# 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:** 135
**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:** [September 25, 2023, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2691 "2023-09-25T15:47:40Z")
“I half jogged, half walked to catch up with my seventeen-year-old daughter in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, giving myself a pep talk.” _There’s No Coming Back from This_, by Ann Garvin ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2692 "2023-09-25T15:59:06Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > _ **XOldies,** I’d encourage you to post anything other than the first sentence of a book, its title and author, over in the monthly “Whatcha Reading” thread, rather than here._ > > _Thanks!_ Mea Culpa. I did indeed violate the spirit of the topic. I expect to have many first sentences to post in the future! I’ll look for the “Whatcha Reading” thread. It sounds interesting! ---
**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:** [September 25, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2693 "2023-09-25T16:21:26Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > I’ll look for the “Whatcha Reading” thread. Here’s the link for this month’s thread, which will be active through the end of the month. Then a new thread will begin. [Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - September 2023 edition - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-september-2023-edition/989241/73) And, yes, the ‘Whatcha Reading’ threads are extremely interesting! There are many and varied likes, dislikes, tastes, and preferences. I look forward to each and every new post. ---
**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:** [September 25, 2023, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2694 "2023-09-25T18:55:11Z")
As do I. “This is not the beginning. The beginning is darkness and fire, microbes and worms.” _The New Hunger_ by Isaac Marion ---
**Author:** ![pyromyte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d26b3c/32.png) [@pyromyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyromyte)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2695 "2023-09-25T21:14:08Z")
“Walking up Fifth Avenue at midnight, Spofforth begins to whistle.” _Mockingbird_ by Walter Tevis ---
**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:** [September 27, 2023, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2696 "2023-09-27T23:22:58Z")
“Curtis McCoy was early for his ten o’clock meeting so he carried his coffee to a table by the window, where he could feel the watery April sun.” _Pineapple Street_, by Jenny Jackson ---
**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:** [September 29, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2697 "2023-09-29T00:51:31Z")
“Well, old son,” said Mr. Lamplough, “and what can we do for you today?” “In the Teeth of the Evidence”, first story in _In the Teeth of the Evidence_, a collection of short stories by Dorothy L Sayers ---
**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:** [September 29, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2698 "2023-09-29T02:29:53Z")
“Danny Ryan watches the woman come out of the water like a vision emerging from his dreams of the sea.” _City On Fire_ by Don Winslow ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2699 "2023-09-29T14:27:03Z")
“The insuperable gap between East and West that exists in some eyes is perhaps nothing more than an optical illusion.” _The Bridge Over the River Kwai_ by Pierre Boulle ---
**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:** [October 1, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2700 "2023-10-01T14:44:50Z")
“The first time I put a body in the ground was on a clear June morning before my senior year of college.” _Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries_, by Greg Melville ---
**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:** [October 2, 2023, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2701 "2023-10-02T01:03:31Z")
Saturday, Day One In an hour, the infantry of the 26th Volks Grenadier Division would cross the frontier river. _The Battle of the Bulge: Britain’s Untold Story_, by Charles Whiting ---
**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:** [October 2, 2023, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2702 "2023-10-02T13:37:28Z")
“Boom.” _The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle_, by T.L. Huchu ---
**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:** [October 2, 2023, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2703 "2023-10-02T19:32:35Z")
“At 3:30am on June 22, 1773, fifteen minutes before sunrise, a royal chaise pulled by four matched horses burst from the gates of Kew Palace, escorted by cavalry outriders in scarlet coats.” _The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777_ by Rick Atkinson ---
**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:** [October 2, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2704 "2023-10-02T23:38:39Z")
“I was one of the girls recruited to attend the once-famous Dewitt Clinton High School in The Bronx to make it co-ed to ‘save’ it from being shut down.” _Our Otherness Is Our Strength: Wisdom from the Boogie Down Bronx_, by Andrea Navedo ---
**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:** [October 3, 2023, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2705 "2023-10-03T23:15:05Z")
“The sun was barely up, but the hour didn’t keep folks from scrambling in to sell their blood.” _The Phlebotomist_, by Chris Panatier ---
**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:** [October 4, 2023, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2706 "2023-10-04T15:05:17Z")
“Pain I knew first, and pleasure later.” _The Tutor: Being the Reminiscences of Thomasina Wragg_ by P.N. Dedeaux ---
**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:** [October 6, 2023, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2707 "2023-10-06T13:44:37Z")
“I just had time to close my office door before the room started spinning.” _What It Takes To Save a Life: A Veterinarian’s Quest for Healing and Hope_, by Dr. Kwane Stewart ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2023, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2708 "2023-10-07T00:47:12Z")
“I’m not going to lie,” Sam Bankman-Fried told me. This was a lie. _Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall_ by Zeke Faux. ---
**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:** [October 7, 2023, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2709 "2023-10-07T21:31:01Z")
“Look out!” _For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs_, by Robert A. Heinlein ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2023, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2710 "2023-10-07T22:22:46Z")
“Anna Halsey was about two hundred and forty pounds of middle-aged putty-faced woman in a black tailor-made suit.” **Trouble Is My Business** by Raymond Chandler [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=134) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=136)