2533 "2023-06-20T18:04:52Z")
“I have an engineering problem.” _The Last Lecture_, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow. ---
**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 21, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2534 "2023-06-21T14:03:35Z")
“I am a carpenter.” _Building: A Carpenter’s Notes on Life & the Art of Good Work_, by Mark Ellison. ---
**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 22, 2023, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2535 "2023-06-22T01:45:26Z")
“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma.” _Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI_ by David Grann. ---
**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 22, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2536 "2023-06-22T18:53:53Z")
“In the afterlife, Rachel lived alone.” _Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories_ by Maureen McHugh ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2537 "2023-06-22T21:08:45Z")
“On the very eve of the birth of the Third Reich a feverish tension gripped Berlin.” _The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_, by William L. Shirer ---
**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 23, 2023, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2538 "2023-06-23T15:35:15Z")
“A panhandler intercepted the young couple as they strolled down the night street.” _The Best of R. A. Lafferty_, edited by Jonathan Strahan. (Note that this quote is from the first story in this collection, “Slow Tuesday Night”.) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2539 "2023-06-25T15:50:07Z")
“First, I got myself born.” _Demon Copperhead: A Novel_ by Barbara Kingsolver ---
**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 25, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2540 "2023-06-25T23:08:15Z")
“Oscar Hammerstein II seems to have been born with a healthy sense of self-worth, which he maintained for most of his sixty-five years.” _Oscar Hammerstein and the Invention of the Musical_, by Laurie Winer. ---
**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 27, 2023, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2541 "2023-06-27T13:41:15Z")
“The socialite was dragged into the street and attacked by an antisocial homeless man, until another man in a giant bunny costume came to her rescue.” _The Maltese Iguana_, by Tim Dorsey. ---
**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 29, 2023, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2542 "2023-06-29T19:26:54Z")
“Several years ago, I was staying in Rome at an old hotel that was undergoing renovation.” _Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols_, by Mike Aquilina ---
**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 30, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2543 "2023-06-30T15:52:16Z")
“In 1925, Chief Justice William Howard Taft wrote to a friend that ‘in my present life I don’t remember that I ever was president.’” _The William Howard Taft Presidency_ , by Lewis L. Gould ---
**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:** [June 30, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2544 "2023-06-30T18:26:56Z")
“We’d been slowing down to match orbits with Bar None for just over a week.” _School Days (SC Marva Collins Book 1)_ - Nathan Lowell ---
**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 1, 2023, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2545 "2023-07-01T10:41:21Z")
“Perry Graves tried not to think about summer’s arrival–the heat devils hovering, breathless, over the blacktop as if waiting for something to happen–or even about the city streets.” _The Ballad of Perilous Graves_, by Alex Jennings. ---
**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 2, 2023, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2546 "2023-07-02T21:45:14Z")
“Put your hands on the table.” _One Way_ by S.J. Morden “Argos died twice.” _Logan’s World_ by William F. Nolan “It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel.” _A Visit from the Goon Squad_ by Jennifer Egan ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2547 "2023-07-03T00:43:38Z")
She was going to die because of the rutabagas. - Bryony and Roses by 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 3, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2548 "2023-07-03T20:51:35Z")
“Two swans at the water’s edge trade bewildered glances when they notice a little frog poking his head out of the river.” _Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing_, by Leonard S. Marcus. ---
**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 4, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2549 "2023-07-04T15:52:41Z")
“All day the heat had been barely supportable but at evening a breeze arose in the West, blowing from the heart of the setting sun and from the ocean, which lay unseen, unheard behind the scrubby foothills.” _The Loved One_, by Evelyn Waugh ---
**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 4, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2550 "2023-07-04T20:27:36Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > “The socialite was dragged into the street and attacked by an antisocial homeless man, until another man in a giant bunny costume came to her rescue.” > > _The Maltese Iguana_, by Tim Dorsey. Looked this up and saw this was the _twenty-sixth_ book in a series. Is it one that can be started anywhere, or should you start at the beginning? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=126) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=128)