# 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:** 159
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3171 "2024-11-21T19:19:35Z")
“At the height of the long wet summer of the Seventy-Seventh year of Sendovani, the Thiefmaker of Camorr paid a sudden and unannounced visit to the Eyeless Priest at the temple of Perelandro, desperately hoping to sell him the Lamora boy.”
_The Lies of Locke Lamora_ by Scott Lynch
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3172 "2024-11-21T21:41:43Z")
“It’s another Iraqi town, nameless to the Marines racing down the main drag in Humvees, blowing it to pieces.”
_Generation Kill_ by Evan Wright
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2024, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3173 "2024-11-22T21:59:08Z")
“Show me the sandals first,” I said.
_Liberty’s Daughter_, by Naomi Kritzer
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3174 "2024-11-24T23:17:26Z")
“What am I doing?”
_And Then? And Then? What Else?_, by Daniel Handler
“Do the mountains and the blue Bavarian twilight cause the drum march to rattle into existence–is the music an emanation of the mountains?–or are the peaks and valleys hauled into view by the march of drums?”
_“Broadsword Calling Danny Boy”: Watching Where Eagles Dare_, by Geoff Dyer
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2024, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3175 "2024-11-26T23:19:34Z")
“I learned about the death of my uncle Jake in a deeply unexpected way, which was from the CNBC _Squawk Box_ morning show.”
_Starter Villain_ by John Scalzi
“Those of you who are familiar with the events that occurred during the latter part of Sherlock Holmes’ life, after he had left our old lodgings at 221B Baker Street, will know that after giving up his career as a private consulting agent, he moved to Sussex where he took up beekeeping as a part-time livelihood.”
_Sherlock Holmes and the Lady in Black_ by June Thomson
“The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short… Assuming you live to be eighty, you’ll have had about four thousand weeks.”
_Four Thousand Weeks: Time Managment for Mortals_ by Oliver Burkeman
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### Author:  [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2024, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3176 "2024-11-27T01:32:37Z")
Prologue:
When David and Ida Eisenhower moved their growing family to Abilene, Kansas, in 1898, the town seemed a million miles from a swiftly modernizing world.
Chapter One:
Although the nation — and, in fact, the world ---- was undergoing a major change the way people travel, for his first trip east of the Mississippi River in 1910, young Dwight Eisenhower had little choice in how he’d get to West Point, just north of New York City; like most Americans of the era, he took a train.
_Ike’s Road Trip - How Eisenhower’s 1919 Convoy Paved the Way for the Roads We Travel_ by Brian C. Black, 2024 GODINE, Boston, Massachusetts
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2024, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3177 "2024-11-27T02:37:52Z")
The largest explosion in the history of the planet took place at 7.15 a.m. local time in the Marshall Islands, out in the vast expanse of the Central Pacific Ocean.
_Two Minutes to Midnight: 1953 – The Year of Living Dangerously_ by Roger Hermiston
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2024, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3178 "2024-11-27T02:40:30Z")
The wind blustered through the gray dawn.
_'Ware Hawk_, by Andre Norton
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2024, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3179 "2024-11-27T21:21:52Z")
“The dog shows up at the mint-green house on the edge of the woods a month before the monster arrives, his coat shiny as a new copper penny.”
_Wild Spaces_, by S. L. Coney
“The woman was back again.”
_A Little Fantasy Everywhere_, edited by Dina A. Leacock (Note that this is an anthology, and the sentence is from “A Normal Life”, by Jill Hand.)
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2024, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3180 "2024-12-02T04:48:16Z")
“And I suppose this is the approach-course,” said Charles Malcolm. “Full of natural hazards.”
His wife, Celia, replied with dignity: “That is the tennis-court.” Charles made a derisive noise. “All it needs,” she said, eyeing him, “is a little levelling.”
_Footsteps in the Dark_, by Georgette Heyer.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2024, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3181 "2024-12-02T13:16:55Z")
“I’m playing trombone in a little five-piece combo at Benny’s Bar and Grill when it happens.”
Another Time: An Anthology of Time Travel Stories 1942-1960, edited by Jean-Paul Garnier. (This is from the first story, “And the Band Played On” by C. Shook.)
“The beach was just the way I loved it: empty, its waters comfortable and clear, a few sand crabs dashing around.”
_Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected_, by Nnedi Okorafor.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2024, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3182 "2024-12-02T14:34:38Z")
“This stupid peace and quiet is killing me!”
_Rockin’ Around the Chickadee_, by Donna Andrews
The slave who came to fetch me on that unseasonably warm spring morning was a young man, hardly more than twenty.
_Roman Blood_, by Steven Saylor
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#):
>
> sand crabs
Navy term for civilians. 😃
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2024, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3183 "2024-12-03T13:51:45Z")
“You can still change your mind, you know.”
_Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow!_, by Donna Andrews.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3184 "2024-12-05T18:34:11Z")
“Those little bastards were hiding out there in the tall grass.”
_James_ by Percival Everett
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### Author:  [@Cee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cee)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3185 "2024-12-05T19:03:30Z")
“Although the museum was well known to be a seat of enourmous learning, its foundations had begun to sag”.
- The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson.
I’m trying to get into horror books after watching The Haunting of Hill House and finding it sub-par. I did really like Kate Siegal as Theo though and her relationship with that asian woman was pretty cute.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3186 "2024-12-05T19:05:06Z")
Welcome, @Cee! You say you don’t like horror books?
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### Author:  [@Cee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cee)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2024, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3187 "2024-12-05T19:19:00Z")
The Bird’s Nest is good so far, it’s just that, horror in written form, it seems less exciting to me. I do wanna read some Stephan King books after I read some more of Shirley though. I definately prefer watching horror movies though, it seems. I also like cosmic horror like the the Welcome to Nightvale podcast and can see myself enjoying those books.
I have a copy of House of Leaves that I’ve only read a bit of, but it seems good so far.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3188 "2024-12-06T20:33:55Z")
“Titus woke up five minutes before his alarm went off at 7:00 A.M. and made himself a cup of coffee in the Keurig Darlene had gotten him last Christmas.”
_All The Sinners Bleed_ by S.A. Cosby
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3189 "2024-12-07T00:00:02Z")
“Wolcum be thou hevene king,
Wolcum, born in one morning,
Wolcum for whom we sall sing!”
_A Christmas Sourcebook_, edited by Mary Ann Simcoe. (The above is from an untitled poem by an anonymous poet.)
“Here’s two dollars and fifty cents–in gold, George M.”
_Reincarnations_ by Harry Turtledove. (Note that this is from the first story in this collection, “The Haunted Biscuspid”.)
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### Author:  [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2024, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3190 "2024-12-07T03:10:38Z")
“The e-mail was from Iris Chang, author of the groundbreaking bestseller _The Rape of Nanking_.”
_Flyboys_,James Bradley.
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