# 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:** 181
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3611 "2026-02-01T21:20:29Z")
Kenneth Pearce knew the routine so well that he could perform his duties with his eyes shut – not that he’d dare to do that in a prison. _The Enemy Within_, by Edward Marston ---
**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:** [February 3, 2026, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3612 "2026-02-03T22:32:29Z")
“Sth, I know that woman.” _Jazz_, by Toni Morrison “Once upon a time when the earth was younger and time was slower and it took three days to cross from one end to the other of Nineveh, that great city, there lived in the village of Gath-hepher a prophet named Jonah.” _The Journey with Jonah_, a play by Madeleine L’Engle. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3613 "2026-02-04T04:12:05Z")
Later, not a single person will recall seeing the lady board the flight at Hobart Airport. _Here One Moment_, by Liane Moriarty ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3614 "2026-02-05T20:24:46Z")
“The crowded career of George Washington afforded him little leisure to indulge his vanity or gratify his curiosity by conducting genealogical research into his family.” — _Washington: A Life_, by Ron Chernow ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3615 "2026-02-05T20:28:28Z")
“My daughter, The first thing I need to tell you—and after that I want to tell you everything—is that I never meant to leave you for this long.” —_The Shutouts_ by Gabrielle Korn ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3616 "2026-02-06T04:12:21Z")
“It was in June of 1935 that I came home from my ranch in South America for a stay of about six months.” — _The ABC Murders_, by Agatha Christie ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3617 "2026-02-06T12:51:04Z")
Pain is a fire. _Twelve Months_, by Jim Butcher He was coming down the hill when they struck. _The Dragons of Archenfield_, by Edward Marston ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3618 "2026-02-06T12:56:35Z")
“It was June twenty-first, the longest day of the year.” _The Whole Truth_, political novel from 1979 by John Ehrlichman ---
**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:** [February 7, 2026, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3619 "2026-02-07T00:14:16Z")
“In our house on North Congress Street in Jackson, Mississippi, where I was born, the oldest of three children, in 1909, we grew up to the striking of clocks.” _One Writer’s Beginnings_, by Eudora Welty “The cat slunk in the door with angry grace and snarled to Old Nathan, 'Somebody’s coming, and he’s bringing a great blonde bitch-dog with ‘im.’” _Old Nathan_, by David Drake. (Note: This is a story collection, and the sentence is from “The Bull.”) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3620 "2026-02-07T03:00:50Z")
“The King’s court was in no hurry to return to England, that late autumn of 1120, even though the fighting, somewhat desultory in these last stages, was long over, and the enforced peace sealed by a royal marriage.” — “A Light on the Road to Woodstock”, first of three short stories about Brother Cadfael in _A Rare Benedictine_, by Ellis Peters ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3621 "2026-02-07T19:34:34Z")
“I shook the rain from my hat and walked into the room.” Mickey Spillane, _I, The Jury_ from 1947 (in a recently-acquired compilation of Spillane novels). ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2026, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3622 "2026-02-08T01:25:06Z")
“Lyssa hefted the bloodstained burlap sack and shoved her way through the door of the Kingmaker, tracking sooty slush on the expensive carpet.” _Kill the Beast_ by Serra Swift ---
**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:** [February 10, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3623 "2026-02-10T23:58:58Z")
“The City of London is eerily quiet on a Saturday morning in mid-summer.” _The Roma: A Traveling History_, by Madeline Potter. “Now it so happened in the days of old Yedo, as Tokyo was once called, that the storytellers told marvelous tales of the wit and wisdom of His Honorable Honor, Ooka Tadasuke.” _The Case of the Marble Monster and Other Stories_, retold by I. G. Edmonds (The quote is from “The Case of the Stolen Smell.”) ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3624 "2026-02-11T01:19:35Z")
Jamie Farr held the body in his arms and ignored the blood that was dripping onto his smock. _Peril on the Royal Train_, by Edward Marston ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3625 "2026-02-11T02:51:56Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Jamie Farr held the body in his arms and ignored the blood that was dripping onto his smock. What was Klinger doing in Britain? (sorry, couldn’t resist). A severed head spun across black sky. _The Gripping Hand,_ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3626 "2026-02-11T02:54:00Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > What was Klinger doing in Britain? (sorry, couldn’t resist). This was in the spring of 1858 – well before his Army days. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3627 "2026-02-11T03:21:07Z")
“It was the green heart of the canyon, where the walls swerved back from the rigid plain and relieved their harshness of line by making a little sheltered nook and filling it to the brim with sweetness and roundness and softness. Here all things rested.” _All Gold Canyon_, by Jack London. This story formed one of the vignettes in the Coen Brothers movie _The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs_, and the brothers filmed the story precisely as it was written by Jack London. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3628 "2026-02-11T05:21:34Z")
“If you had set out in the summer of 1660 to travel the four miles from Boston, Massachusetts, to the village of Cambridge, the first house you would have come to after crossing the Charles River would have been the Gookins’.” _Act of Oblivion_ by Robert Harris ---
**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:** [February 12, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3629 "2026-02-12T23:52:55Z")
“You are made from the remnants of stars.” _Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe_, by Ella Frances Sanders “Chuiliu blew on the white and blue rain blooms as she clutched tight their navy stems.” _A Palace Near the Wind_, by Ai Jiang ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2026, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3630 "2026-02-13T03:38:08Z")
Millie Jenks was in agony. _The Unseen Hand_, by Edward Marston [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=180) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=182)