# 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:** 186
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3711 "2026-04-29T23:02:44Z")
“Taken from Japanese folklore, the abumi-guchi is a type of tsukumogami or ‘animated object’”.
_The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals_, by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
“They say never to start a story with a waking, but when you’ve been hard asleep for thirty years it’s difficult to know where else to begin.”
_Alien Clay_, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2026, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3712 "2026-04-30T19:10:45Z")
“The headquarters of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, occupies an imposing edifice of concrete and green glass on the south bank of the River Thames, in London.”
_London Falling_ by Patrick Radden Keefe
---
### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3713 "2026-04-30T20:08:09Z")
My wife and I were both born without whatever brain part it is that enables people to decorate their homes.
_Dave Barry’s Bad Habits_ by Dave Barry.
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2026, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3714 "2026-05-01T01:36:54Z")
Washington, D.C.
Iron House
(Consolidated War Department–Navy Department Headquarters)
Situation and Maps Room
November 6th, AD 1916, 1916(B)
_Point of Departure plus 4 years_
President Theodore Roosevelt stood with his feet braced and one hand gripping the lapel of his morning jacket, the other thrust into a pocket and clenched into a fist, looking at the maps that showed the Great War’s fronts and alliances and disasters, scowling through his pince-nez with his mustache bristling.
_Theater of Spies: A Novel of an Alternate World War I_, by S M Stirling
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3715 "2026-05-01T04:00:10Z")
“In conclusion, it is the view of Union Station embassy that ambassadors reaching the traditional Earth retirement age of sixty-five years should be allowed to hire an additional special assistant, or, if they currently employ a special assistant who does the work of three people, to double her compensation before she decides to return to her homeworld and resume her royal—do you think I’m being a little too transparent, Libby?” Kelly interrupted herself.
Swap Night on Union Station - E.M. Foner
---
### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2026, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3716 "2026-05-04T04:51:15Z")
“To begin to unravel the intricacies and details of the Galactic Empire it is impossible to begin anywhere but with the Emperor himself.”
-_Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire_, Dr. Chris Kempshall
(Interesting concept novel, BTW - the author is a professional historian who specializes in WWI, and the book is an in-universe nonfiction history of Palpatine’s rise to power, how the Empire functioned politically, the Rebellion, and the First Order, complete with in-universe citations and an index.) Very World War Z-ish.)
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2026, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3717 "2026-05-04T20:04:38Z")
“Often, when people talk about making more equitable technology, they start with ‘fairness’.”
_More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech_, by Meredith Broussard
The worst thing about being part of an alien hivemind was that you had to act like thousands of insect feet crawling over your body–including your face, neck, ears–and possibly trying to burrow into your collar was just find.
_Infinite Archive_, by Mur Lafferty (This book is the third in the Midsolar Murders series, and the above sentence is a major spoiler for for the entire series.)
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3718 "2026-05-05T05:17:53Z")
Washington, D.C.
Oval Office
White House
June 10th, AD 1917, 1917(B)
_Point of Departure plus 5 Years_
No, Mr. President, the decision to withdraw from France was sound."
_Shadows of Annihilation: A Novel of an Alternate World War I_, by S M Stirling
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2026, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3719 "2026-05-05T07:32:07Z")
“It was a hospital bed, that much appeared certain, though certainty was coming and going.”
-- _Playing for Pizza_, by John Grisham
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2026, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3720 "2026-05-08T19:22:28Z")
“They hired Agnes to nurse the child without asking for references.”
_Sour Cherry_, by Natalia Thodoridou
“Crouched on the surface of Io, the most tightly held of Jupiter’s major moons, you feel the rumble long before you see the cause.”
_Daydreaming in the Solar System: Surfing Saturn’s Ring’s, Golfing on the Moon, and Other Adventures in Space Exploration_, by John E. Moores and Jesse Rogerson
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2026, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3721 "2026-05-10T04:27:33Z")
“Jordan Pearce had left the boat’s cabin just as his father had arranged it, as if Al might step in from the heat and tell him where to head next.”
_Pearce Oysters_ by Joselyn Takacs
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3722 "2026-05-10T17:39:44Z")
On a warm spring morning in 2008, a rumpled archaeologist named Eric Emery stood at the edge of a massive barge in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and glared down into the water.
_Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II_, by Wil S Hilton
In the spring of 1947 the bull-dozers moved down the cart-track beside Number Seventeen and deployed across the meadow to the fringe of Manor Wood.
_The Dreaming Suburb_, by R F Delderfield (fourth or fifth time I’ve read this one)
---
### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3723 "2026-05-12T14:58:45Z")
“Did he love her? He loved the way she looked at him–the way her bottom lip trembled and her foot quaked when she orgasmed.”
_The Perfect Marriage_ by Jeneva Rose
---
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3724 "2026-05-12T16:31:24Z")
In a book about the history of Indigenous People in North America, it makes sense first to address some of the common stereotypes many harbor about them.
_Native America: The Story of the First Peoples_, by Kenneth L Feder
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2026, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3725 "2026-05-12T20:08:52Z")
“If you plunge or plod through these pages, expect the unexpected.”
_This Is Improbably Too: Synchronized Cows, Speedy Brain Extractors, and More WTF Research_, by Marc Abrahams
“Staybehind’s body was moving before he woke up, driven by fear and algorithms.”
_Automatic Noodle_, by Annalee Newitz
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2026, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3726 "2026-05-15T00:07:15Z")
“Imagine for a moment if visitors from another planet observed humans buying, selling, and decorating billions of trees every year.”
_Evergreen: The Trees That Shaped America_, by Trent Preszler
“‘Yesterday was surprising,’ wrote Emma Tupper.”
_Emma Tupper’s Diary_, by Peter Dickinson
---
### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3727 "2026-05-16T13:56:39Z")
“Many things will happen at once.”
From “For Such A Time As This: An Emergency Devotional”. A short powerful work. Much to ponder…
---
### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2026, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3728 "2026-05-17T20:37:42Z")
“The Strange Bird’s first thought was of a sky over an ocean she had never seen, in a place far from the fire-washed laboratory from which she emerged, cage smashed open but her wings, miraculous, unbroken.”
_The Strange Bird_ by Jeff Vandermeer
“When people first meet, a predictable part of the interaction is, ‘So, what do you do?’”
_Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction_, by Edward M. Lerner
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2026, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3729 "2026-05-18T03:54:49Z")
“Call me Ishmael.”
_Moby Dick_ by Herman Melville, adapted by David Rodriguez, graphic novel illustr. by Ignacio Segesso
“The satellite radio was playing soft jazz, a compromise.”
_The Whistler_ by John Grisham
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2026, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3730 "2026-05-19T02:26:53Z")
“None of the fifty or so guests wore shoes.”
-- _Camino Ghosts_, by John Grisham
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=185)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=187)