# What is the first sentence from the book you are currently reading? **URL:** \ **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:** 18
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/341 "2018-03-23T14:59:40Z")
“Having harbored two sons in the waters of her womb, my mother considers herself something of an authority on human fetuses.” –_The River Why_, David J. Duncan (Still trying to repair my mind–this book really helps with that) ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/342 "2018-03-23T16:51:37Z")
“She wore the corpses for show.” – _The Heart Forger_, Rin Chupeco ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/343 "2018-03-24T19:52:20Z")
“Mis Martha June was a person I thought incapable of telling a porch lie.” _Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters_, by Patricia C. McKissack ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/344 "2018-03-25T00:13:21Z")
“Four years passed and no one died.” ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/345 "2018-03-25T19:37:52Z")
“With the Meiji Restoration, Japan opens its eyes to the world.” _Showa, A History of Japan (1939-1944)_ by Shigeru Mizuki ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/346 "2018-03-25T19:43:10Z")
“It’s a weirdly subtle conversation.” **Simon vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda** , Becky Albertalli ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/347 "2018-03-25T20:49:24Z")
“This is one of those books where we predict the future.” _Soonish: Ten Emergiing Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything_, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/348 "2018-03-25T21:30:54Z")
The Saturn V system in its broadest scope includes conceptual development, design, manufacture, transportation, assembly, test, and launch. _Saturn V Flight Manual_ : NASA - MSFC-MAN-503. Yeah, I’m an aviation and spaceflight geek, and I think of this sort of thing as entertaining reading… ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/349 "2018-03-25T22:42:40Z")
“Several years ago as I was wandering about the rooms in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, I was attracted by a small paper bearing the name “Asylum”” The Story of Some French Refugees and Their “Azilum” 1793-1800 by Louise Welles Murray. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/350 "2018-03-26T00:22:38Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > “Four years passed and no one died.” _Soldiers Live,_ -Glen Cook (Sorry 'bout that; the book/author bit somehow got chopped off). ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/351 "2018-03-26T00:23:21Z")
“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975” –_The Kite Runner_ by Khaled Hosseini ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/352 "2018-03-27T15:02:56Z")
“In the first thirty minutes, all the original hydrogen and helium were formed.” _The Cartoon History of the Universe, Volumes 1-7: From the Big Bang to Alexander the Grea_t, by Larry Gonick. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/353 "2018-03-27T16:54:37Z")
> [@](#): > > We were at Glenaicill—six of us—for the duck-shooting, when Leithen told us this story. _The Power House_ by John Buchan. I liked _The Thirty-Nine Steps_, and _Prester John_ was okay. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/354 "2018-03-28T01:12:06Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > _Soldiers Live,_ -Glen Cook > > (Sorry 'bout that; the book/author bit somehow got chopped off). Glen Cook rocks. I wish I knew if he had any more books coming out. I’d have liked to know just which sister Soulcatcher was. Belle Gunness was a lady fair In Indiana State. – _Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men_ – Harold Schechter ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/355 "2018-03-29T18:03:00Z")
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.” Found out not 10 minutes ago, while reading the Foreword (because who doesn’t read the Foreword, right?) that Douglas Adams died like, 17 years ago. WTF people? Why don’t somebody tell me these things?! I might just be too upset to actually start this adventure today. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/356 "2018-03-30T12:57:50Z")
“He’s come to clean me out.” - [The Last to See Me](https://www.amazon.com/Last-See-Me-Novel/dp/1510720677/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522413795&sr=1-1&keywords=the+last+to+see+me), M. Dressler ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/357 "2018-03-30T18:36:13Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.” > > Found out not 10 minutes ago, while reading the Foreword (because who doesn’t read the Foreword, right?) that Douglas Adams died like, 17 years ago. WTF people? Why don’t somebody tell me these things?! I might just be too upset to actually start this adventure today. Don’t panic. Get your towel, chill out, and tip back a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster or three. In no time flat you’ll be one hoopy frood! Or too brain damaged to care. Either way, Win! Right? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/358 "2018-04-07T21:09:24Z")
“I remember the cries of Caesar’s war-horns chasing us over the darkened fields of Latium – their yearning, keening howls, like animals in heat – and how when they stopped there was only the slither of our shoes on the icy road and the urgent panting of our breath.” – _Dictator_, by Robert Harris, the final installment of his Cicero trilogy of ancient Rome ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/359 "2018-04-08T19:55:10Z")
“The library at Fontley Priory, like most of the principal apartments in the sprawling building, looked to the south-east, commanding a prospect of informal gardens and a plantation of poplars, which acted as a wind-break and screened from view the monotony of the fen beyond.” _A Civil Contract_, by Georgette Heyer. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/360 "2018-04-14T20:01:07Z")
“Nothing but stars, scattered across the blackness as though the Creator had smashed the windscreen of his car and hadn’t bothered to stop to sweep up the pieces.” _Pyramids_, by Terry Pratchett [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=19)