# 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:** 140
**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:** [December 1, 2023, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2791 "2023-12-01T12:58:56Z")
“Blast! You scared it away!” _Dashing Through the Snowbirds_, by Donna Andrews ---
**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:** [December 2, 2023, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2792 "2023-12-02T23:30:15Z")
“My death won’t bring out the banner headlines.” _Vectors_ by Charles Sheffield (a collection of stories – the quote is from the first story “What Song the Sirens Sang”) ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2793 "2023-12-02T23:55:11Z")
“At ten o’clock in the morning on the last day of 1941, fifty-six-year-old Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, wearing the dress white uniform that Navy officers still call a ‘choker,’ stepped forward on the small deck of the American submarine _Grayling_, tied up to a wharf at the submarine base on Southeast Loch in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and prepared to read his orders aloud.” _Nimitz at War_, by Craig L. Symonds, an excellent biography. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2794 "2023-12-03T22:36:26Z")
“This is not a work of scholarship.” _Reflections on the Psalms_, by C. S. Lewis ---
**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:** [December 5, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2795 "2023-12-05T19:37:21Z")
“One time between a breakup and a shackup, I went home for a visit.” _A Calm & Normal Heart_, by Chelsea T. Hicks (Note that this is a story collection, and the above quote is from the first, “Tsexope”.) ---
**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:** [December 5, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2796 "2023-12-05T23:29:10Z")
“Enlightenment came to Patera Silk on the ball court; nothing could ever be the same after that.” _Nightside the Long Sun_, by Gene Wolfe (not my first time) ---
**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:** [December 7, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2797 "2023-12-07T00:08:12Z")
“We’ll begin our journey into English’s past with the set of words which name what the Georgian moderniser of Chaucer’s “Miller’s Tale” called the _particulars_ distinguishing male and female anatomy.” _Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words_, by Jenni Nuttall. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2798 "2023-12-07T13:56:31Z")
“In the late 1950s, the Royal Canadian Air Force produced a booklet on isometrics, a form of exercise that enjoyed a short but devoted vogue with my father.” _The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid_, by Bill Bryson ---
**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:** [December 7, 2023, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2799 "2023-12-07T14:13:18Z")
Oh man, that’s a good book. 🙂 ---
**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:** [December 7, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2800 "2023-12-07T18:04:55Z")
Yes, I’m excited to be reading it. I think this is my 4th Bryson, I’m a fan. mmm ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2023, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2801 "2023-12-08T03:46:35Z")
“Midnight in Golden Gate Park was mostly quiet, just the distant sounds of city traffic and my grunts of exertion as I dragged the yeti corpse to my Jeep.” _Ebony Gate_, by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle ---
**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:** [December 8, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2802 "2023-12-08T19:45:02Z")
“O Mighty Caliph and Commander of the Faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives.” _Nebula Awards Showcase 2009: The Year’s Best SF and Fantasy Selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America_, edited by Ellen Datlow (Note that the above sentence is from the first story, ““The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, by Ted Chiang.”) ---
**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:** [December 8, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2803 "2023-12-08T20:52:20Z")
“My name is R. It’s not much of a name, but someone I love gave it to me.” _The Burning World_ by Isaac Marion ---
**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:** [December 11, 2023, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2804 "2023-12-11T01:07:57Z")
“I love a painting that hangs in the National Gallery in London.” _Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death_, by Laura Cumming. (The painting is _A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller’s Stall_, by Carel Fabritius.) ---
**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:** [December 11, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2805 "2023-12-11T15:59:17Z")
“It was the man from Records who began it, him all unknowing in his prim, grim way, his above-it-all, oldthink way.” Julia, by Sandra Newman ---
**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:** [December 11, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2806 "2023-12-11T16:39:32Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > “On July 24th, 1917, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Sidney Emerson Ellis of the 4 Naval Squadron took off on a routine training flight in Britain’s newest and most powerful fighter aircraft, the Sopwith Camel.” > > _The Science of Spin: How Rotational Forces Affect Everything from Your Body to Jet Engines to the Weather_, by Roland Ennos Did you get an advance copy? Amazon says this book has a release date of July 9, 2024. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2807 "2023-12-11T16:44:12Z")
Once upon a time in what would one day come to be known as the month of August, many, many years ago, in a place that would one day be known as Manitoba, a herd of mammoths came over the low hills to the south and into a gentle green valley rich with the scent of water. _Mammoth_ by John Varley I’ve been re-reading a lot of science fiction lately. ---
**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:** [December 11, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2808 "2023-12-11T17:16:00Z")
“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairie in the Osage territory of Oklahoma.” _Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI_ by David Grann ---
**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:** [December 13, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2809 "2023-12-13T00:32:26Z")
No. It was on the local public library’s new books shelf. Back to first sentences: “Starr Lewis hated to return home a failure, but at least she had the cover of the holiday season to hide her embarrassment.” _You Make It Feel Like Christmas_, by Toni Shiloh ---
**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:** [December 13, 2023, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2810 "2023-12-13T05:16:46Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > No. It was on the local public library’s new books shelf. Huh. I didn’t think it was out yet. I’ll have to find a copy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=139) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=141)