# 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:** 128
**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, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2551 "2023-07-04T20:43:08Z")
I started with the tenth book, _Atomic Lobster_, which I still think is the best. You can start anywhere, but I’d start with the fourth book, _Triggerfish Twist_–_Atomic Lobster_ is a direct sequel. The best books are from Triggerfish Twist to _Shark Skin Suite_, in my opinion. (Though I never read _Orange Crush_, I’ve read all the rest.) ---
**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, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2552 "2023-07-04T20:47:05Z")
Thanks! Sounds like an intriguing series, though I need a new one of those like I need a hole in the head. 🙃 ---
**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:** [July 4, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2553 "2023-07-04T21:33:19Z")
Nah. Start at the beginning - _Florida Roadkill._ Besides being the first, it also sets up the next 4 books directly. Little of _Hammerhead Ranch Motel_ would make sense if you didn’t have the _Roadkill_ set-up. After that you can read them as you find them, sorta. But there are some big reveals in later books that would totally spoil earlier ones. _Orange Crush_, for example, would be a bit spoiled if you read _Stingray Shuffle_ first. The later books also have revelations about Molly and Maloney that can spoil things. ---
**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, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2554 "2023-07-04T21:37:32Z")
Sigh. O.k. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2023, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2555 "2023-07-04T21:39:25Z")
This is going to get pricey, or at least entail a lot of library trips. Dorsey’s books are addictive. You get to read them for the first time, you lucky bastard. ---
**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, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2556 "2023-07-04T21:45:08Z")
I relish this kind of lucky-bastardy. ---
**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 4, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2557 "2023-07-04T22:47:10Z")
> “You’ve heard of her,” I say—a challenge, an assurance. To the woman on the neighboring hotel barstool who’s made the mistake of striking up a conversation, to the dentist who runs out of questions about my kids and asks what I’ve been up to myself. Sometimes they know her right away. Sometimes they ask, “Wasn’t that the one where the guy kept her in the basement?” No! No. It was not. _I Have Some Questions for You_ Rebecca Makkai (okay, that’s a bit more than a sentence, but I thought the context was helpful) ---
**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 5, 2023, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2558 "2023-07-05T21:01:40Z")
“Satchel Paige entered the world as Leroy Robert Page.” _Satchel_ by Larry Tye ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2559 "2023-07-06T20:29:48Z")
“The first thing Antoinette Ricci ever lost was her father, but she was so young when it happened that she never really felt like she could be held responsible.” _Lost in the Moment and Found_, book 8 of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire (Though the last paragraph of the predicate Authors Note needs to be read before this sentence, and is more memorable: “_I just want to offer you this reassurance: Antsy runs. Before anything can actually happen, Antsy runs._”) ---
**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 7, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2560 "2023-07-07T22:02:54Z")
“Kneeling on the floor of their suite, Tesla Crane could just feel the vibrations of the centrifugal ring as it rotated around the interplanetary cruise ship _Lindgren_.” _The Spare Man_, by Mary Robinette Kowal ---
**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 8, 2023, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2561 "2023-07-08T19:28:03Z")
"I had just gotten off the elevator on the floor of the School of American Ballet with Doris Jones, my dance teacher, when a door flung open and a female dancer came running out of a room crying and screaming, “I can’t! I can’t! I can’t!” _Chita_, by Chita Rivera with Patrick Pacheco. ---
**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 9, 2023, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2562 "2023-07-09T00:36:47Z")
“Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.’” _Stranger in a Strange Land_, by Robert A. Heinlein ---
**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 9, 2023, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2563 "2023-07-09T20:07:10Z")
“Before Mr. Whitmarsh leaves for work, he does something quite out of character.” _Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen_, by Annabel Abbs ---
**Author:** ![boson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boson/32/11407_2.png) [@boson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boson)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2564 "2023-07-09T21:20:51Z")
I used that story in high school Speech class! It was the only “A” that I got in that class. Fond memory. No other student had a story remotely like that. I had their attention. Mr. Goodman slammed his hand loudly on the desk and shouted “A!” Thanks for the memory. ( OOPS, I was replying to “Being a Murderer, Myself.” It was your June 18 entry.) ---
**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:** [July 10, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2565 "2023-07-10T15:29:42Z")
Revenge sped toward Japan at nearly four miles per minute, borne upon olive-drab wings. _Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan 1942-1945_, by Barrett Tillman Troy returned to the living and found himself inside of a tomb. _Shift_, by Hugh Howey ---
**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, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2566 "2023-07-11T19:13:51Z")
Glad to bring back a good memory, boson! “Way back, they’d build houses with green logs.” _Come Go With Me: Old-timer Stories from the Southern Mountains_, edited by Roy Edwin Thomas. Note that this is a collection of reminiscences from people who lived in the Appalachians and Ozarks as young people. The above is from “Log Floors in Early Houses”, by Pearl Thomas Williams. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2567 "2023-07-11T21:42:25Z")
“Even in death the boys were trouble.” _The Nickel Boys: A Novel_ by Colson Whitehead ---
**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 12, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2568 "2023-07-12T14:49:46Z")
“They went out from Sidon Settlement in a straggling band, clanking and crunching over the hard-packed, worn-down purple plain.” _Against Infinity_, by Gregory Benford ---
**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 12, 2023, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2569 "2023-07-12T22:22:11Z")
“I was not born a ballerina.” _Dancing on My Grave_ by Gelsey Kirkland ---
**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, 2023, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2570 "2023-07-13T21:00:06Z")
“I don’t think I’m cut out to be a nurse.” _E. R. Nurses_, edited by James Patterson, Matt Eversmann, and Chris Mooney (Note that this is a collection of reminiscences (published in 2021) of nurses. The above quote is from Angela Parawan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=127) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=129)