# 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:** 173
### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2025, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3451 "2025-09-17T18:47:24Z")
Quartermaster noticed the Named were getting upset again, and quietly set his subordinates and their slaves to checking fabrication procedures and inventory.
_Man-Kzin Wars XII_; From first short story “Echoes of Distant Guns” by Matthew Joseph Harrington.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3452 "2025-09-21T17:31:23Z")
“Let me tell you, this is not how I imagined my daughter’s wedding day.”
_Father of the Bride of Frankenstein_ by Daniel M. Kimmel
“I never studied poetry and still don’t understand it, but there’s something in my use of punctuation that makes me call it poetic.”
_Punctilious Punctuation: Telling Tales With and of Those Jots and Tittles, and the Horrifying Story of Why the Period Goes Inside the Quotation Marks_, by Ian Randal Strock
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2025, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3453 "2025-09-21T21:39:47Z")
“My earliest memory of her smells like blood.”
_Beneath the Rising_ by Premee Mohamed
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2025, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3454 "2025-09-22T21:44:54Z")
“Franklin Fletcher dreamed of luxury in the form of tiger skins and beautiful women.”
_Fancies and Goodnights_ by John Collier (From the first story, “Bottle Party”.)
“In all the world there was no more active and fertile imagination than that of Doctor Cornell’s little girl, Kit.”
_Curtain Going Up! The Story of Katharine Cornell_, by Gladys Malvern
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3455 "2025-09-23T01:40:55Z")
“What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?”
_What If? 2_ by Randall Munroe
“Let’s sit down on this bench for a minute.”
_King Ottokar’s Sceptre_ by Hergé
“Did you enjoy the film, Captain?”
_The Red Sea Sharks_ by Hergé
“If he had had his way, Peter McDermott thought, he would have fired the chief house detective long ago.”
_Hotel_ by Arthur Hailey
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3456 "2025-09-23T02:22:41Z")
“If the bread hadn’t burned, this would be a very different story.”
_The Familiar_ by Leigh Bardugo
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3457 "2025-09-24T23:17:39Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> “If he had had his way, Peter McDermott thought, he would have fired the chief house detective long ago.”
>
> _Hotel_ by Arthur Hailey
I’ve been wanting to reread that, but our library system doesn’t have a copy. ☹
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3458 "2025-09-24T23:23:28Z")
“This way, General Hood,” said the Confederate guide as he “gracefully saluted and pointed northward.”
_The Unvanquished: The Untold Story of Lincoln’s Special Forces, the Manhunt for Mosby’s Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America’s Special Operations_, by Patrick K O’Donnell
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3459 "2025-09-25T00:03:24Z")
“She breathes in time with the sea.”
_The Sirens_ by Emilia Hart
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2025, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3460 "2025-09-29T10:13:26Z")
“Throughout the night of Friday, September 7, 1900, Isaac Monroe Cline found himself waking to a persistent sense of something gone wrong.”
– _Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History_, by Erik Larson
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### Author:  [@Larsedik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larsedik)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3461 "2025-09-29T20:20:26Z")
“As I got off the plane, he was waiting for me, holding up a scrap of cardboard with my name scribbled on it.”
-from _The Demon Haunted World_ by Carl Sagan.
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### Author:  [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2025, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3462 "2025-09-30T07:26:53Z")
“They were coming”
-from _Perry Rhodan Neo - Vision Terrania Vol 4 (of 4)_ by Arndt Ellmer and Hubert Haensel
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3463 "2025-10-01T20:42:08Z")
“One night, the first summer of this pandemic, I was walking this very block.”
_No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays on Curiosity_, by A. Kendra Greene
“Against the angels and apostles in the windows the snow fluttered like plucked down.”
_Death Notes_, by Ruth Rendell
“I wanted to wish you good morning.”
_Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me and You_, by Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Once the registrar started playing with his pen, Ben was on familiar ground.”
_Patently Absurd: The Files of the Retropolis Registry of Patents_, by Bradley W. Schenck
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2025, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3464 "2025-10-02T09:50:18Z")
“On Wednesday, July 20, 1910, as a light fog drifted along the River Scheldt, Capt. Henry George Kendall prepared his ship, the SS _Montrose_, for what should have been the most routine of voyages, from Antwerp direct to Quebec City, Canada.”
– _Thunderstuck_, by Erik Larson
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3465 "2025-10-02T14:43:33Z")
“The polished rosewood door swung back and the President of the United States came from his bedroom.”
_The Day Lincoln Was Shot_ by Jim Bishop
“As the Parisian social scene drew to a close in February 1777, few courtiers could guess that the queen of France was eager for the gaiety to end.”
_The Fate of the Day_ by Rick Atkinson
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2025, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3466 "2025-10-02T23:11:35Z")
At a quarter to eight one fine September morning, Harold Shoosmith leant from his bedroom window and surveyed the shining face of Thrush Green.
_Battles at Thrush Green_, by Miss Read
I found myself fascinated by the interesting geometric designs of the twisted iron rebar in front of me.
_Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership,and Brotherhood_, by Donovan Campbell
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3467 "2025-10-04T18:13:11Z")
“The water was freezing.”
_Iron Will: An Amputee’s Journey to Athletic Excellence_, by Roderick Sewell II
“I’m lurking in the shrubbery behind an industrial unit, armed with a clipboard, a pager, and a pair of bulbous night-vision goggles that drench the scenery in ghastly emerald tones.”
_The Atrocity Archives_, by Charles Stross
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3468 "2025-10-05T02:48:16Z")
In far too many places in England today, the agreeable habit of taking afternoon tea has vanished.
_Gossip from Thrush Green_, by Miss Read
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3469 "2025-10-07T03:12:07Z")
‘I must pay a visit to Thrush Green this afternoon,’ said Dimity Henstock to her husband Charles,
_At Home in Thrush Green_, by Miss Read.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3470 "2025-10-08T01:41:23Z")
“January,” said Miss Watson, gives me the jim-jams!"
_The School at Thrush Green_, by Miss Read
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