# 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:** 19
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/361 "2018-04-14T20:13:26Z")
“The Brat was eight years old the first time she rode over the covered bridge that crossed the distance between Lost and Found.” _NOS4A2_, by Joe Hill ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/362 "2018-04-14T20:19:42Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > “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 Pleased to hear Harris has finished the trilogy. I read the first installment and enjoyed it; Loved seeing the evolution of the First Triumvirate through Cicero’s eyes. I look forward to reading the second and third books. Of course now I see all the characters as the actors portraying them in the HBO series _Rome_. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/363 "2018-04-15T14:32:03Z")
Once upon a time there was a girl named Summer, whose mother loved her very, very, \*very \*much. _Summer in Orcus_ – T. Kingfisher ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/364 "2018-04-15T18:42:08Z")
This book is a record of the rehabilitation of Sybil D’Lye after a traumatic brain injury in the spring of 285. _Medical and Legal Disclaimer_ Sybil laid with Mary-Belle curled over her back, both of them in just panties, one another’s sweat washing over them like it was coming out of a hose, or a cappucino machine. _Chapter 10, first chapter_ _I’ve Got a Time Bomb_ a novel by Sybil Lamb ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/365 "2018-04-15T19:21:27Z")
From the Baltic city of St. Petersburg, built on a river marsh in a far northern corner of the empire, the Tsar ruled Russia. _Nicholas and Alexandra_ by Robert K. Massie ---
**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 15, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/366 "2018-04-15T19:30:31Z")
> [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > Pleased to hear Harris has finished the trilogy. I read the first installment and enjoyed it; Loved seeing the evolution of the First Triumvirate through Cicero’s eyes. I look forward to reading the second and third books. Of course now I see all the characters as the actors portraying them in the HBO series _Rome_. I have not seen the series but cannot stop thinking of Rowan Atkinson as Cicero, based on his nerdy description. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/367 "2018-04-15T19:41:25Z")
Shortly after tea on Friday, may 10, fifteen hours after Hitler drove his steel into the low Countries, Neville Chamberlain reluctantly returned the seals of his office to King George VI, who received them with equal reluctance: “I accepted his resignation,” the sovereign wrote in his diary that evening, “and told him how grossly, unfairly, I thought he had been treated.” -_The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill-Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965_ ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/368 "2018-04-15T20:54:09Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I have not seen the series but cannot stop thinking of Rowan Atkinson as Cicero, based on his nerdy description. That’s actually a fair comparison to David Bamber’s Cicero in the series, although you don’t see much of Cicero’s courage there and Tiro appears only as a minor character. Definitely worth watching if you have the opportunity; I’d put off the GoT finale another year if it meant a third season of Rome. ---
**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 19, 2018, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/369 "2018-04-19T05:41:15Z")
“Cardinal Lomeli left his apartment in the Palace of the Holy Office shortly before two in the morning and hurried through the darkened cloisters of the Vatican towards the bedroom of the Pope.” – _Conclave_, by Robert Harris ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/370 "2018-04-19T05:55:17Z")
“The Day of Demand had been announced months before.” from _Leia: Princess of Alderaan_ ---
**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 19, 2018, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/371 "2018-04-19T18:15:50Z")
“Eleven-year-old Virgil Salinas already regretted the rest of middle school, and he’d only just finished sixth grade.” _Hello, Universe_, by Erin Entrada Kelly ---
**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 20, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/372 "2018-04-20T13:17:16Z")
“The human understanding is not composed of dry light, but is subject to influence from the will and the emotions, a fact that creates fanciful knowledge; man prefers to believe what he wants to be true.” (Francis Bacon) _Wild Thing_, by Josh Bazell ---
**Author:** ![Oceanic\_Hands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oceanic\_Hands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oceanic_Hands)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/373 "2018-04-22T09:02:17Z")
“I was thirty-seven then, strapped in my seat as the huge 747 plunged through dense cloud cover on approach to the Hamburg airport.” –Haruki Murakami, _Norwegian Wood_ ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2018, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/374 "2018-04-22T12:20:49Z")
“It was a time of darkness…where the cities of the damned were stacked high with the bones of fallen heroes.” - Joe Kelly, I Kill Giants ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/375 "2018-04-23T04:02:20Z")
“The old Cathay Cinema opposite Fort Canning military base in Singapore was packed for the matinee showing of the latest Rex Harrison film, a screen version of George Bernard Shaw’s play _Major Barbara_.” –_The Emperor’s Codes: The Thrilling Story of the Allied Code Breakers who Turned the Tide of World War II_ - Michael Smith It is about the _British_ work to break Purple and JN-25, something I was unaware of; I thought it primarily an American show. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/376 "2018-04-23T14:15:38Z")
“They left the aqueduct two hours before dawn, climbing by moonlight into the hills overlooking the port - six men in single file, the engineer leading.” _Pompeii_, by Robert Harris Thoroughly enjoying the Cicero Trilogy was what inspired me to read this, but I’m nearly finished with _Pompeii_ and it is not nearly as good. _Conclave_ was a disappointment too - the ending, or almost the same ending, was very predictable. I’ll go to the library today and maybe pick up _Archangel_, which I believe is sort of alt-history, and I really liked _Fatherland_. ---
**Author:** ![Thuringwethil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@Thuringwethil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thuringwethil)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/377 "2018-04-23T18:41:34Z")
Now: Starlines streak across the bright black. _Aftermath_ by Chuck Wendig, Book 1 of the Aftermath trilogy (Star Wars) ---
**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 24, 2018, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/378 "2018-04-24T05:13:29Z")
“They spoke of it then as the dream of a lifetime, and for many, for all the difficulties and setbacks encountered, it was to be one of the best times ever.” – _The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris_, by David McCullough ---
**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 26, 2018, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/379 "2018-04-26T18:10:56Z")
“The heels of military boots, striking marble floors, made a sound like thrown stones.” _Egg & Spoon_, by Gregory Maguire ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/380 "2018-04-26T20:42:14Z")
_Sundown: I am standing on Roniger Hill, and I am trying to see myself as if atop a giant map of the United States._ – PrairyErth (a deep map) by William Least-Heat Moon [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=20)