# 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:** 142
**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 27, 2023, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2831 "2023-12-27T23:27:54Z")
Good luck, **JohnGalt**! ---
**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 29, 2023, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2832 "2023-12-29T17:06:59Z")
“When the temperatures drop, the winds are whipping, and it’s cozier to stay inside, a little treat can go a long way in helping us get out the door.” _1000 Hours Outside: Activities to Match Screen Time with Green Time_, by Ginny Yurich ---
**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:** [January 1, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2833 "2024-01-01T13:59:01Z")
“It was hard to articulate the point at which we switched from wanting to get older to feeling like we could stand to be a little bit younger.” _Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go: Stories_, by Cleo Qian (Note: The above quote is from the first story, “Chicken. Film. Youth.” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2834 "2024-01-02T17:16:55Z")
“We are conditioned to think of the world as a mosaic of sovereign states, each possessing its own distinct and bordered portion of the Earth’s surface.” — _Invisible Borders in a Bordered World,_ eds. Diener and Hagen (And not just because I co-authored a chapter.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2835 "2024-01-02T17:21:46Z")
Thanks for the heads-up on this book. I just ordered a copy for my wife. ---
**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:** [January 2, 2024, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2836 "2024-01-02T21:12:20Z")
“The train was two carriages long in its entirety, with rattling single-glazed windows, and it wound its way contentedly along the country line at whatever speed it felt like.” Grave Expectations, by Alice Bell ---
**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:** [January 3, 2024, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2837 "2024-01-03T00:29:17Z")
I hope she enjoys it. It’s not all speculative fiction, though. I thought the best story was “Seagull Village”. Back on topic: “One day, when I was a kid, our house caught fire.” _Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!_ by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker. (Note that the above quote is from Jerry Zucker.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2838 "2024-01-03T04:30:49Z")
“No,” Kaj Nevis told the others firmly. _Tuf Voyaging_ by George R.R. Martin ---
**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:** [January 3, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2839 "2024-01-03T18:20:57Z")
“It started at one-thirty on a cold Tuesday morning in January when Martin Turner, street performer and, in his own words, apprentice gigolo, tripped over a body in front of the east portico of St. Paul’s at Covent Garden.” **Rivers of London** (UK) or **Midnight Riot** (US) by Ben Aaronovitch. ---
**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:** [January 4, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2840 "2024-01-04T19:18:31Z")
"Dear Committee Members, Over the past twenty-odd years I’ve recommended who knows how many talented candidates for the Bentham January residency–that enviable literary oasis in the woods south of Skowhegan: the solitutude, the pristine cabins, the artistic camaraderie, and those exquisite hand-delivered satchels of apples and cheese…" _Dear Committee Members_ by Julie Schumacher ---
**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:** [January 5, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2841 "2024-01-05T20:46:48Z")
“It took following their journeys from Africa to London, to understand why bravery was never a choice.” _Wearing My Mother’s Heart: Poems_, by Sophia Thakur (Note that the above sentence is from the untitled first poem.) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2842 "2024-01-05T21:55:41Z")
“In a letter of my father’s written on the 16th of July 1964 he said: The germ of my attempt to write legends of my own to fit my private languages was the tragic tale of the hapless Kullervo in the Finnish _Kalevala_.” _Beren and Lúthien_, by JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien ---
**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:** [January 6, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2843 "2024-01-06T16:55:34Z")
“_A sentient space station should have perfect temperature,_ Mallory Viridian thought.” _Chaos Terminal_ by Mur Lafferty ---
**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:** [January 8, 2024, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2844 "2024-01-08T05:13:48Z")
“The only impartial witness was the sun.” – _The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder_, by David Grann ---
**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:** [January 8, 2024, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2845 "2024-01-08T14:00:08Z")
“I pull into the desert town at sunset feeling empty.” _Death Valley_, by Melissa Broder ---
**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:** [January 8, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2846 "2024-01-08T16:21:14Z")
“The desert was empty, as though a great drain had sucked the world underground.” _The Order of Odd Fish_, by James Kennedy ---
**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:** [January 8, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2847 "2024-01-08T16:35:44Z")
“In advanced modernity the social production of _wealth_ is systematically accompanied by the social production of _risks_.” _Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity_ by Ulrich Beck, translated by Mark Ritter ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2848 "2024-01-08T19:33:18Z")
“Eighteen!” bellowed Viv, bringing her saber around in a flat curve that battered the wight’s skull off its spine. _Bookshops and Bonedust_, by Travis Baldree. A well-written and entertaining fantasy story about books, baking, love, and skeletons. I recommend it and _Legends & Lattes_, the next in the series. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2849 "2024-01-08T22:47:47Z")
I think I’ll check that out, I like some genre stories. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2850 "2024-01-09T12:04:24Z")
They’re very much “slice of life” (or Undeath) stories, not heavy on the action. Very warm and good characters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=141) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=143)