# 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:** 162
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3231 "2025-01-03T21:08:15Z")
“The little boy named Ulysses Macauley one day stood over the new gopher hole in the backyard of his house on Santa Clara Avenue in Ithaca, California.”
_The Human Comedy_, by William Saroyan
“What is an anecdote?”
_The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes_, edited by Gyles Brandreth.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2025, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3232 "2025-01-05T01:59:51Z")
Sitting on the edge of the circular hole cut in the floor of the mighty four-engine British Halifax bomber, her legs dangling down as though she were a child perched on an adult’s chair, Elżbieta Zawacka – nom-de-guerre ‘Zo’ – considered her likely fate.
_Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter_, by Clare Mulley
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3233 "2025-01-05T14:52:49Z")
“At the heart of the city of Beijing is an imperial palace, largest in scale and best-preserved in state, amongst all those in present-day China.”
_Beijing’s Imperial Palace: The Illustrated Guide to the Architecture, History, and Splendor of the Forbidden City_, by Yang Zhigang
“I am not born the way humans are, but there is a beginning.”
_A Rover’s Story_, by Jasmine Warga.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3234 "2025-01-08T18:16:49Z")
“The morning was chilly and overcast, with a promise of rain before the day was done.”
_Empresses of Seventh Avenue: World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion_, by Nancy MacDonnell
“Sun soaked the city streets, filtered through the office window so that the sign reading, PERRY MASON, ATTORNEY AT LAW, was thrown in shadow where the sunlight splashed across the massive table loaded with law books.”
_The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito_, by Erle Stanley Gardner
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3235 "2025-01-09T14:33:26Z")
“The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling.”
_Trainspotting_, by Irvine Welsh
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3236 "2025-01-12T12:37:18Z")
“Addison and Cassidy Hempel, identical twin girls, were born on January 23, 2004.”
_We the Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forged a New Path for Medicine_, by Amy Dockser Marcus
“And now,” says the nice interviewer from _Modern Woman_ magazine, “how does it feel to be writing your seventh book?”
_What Does It Feel Like?_, a novella by Sophie Kinsella.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3237 "2025-01-13T19:39:22Z")
“The stories and pictures in this book are written and painted by refugee children in Kenya.”
_One Day We Had to Run!: Refugee Children Tell Their Stories in Words and Paintings_, edited by Sybella Wilkes
“When the temp agency called, I was struggling to make the math work.”
_Hench_, by Natalie Zina Walschots
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2025, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3238 "2025-01-15T04:09:26Z")
“The silence was unnerving after several days at sea, crossing from America with the constant grinding of the ship’s engines, quiet now in the Atlantic waters off North Africa.”
_Against All Odds_ by Alex Kershaw
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3239 "2025-01-15T18:19:27Z")
“Don’t shoot guns into the hurricane.”
_Naked Came the Florida Man_ - Tim Dorsey
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2025, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3240 "2025-01-15T22:04:17Z")
“Where did Hebrew come from?”
_The Story of Hebrew_, by Lewis Glinert
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3241 "2025-01-16T23:27:19Z")
““There were men,” said the witness. He was lean and dark, the color of an acorn, and seated beside his lawyer at the small table reserved for testimony, he appeared as tense as a sprinter on the starting line.”
_Testimony_ by Scott Turow
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3242 "2025-01-18T15:08:28Z")
“Composite image, optically encoded by escort-craft of the trans-Channel airship Lord Brunel; aerial view of suburban Cherbourg, October 14, 1905.”
_The Difference Engine_, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2025, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3243 "2025-01-21T04:52:32Z")
“Abner Marsh rapped the head of his hickory walking stick smartly on the hotel desk to get the clerk’s attention.”
_Fevre Dream_ by George R.R. Martin
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3244 "2025-01-21T22:43:07Z")
“In 2015, Microsoft did a study on attention spans.”
_You’ve Got Eight Seconds; Communication Secrets for a Distracted World_, by Paul Hellman
“It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.”
_The Shadow of the Torturer_, by Gene Wolfe
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3245 "2025-01-25T21:51:44Z")
“The art of the Middle Ages is an art of storytelling.”
_How to Read Medieval Art_, by Wendy A. Stein
“The rough mountain trails that connected West Point with the furnace and forge at Sterling Pond were still drifted with snow in spots, even though it was the end of March in this year of Our Lord 1778.”
_Constant Hearses and Other Revolutionary Mysteries_, by Edward D. Hoch (Note that this sentence is from the first story, “The Hudson Chain”.)
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3246 "2025-01-26T02:17:28Z")
“January 25, 1931. The Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition reached the reported campsite of our Northwest Area survey team.”
_At the Mountains of Madness_ by H.P. Lovecraft, adaptation and artwork by Gou Tanabe
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3247 "2025-01-26T16:01:59Z")
It was a pilgrimage.
_The Mahdi_ by A.J. Quinnell
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3248 "2025-01-28T20:29:25Z")
“When Abe awoke on the morning of November 22, the weather was overcast and drizzly, a disappointing beginning to the day of the president’s visit to Dallas.”
_Twenty-Six Seconds_ by Alexandra Zapruder
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3249 "2025-01-28T22:51:48Z")
The urn the ashes came in was beautiful – shiny and black, with an enamel swastika on one side.
_His Majesty’s Hope_, third Maggie Hope mystery by Susan Elia Macneal
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3250 "2025-01-28T23:34:26Z")
“Elisha Archibald Manning III sounds more like a member of the English royalty than an American football player, but “Archie” Manning was indeed a terrific football player.”
_What the Luck? The Surprising Role of Chance in Our Everyday Lives_, by Gary Smith
“They’re coming.”
_Fireheart Tiger_, a fantasy novella by Aliette de Bodard.
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