# 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:** 131
**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:** [August 4, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2611 "2023-08-04T23:16:42Z")
“Portia always knew that there was going to be something special about her life.” _Portia: The Life of Portia Washington Pittman, the Daughter of Booker T. Washington_, by Ruth Ann Stewart ---
**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:** [August 5, 2023, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2612 "2023-08-05T22:23:14Z")
“It was the devil’s hour on Aventum Angelorum, Goetia’s own high holy da y, and there was a black wind blowing off Tabor’s mine.” _Tread of Angels_, by Rebecca Roanhorse ---
**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:** [August 5, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2613 "2023-08-05T22:41:38Z")
“It’s Job Offer Day at EvilCorp.” _The World We Make_ by N. K. Jemisin ---
**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:** [August 6, 2023, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2614 "2023-08-06T20:32:55Z")
“When John and Caroline Proctor paid the princely sum of $2,600 in 1850 to have the Greek Revival-style house my family and I now live in built, they made sure the architect included a front porch–not a large affair, one just big enough for wo rocking chairs and a small table.” _A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About)_, by Spike Carlsen ---
**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:** [August 7, 2023, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2615 "2023-08-07T02:56:06Z")
“He stood on the edge of a dark expanse.” – _There are Still Unknown Places_, by Ron Morris ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2616 "2023-08-09T13:50:32Z")
“The muted thunder of wagon wheels wakes me from shallow sleep.” _Boys in the Valley_, Philip Fracassi ---
**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:** [August 9, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2617 "2023-08-09T20:41:31Z")
“I shall begin with the hanging of Leon Mendelssohn.” _When the Sparrow Falls_, by Neil Sharpson ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2618 "2023-08-10T17:34:54Z")
“Once upon a time there was a man who built two enormous machines, and he loved them very much.” _Metal Like Blood in the Dark_, by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon). Her [“Red Wombat”](https://www.redwombatstudio.com/) website has been changed. It’s completely an author’s website now. That includes links to short stories that are online. I’m still reading this one. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2619 "2023-08-10T17:51:49Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I’m still reading this one. Hey, so am I! Well, I am _now_… ---
**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:** [August 11, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2620 "2023-08-11T22:20:47Z")
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 My father survived the horrors of the First World War, where he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and returned home from France in 1919, which was very fortunate for me because I was born in 1920. _Once a Hussar: A Memoir of Battle, Capture, and Escape in World War II_, by Ray Ellis ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2023, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2621 "2023-08-12T00:15:53Z")
Several good stories there. The Narnia one was killer. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2622 "2023-08-12T13:55:31Z")
“A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast.” _The Boys From Biloxi_ by John Grisham ---
**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:** [August 13, 2023, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2623 "2023-08-13T22:06:04Z")
“It was an unmarked car, just some nondescript American sedan a few years old, but the blackwall tires and the three men inside gave it away for what it was.” – _The Outsider_, by Stephen King ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2023, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2624 "2023-08-14T13:16:28Z")
“I’m looking at myself in the bathroom mirror and thinking about love, because I plan on falling in love this summer.” _Looking Glass Sound_, by Catriona Ward ---
**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:** [August 14, 2023, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2625 "2023-08-14T17:39:11Z")
“The U.S. Space and Rocket Center announces itself from miles away, with a needle against the sky that orients, at a glance, anyone in Huntsville, Alabama: if you can see the Saturn V, you can place where you are.” _Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings_ by Earl Swift ---
**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:** [August 14, 2023, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2626 "2023-08-14T21:59:13Z")
“In 2006, a U. S. Census worker named Elizabeth Martin devised an experiment.” _The Deadline Effect: Inside Elite Organizations That Have Mastered the Ticking Clock_, by Christopher Cox ---
**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:** [August 15, 2023, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2627 "2023-08-15T12:18:33Z")
“Dawn broke that day on a new epoch, one that would carry the name of a man whose ideas and ideals would extend well into the next century.” _Wilson_ , by A. Scott Berg ---
**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:** [August 17, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2628 "2023-08-17T21:04:15Z")
“A gentleman friend and I were dining at the Ritz last evening and he said that if I took a pencil and a paper and put down all of my thoughts it would make a book.” _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_, by Anita Loos. ---
**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:** [August 19, 2023, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2629 "2023-08-19T20:19:29Z")
“We see that bucket list of yours (dog-eared with time and filled with faraway places) and we raise you: one alternative travel list.” _Go Here Instead: The Alternative Travel List_, edited by Rada Radojicic et al. ---
**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:** [August 20, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2630 "2023-08-20T13:27:46Z")
“So you’re off to QualityLand for the first time ever. Are you excited? Yes? And quite rightly so!” QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=130) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=132)