# What is the first sentence from the book you are currently reading?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858
**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:** 146
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2024, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2911 "2024-02-17T17:25:35Z")
I really admire Harrison, doing what he did for so long. And he said he didn’t like needles, yet over eleven hundred times he let himself be poked.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2024, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2912 "2024-02-18T21:35:36Z")
“Figuring out when humans began to count systematically, with purpose, is not easy.”
_Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator_, by Keith Houston
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2913 "2024-02-21T14:41:14Z")
“Harry Feiffer sat out in the cool night air on the verandah of his fifth floor apartment looking at the harbour.”
_The Hatchet Man_, by William Marshall
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2914 "2024-02-22T20:16:46Z")
“Among the many problems which beset the novelist, not the least weighty is the choice of the moment at which to begin his novel.”
_The Edwardians_ by Vita Sackville-West
I also like the Author’s Note: “No character in this book is wholly fictitious.”
This book was written in 1930, but set in 1905, and what I found very interesting was that the first chapter in particular almost perfectly described the country house practices in the film _Gosford Park_. Like even descriptions of the characters were similar. I am really curious if Julian Fellowes was familiar with this book when he wrote the script.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2915 "2024-02-22T21:49:19Z")
“As far as the foot soldiers were concerned, the other side could have the damned town.”
_The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy_, by Sally Jenkins and John Stauffer
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2916 "2024-02-22T22:05:16Z")
You can’t know space unless you were born there.
_Worlds_ by Joe Haldeman
I’ve been re-reading a lot of “classic” science fiction in the last few months and this is part of that trend.
Getting a weird vibe from seeing “future” dates that are now in the past.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2024, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2917 "2024-02-25T22:08:35Z")
“Her name was Rhea.”
The Seventh Bride, by T. Kingfisher
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2918 "2024-02-25T22:15:39Z")
Is that a good one? I really like T. Kingfisher.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2919 "2024-02-26T13:58:08Z")
“The rats are like fingers.”
_The House of Last Resort_, by Christopher Golden
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2024, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2920 "2024-02-27T23:14:13Z")
Yes, I enjoyed _The Seventh Bride_.
Back in play:
“When Lee Newland spied the plane hovering just above his head that afternoon, he was surprised by how low it was flying.”
_Fire on the Track: Betty Robinson and the Triumph of the Early Olympic Women_, by Roseanne Montillo.
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### Author:  [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2921 "2024-02-27T23:22:42Z")
Call me Ishmael.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2922 "2024-02-28T18:30:05Z")
^ Reading _The Great Gatsby_, huh?
“When those men rode down to the fording place last night, I thought us done for.”
_Inland_ by Tea Obreht
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2923 "2024-02-28T19:03:41Z")
“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow”.
_ **To Kill a Mockingbird** _ _,_ by Harper Lee
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2024, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2924 "2024-03-01T00:36:20Z")
“She never listens to me anymore.”
_Skin Folk: Stories_, by Nalo Hopkinson. (Note that this is from the first story in the collection, “Riding the Red”.)
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2024, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2925 "2024-03-03T00:27:58Z")
“I am willing to think ill of anyone, so I suppose I have an open mind.”
_Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood_, by David Mamet
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2024, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2926 "2024-03-03T00:46:20Z")
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.”
**The Murderbot Diaries**
(first book: _All Systems Red)_
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2024, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2927 "2024-03-04T22:01:05Z")
“Swill! Filth! Horse piss!” yelled the ragged man as he threw his bowl onto the stone floor."
_Tom O’Bedlam’s Night Out and Other Strange Excursions_ by Darrell Schweitzer. (The above quote is from the first story, “Tom O’Bedlam’s Night Out”.)
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2024, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2928 "2024-03-05T20:23:16Z")
"Because he had enjoyed almost every advantage since birth, one of the few privileges denied to Benjamin Rask was that of a heroic rise: his was not a story of resilience and perseverance or the tale of an unbreakable will forging a golden destiny for itself out of little more than dross.”
_Trust_ by Hernan Diaz
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2929 "2024-03-06T00:07:21Z")
“The interior of the Broadway theater shifts and blurs in Lydia’s vision as the curtain falls for the interval, but she keeps her mental focus long enough to finish translating the last few lines of the first act for the cultural attache’.”
_Drunk on All Your Strange New Words_, by Eddie Robson.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2024, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2930 "2024-03-07T23:01:28Z")
“The book was thick and black and covered with dust.”
_Possession: A Romance_, by A. S. Byatt
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