# 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:** 178
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3551 "2025-12-18T22:02:43Z")
“My bandanna is rolled on the diagonal and retains water fairly well.”
_Coming Into the Country_ by John McPhee
“On 20 May 2119 I took the overnight ferry from Port Marlborough and arrived in the late afternoon at the small quay near Maentwrog-under-Sea that serves the Bodleian Snowdonia Library.”
_What We Can Know_ by Ian McEwan
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3552 "2025-12-18T23:06:28Z")
“When the quiet knock came on the door, Robert Ashton surveyed the room in one swift, automatic movement.”
_Tales of Time and Space_, edited by Ross R. Olney (This is from “All the Time in the World” by Arthur C. Clarke)
“It was eight o’clock and pitch dark on a chilly October night.”
_The Amish Wedding and Other Special Occasions of the Old Order Communities_, by Stephen Scott
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3553 "2025-12-19T00:03:15Z")
We all know that history has proceeded very differently for peoples from different parts of the globe.
_Guns, Germs, and Steel_, by Jared Diamond (reread)
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3554 "2025-12-21T19:20:48Z")
“If that ain’t the damnedest thing.”
_Ancient Shores_, by Jack McDevitt
“Next to dinosaurs, woolly mammoths are probably the best known prehistoric animals.”
_Ice Age Bones: Mammoth_, by Barbara Hehner
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3555 "2025-12-22T20:26:13Z")
“They would be watching the airport. Couldn’t go back there.”
_Tool of the Trade_ by Joe Haldeman
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3556 "2025-12-24T20:56:06Z")
“Palo Alto can be beguiling: the palm trees, the exquisite gardens with chromatic waves of tulips, hydrangeas, and roses, the extravagant explosions of bougainvillea, the voluptuous breeze on a sun-bright day, the the banks of fog rolling over the Santa Cruz Mountains that separate us from the beach to which we hardly ever go because the traffic is horrible.”
_The Golden Ticket: A Life in the College Admissions Essays_, by Irena Smith
“My wife and I had not eaten for nearly an hour.”
_A Year Near Proxima Centauri_, by Michael Martin
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3557 "2025-12-28T17:05:29Z")
“the music! the
_music!_ as when Casals struck
and held a deep cello tone
and I am speechless”
_Untune the Sky: Poems of Music and the Dance_, compiled by Helen Plotz (The quote is from “The Desert Music” by William Carlos Williams)
“The two men on the narrow dirt strip were both wearing white cotton pants and shirts.”
_Money Money Money,_ by Ed McBain
“Travel is food for the soul.”
_Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World_, by Patricia Schultz.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3558 "2025-12-28T20:22:17Z")
Bangalore, 2 April 1922
The moon appeared through the clouds, its pale silvery light shining through the open door, glistening onto the old iron box.
_Into the Leopard’s Den_, by Harini Nagendra
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3559 "2025-12-28T22:09:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The woman known to the world as Madame Curie entered the world on November 7, 1867, as Marya Salomea Sklodowska.
OK, it’s not the most glamorous start, and it takes a couple of chapters to pick up, but The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science is an excellent biography, from an author who understands the science well enough to do justice to her topic.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3560 "2025-12-29T01:44:37Z")
“The sophisticated cuisine that developed in the Iberian Peninsula when it was under Muslim rule is in full view in the thirteenth-century cookbook Fiḍālat al-khiwān fī ṭayyibāt al-ṭaʿām wa-l-alwān by the Andalusi scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī.”
Nawal Nasrallah, _Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib: A Cookbook by Thirteenth-Century Andalusi Scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī (1227–1293), English Translation with Introduction and Glossary_
Plus enjoyable manuscript illustrations of the food, plants, cookware, etc. The introduction is 102 pages and fascinating.
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### Author:  [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3561 "2025-12-29T23:42:48Z")
Halla of Rutger’s Howe had just inherited a great deal of money and was therefore spending her evening trying to figure out how to kill herself.
_Swordheart_ by T. Kingfisher
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2025, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3562 "2025-12-30T00:22:50Z")
Roger Mulligan looked down at the dandelion, questioning his life choices.
“The Wizard’s Cat” - Nathan Lowell
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2025, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3563 "2025-12-30T03:05:48Z")
I again suggest you take any commentary and discussion to the Whatcha Reading thread, the latest of which is here: [Khadaji’s Whatcha Reading Thread - January 2026 edition](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/khadaji-s-whatcha-reading-thread-january-2026-edition/1026156). Thanks!
“The village children called him Mr. Gloomy. But, in fact, his name was Toomey, Mr. Jonathan Toomey.”
_The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey_ by Susan Wojciechowski, illustr. by P. J. Lynch
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites."
_All Systems Red_ by Martha Wells
“I am prowling outside Mitch McConnell’s former frat house, which until fifteen minutes ago seemed like an excellent idea.”
_Democracy in One Book or Less_ by David Litt
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3564 "2026-01-01T13:06:29Z")
“Amahle could no longer remember how old she was.”
_Light Chaser_, a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell
“I don’t want fast. I want pretty.” (Said by Billy Rose to Esther Williams.)
_Swimming Pretty: The Untold Story of Women in the Water_, by Vicki Valosik.
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3565 "2026-01-02T01:02:43Z")
“When I was a girl and the world broke, I thought I would always divide my life by the night in the mountains – the day before, the day after.”
_The Secrets of Jin-shei_ by Alma Alexander
“Sunshine is overrated.”
_They Fear Not Men in the Woods_ by Gretchen McNeil
“According to legend, the first unethical science experiment in history was designed by none other than Cleopatra.”
_The Icepick Surgeon_ by Sam Kean
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2026, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3566 "2026-01-04T02:46:49Z")
On this day in December 1941, snow fell steadily upon a team of prisoners loading packages onto a handcart at Leipziger Station.
_Monopoly X: How Top-Secret World War II Operations Used the Game of Monopoly to Help Allied POWs Escape, Conceal Spies, and Send Secret Codes_, by Philip E Orbanes
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2026, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3567 "2026-01-05T23:11:24Z")
“Bob Barnes says they got a dead body out on BLM land.”
_The Cold Dish_, by Craig Johnson
“In the early afternoon of November 29, 1983, the Los Angeles field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a call from a Bank of America brand in the Melrose District.”
_Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering_, by Malcolm Gladwell
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2026, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3568 "2026-01-05T23:51:24Z")
“Just one more stop and he could call it a day. Abel rang the bell.”
_The End of the World As We Know It_ by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2026, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3569 "2026-01-06T03:24:33Z")
“If you had set out in the summer of 1660 to travel the four miles from Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first house you would have come to after crossing the Charles River would have been the Gookins’.”
– _Act of Oblivion_, by Robert Harris
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2026, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3570 "2026-01-06T05:31:41Z")
“Marley was dead, to begin with.”
(I think you all know the book.)
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