# 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:** 155
### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2024, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3091 "2024-09-03T12:16:48Z")
“I could start this true story right in the middle of the bad business, as there certainly was plenty of that, much worse than we could have expected, and it came at us from an angle that damn near defied geometry.”
Sugar On the Bones, by Joe R. Lansdale
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2024, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3092 "2024-09-04T00:10:32Z")
I’m glad to have read this, I didn’t know another one was out.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2024, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3093 "2024-09-04T04:05:07Z")
Mr. Grenfall Lorry boarded the east-bound express at Denver with all the air of a martyr.
_Graustark_, by George Barr McCutcheon
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3094 "2024-09-06T12:26:29Z")
“The sky was overcast, the air thick with humidity.”
_Eagle in Exile_, by Alan Smale
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3095 "2024-09-06T20:12:01Z")
I’m on a Stephen King kick recently, rereading his 90’s stuff.
“She sits in the corner, trying to draw air out of a room which seemed to have plenty just a few minutes ago and now seems to have none.”
-_Rose Madder_
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3096 "2024-09-08T00:14:16Z")
As usual, it’s very good. Albia finally has her face-to-face meeting with Florius Oppicus, and there’s a lovely twist at the end of the book (as in the last three pages).
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2024, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3097 "2024-09-09T02:50:38Z")
“Hell is empty, Armand,” said Stephen Horowitz.
_All the Devils Are Here_, the 16th Chief Inspector Gamache mystery by Louise Penny
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3098 "2024-09-09T04:01:08Z")
« Between what matters and what seems to matter, how should the world we know judge wisely? »
— _Trent’s Last Case_, by E.C. Bentley
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3099 "2024-09-10T16:59:39Z")
“The two suspects sat on mismatched furniture in a white and almost featureless lounge, waiting for something to happen.”
_The Eighth Detective_ by Alex Pavesi
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2024, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3100 "2024-09-12T12:32:59Z")
“‘Your mother is going to be a star,’ said the man in the gray uniform.”
_Counterweight_, by Djuna, translated by Anton Hur.
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3101 "2024-09-12T13:10:32Z")
“When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.”
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3102 "2024-09-12T17:33:21Z")
You forgot to say the book! 😉
“There’s a very particular kind of hot, coarse pain in the lungs that can only really be experienced after running from something that’s trying to kill you.”
_Wilderness Reform_, by Matt Query and Harrison Query
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3103 "2024-09-14T16:52:35Z")
“The first camel spider I saw failed to impress me.”
_How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite_, edited by Dr. Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski. (Note that this is an anthology of essays, and the above sentence is from the first one, “Camel Spiders: The Rumors of My Size Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”, by Forest Ray, PhD.)
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3104 "2024-09-15T23:33:35Z")
“There was a fly walking on Cordelia’s hand and she was not allowed to flick it away.”
_A Sorceress Comes To Call_, T. Kingfisher
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2024, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3105 "2024-09-16T04:01:49Z")
“The town is Galloway.”
– _The Town and the City_, by Jack Kerouac
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3106 "2024-09-16T15:49:36Z")
“Sol, seen at a distance of sixteen light years, is a little fainter than the star at the tip of Orion’s sword, and it could not have been contributing much to the sparkle in the diamond lenses of the strange machine.”
_Close to Critical_, by Hal Clement
“When Abe Lincoln came out of the wilderness and loped off with the Republican nomination on the memorable May day, 1860, the Wigwam had been resonant with whispers.”
_Chicago_, by Studs Terkel
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2024, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3107 "2024-09-17T06:17:49Z")
It’s cold at 6:40 in the morning of a March day in Paris, and seems even colder when a man is about to be executed by firing squad.
_The Day of the Jackal_. Frederick Forsyth
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### Author:  [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2024, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3108 "2024-09-17T06:49:22Z")
“THE AIVAS FELT its sensors responding to a renewal of power from the solar panels on the roof above it.”
_All The Weyrs Of Pern,_ By Anne MacCaffrey
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2024, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3109 "2024-09-17T08:25:20Z")
> [@outlierrn](#):
>
> _The Day of the Jackal_. Frederick Forsyth
I read this years and years ago. As I recall, it was a great read.
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3110 "2024-09-17T21:34:28Z")
“The quickest way to a man’s heart,” the instructor said, “is proverbially through his stomach, but if you want to get into his brain, I recommend the eye socket.”
Said by a fencing instructor at the opening of _The Escapement_, book three of K.J. Parker’s Engineer Trilogy. One of many novels set in his fantasy world, like the Saevus Corux trilogy among several others. Or you can dip into the novels written under his real name, [Tom Holt.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Holt) – there’s a bunch of links at the bottom on his Wikipedia page if you want to explore more, including links to some free on the web stories.
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