# 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:** 185
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3691 "2026-04-05T01:17:46Z")
Dust motes danced in the air, flickering like tiny sparks of fire as a blade of sunlight cut through the grisaille glass of the medieval window.
_Murder at the Merton Library_. by Andrea Penrose
There are not many historic cities, especially in northern Europe, whose early identity is defined by nudity.
_Coventry: November 14, 1940_, by Frederick Taylor
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2026, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3692 "2026-04-05T19:56:53Z")
“Call me Ishmaelle. But know that I have not always gone by this name.”
_Call Me Ishmaelle_ by Xiaolu Guo
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3693 "2026-04-06T20:00:17Z")
“The moment my oldest child was born, I began reading to him from an anthology of Romantic poetry that I have owned for decades.”
_Children of the Book: A Memoir of Reading Together_, by Ilana Kurshan
“Greetings. It is 0700 hours, and I am your pre-scheduled alarm.”
_Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way_, by Ryan North
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2026, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3694 "2026-04-09T04:10:42Z")
“Goddamn, but that … that _thing_ is weird,” the Aerospace Force general said, looking up at the immaterial – but very solid – structure of the Gate.
_The Lords of Creation_, by S M Stirling
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3695 "2026-04-09T21:10:54Z")
“Recently, I was asked to write a short essay describing one piece of wisdom to live by.”
_Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer_, by Heather Lende
“Three days before Mr. Fareed Halawani was washed and turned to face the northeast, a beatific smile on his face, he had the unusual distinction of entertaining the angel Gabriel at the coffeeshop he operated in the unfashionable district of Moqattam in Cairo.”
_Jewel Box: Stories_, by E. Lily Yu. (This sentence is from “The Pilgrim and the Angel”.)
---
### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2026, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3696 "2026-04-09T23:43:16Z")
It was well past four in the afternoon when Billy gimp finally woke up, and he knew in an instant that something was wrong with his room.
_The Bladerunner_ by Alan E. Nourse
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3697 "2026-04-12T15:27:01Z")
_Rain lashed through the hellishly hot Saharan sky, hurling itself groundward with chaotic fury only to evaporate before it made contact with the dying earth._
_Category 7_, by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3698 "2026-04-13T19:52:39Z")
“Things that are funny on a submarine, but not really–The other radioman named Baitz who lives in South Carolina and thinks North Carolina is in the North.”
_Things That Are Funny on a Submarine–But Not Really_, by Yannick Murphy
“When the roughly forty-seven-foot-long, fifty-thousand-pound humpback approached marine biologist Nan Hauser–who was swimming near the whale–she assumed that he would swim around her.”
_When Animals Rescue: Amazing True Stories about Heroic and Helpful Creatures_, by Belinda Recio
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3699 "2026-04-17T03:55:16Z")
“With the building dark beneath it, the skylight on the roof of the Land Trust was a pyramid of pure black.”
_Cahokia Jazz_ by Francis Spufford
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2026, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3700 "2026-04-17T15:36:59Z")
“By the fall of 2013, Scott Peters had spent nearly a quarter of his life anticipating a brick.”
_SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build_, by Jonathan Waldman
“‘Listen, you guys, I have to go to the bathroom.’”
_Just Like Always_, by Elizabeth-Ann Sachs
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2026, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3701 "2026-04-19T23:32:48Z")
“It’s late at night as I lie in bed in the blue glow of the television set.”
_The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography_, by Sidney Poitier
“She awoke, there in the common room of the inn, from a brief dream of roses and death.”
_Wall, Stone, Craft_ by Walter Jon Williams
---
### Author:  [@bodangus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bodangus)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3702 "2026-04-19T23:49:59Z")
“How easy it was to disappear: A thousand trains a day entered or left Chicago.”
The Devil In The White City - Murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America. Written by Eric Larson
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3703 "2026-04-20T00:00:16Z")
“Damnation!”
_Murder at King’s Crossing_, by Andrea Penrose
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2026, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3704 "2026-04-22T03:57:51Z")
“Years ago, before the trains stopped running on so many of the branch lines, a woman with a high, freckled forehead and a frizz of reddish hair came into the railway station and inquired about shipping furniture.”
_Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage_ by Alice Munro
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2026, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3705 "2026-04-22T20:38:48Z")
“The Shars seethed in the dim light of their ruddy sun.”
_Dinosaurs_, by Walter Jon Williams
“Clay is earth locked in a cycle with water and air that is only broken when we surrender it to fire.”
_Clay: A Human History_, by Jennifer Lucy Allan.
---
### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2026, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3706 "2026-04-22T22:36:53Z")
“You awaken slowly, struggling to surface.”
_The Locked Ward_ by Sarah Pekkanen
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3707 "2026-04-22T23:49:39Z")
With the building dark beneath it, the skylight on the roof of the Land Trust was a pyramid of pure black.
_Cahokia Jazz_, by Francis Spufford
Sagamore Hill, Long Island, New York
May 25th, 1912-1912(B)
_Point of Departure plus 4 hours_
There was a rising murmur of voices in the entranceway of Sagamore Hill’s great North Room.
_Black Chamber: A Novel of an Alternate World War I_, by S M Stirling (reread)
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2026, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3708 "2026-04-26T21:16:42Z")
“At first Donald lay still.”
_The Big Book of Favorite Horse Stories_, edited by P. C. Braun. (The sentence is from “The Black Stallion and the Red Mare”, by Gladys Francis Lewis.)
“I am the person you spot up in the tree, dirt smeared across my face.”
_Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto_, by Leslie Buck.
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2026, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3709 "2026-04-26T23:39:25Z")
All Hallows
November 1st
20 Geo. II
1746
The brig _Henrietta_ having made Sandy Hook a little before the dinner hour – and having passed the Narrows about three o’clock – and then crawling to and fro, in a series of tacks infinitesimal enough to rival the calculus, across the grey sheet of the harbour of New-York – until it seemed to Mr. Smith, dancing from foot to foot upon deck, that the small mound of the city waiting there would hover ahead in the November gloom in perpetuity, never growing closer, to the smirk of Greek Zeno – and the day being advanced to dusk by the time _Henrietta_ at last lay anchored off Tietjes Slip, with the veritable gables of the city’s veritable houses divided from him by only one hundred foot of water – and the dusk being moreover as cold and damp as November can afford, as if all the world were a quarto of grey paper dampened by drizzle until in danger of crumbling imminently to pap: – all this being true, the master of the brig pressed upon him the virtue of sleeping this one further night aboard, and pursuing his shore business in the morning.
_Golden Hill: A Novel of Old New York_, by Francis Spufford
---
### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3710 "2026-04-28T16:11:12Z")
_Aujourd’hui, Maman est morte; ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas._
(L’Étranger, Albert Camus)
I’m off to the French countryside in an hour, and I found the book that my French teacher in high school had us read. It was my first introduction to serious existential literature.
I was disappointed that the owner of the used bookstore, when I mentioned I’d just bought a book from his store just so I could reread the first sentence, didn’t ask me what it was.
eta:
“Today, Mama died… or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.”
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=184)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=186)