# 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:** 148
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2951 "2024-04-03T13:32:57Z")
It’s hard to stay cordial while fighting for your life, even when your life doesn’t amount to much.
_Kiln People_ by David Brin
A continuation of my recent trend of re-reading some science fiction favorites.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2952 "2024-04-03T16:25:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> A continuation of my recent trend of re-reading some science fiction favorites.
I’ve been doing a lot of that too.
"You come upon the _White Hart_ quite unexpectedly in one of those anonymous little lanes leading down from Fleet Street to the Embankment.
_Tales From the White Hart_ by Arthur C. Clarke
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2953 "2024-04-04T18:13:59Z")
“Numerous severed crayons lay in disarray before me.”
_Nuts & Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)_, by Roman Agrawal
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2024, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2954 "2024-04-06T00:37:49Z")
“A lot had changed on the campus since I’d left it in '58.”
_In Ashes Born_ Nathan Lowell (Book One of _A Seeker’s Tale - From the Age of the Solar Clipper_)
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2024, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2955 "2024-04-06T01:49:29Z")
“The custodian at St. Mark’s had just scraped three inches of snow off the sidewalks when the man with the cane appeared.”
– _The Confession_, by John Grisham
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2956 "2024-04-06T18:48:09Z")
“All good novelists have tasted the joy of deception, but Graham Greene was addicted to it.”
\*Graham Greene: The Enemy Within" by Michael Shelden
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2957 "2024-04-06T19:43:55Z")
“Canon Daniel Clement AKC, Rector of Champton St Mary, stood in his pulpit, looking down on his parishioners.”
_Murder Before Evensong_, by the Reverend Richard Coles
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2024, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2958 "2024-04-08T20:35:01Z")
“In the summer of 1605 John Wright began selling copies of a newly printed play called _The True Chronicle History of King Leir_, which had first been staged around 1590.”
_The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606_, by James Shapiro
---
### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [April 8, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2959 "2024-04-08T21:31:05Z")
“Clay Hutmacher, Jr., twenty-five, stood knee-deep in the Twelve Sleep River, casting for trout with a determined look on his face and an engagement ring in his pocket.”
_Three-Inch Teeth_ by C.J. Box
---
### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2024, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2960 "2024-04-29T16:57:59Z")
A post was merged into an existing topic: [Gigabyte’s posts now live in the cornfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gigabytes-posts-now-live-in-the-cornfield/1000932/2)
---
### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2961 "2024-04-10T21:02:07Z")
“Minutes after I walked into Alamo Plaza I saw my first Davy Crockett Ghost.”
–_Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier_ by Bob Thompson
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2024, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2962 "2024-04-11T20:17:02Z")
“Most of them told the time very roughly by their meals, which were unpunctual and irregular: they amused themselves with the most childish games all through the day, and when it was dark they fell asleep by tacit consent–not waiting for a particular hour of darkness for they had no means of telling the time exactly: in fact there were as many times as there were prisoners.”
_The Tenth Man_, by Graham Greene
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2024, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2963 "2024-04-12T17:08:17Z")
“It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.”
_The Big Sleep_ by Raymond Chandler. I think the entire first paragraph is worth sharing.
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2964 "2024-04-12T17:16:23Z")
Some time in 2014, I was approached to write ‘a short story’.
The lengthy (14-page) introduction to _Voices of Rome_, a collection of short stories by Lindsey Davis.
As soon as I got there, my mother said, "We must put on a revival of Falco’s old play to celebrate.’
“The Spook Who Spoke Again”, the first story in _Voices of Rome_.
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2965 "2024-04-12T21:30:52Z")
“I was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, before the close of the Civil War (16 July 1862).”
_Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells_
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2024, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2966 "2024-04-15T04:11:28Z")
“A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast.”
– _The Boys from Biloxi_, by John Grisham
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2967 "2024-04-16T20:34:59Z")
“The _Scopuli_ had been taken eight days ago, and Julie Mao was finally ready to be shot.”
_Leviathan Wakes_, by James S. A. Corey
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2024, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2968 "2024-04-17T18:07:21Z")
“The go sirens ululated through the Jannisar cruiser.”
The Wolf Worlds - Chris Bunch/Alan Cole
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2969 "2024-04-19T18:26:44Z")
“We shot dogs. Not by accident.”
_Redeployment_ by Phil Klay
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/2970 "2024-04-19T18:31:12Z")
I had just come home after telling my favorite sister that her husband had been eaten by a lion.
_One Virgin Too Many_, by Lindsey Davis
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=147)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=149)