# 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:** 190
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2026, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3791 "2026-07-23T21:48:44Z")
“For years a visit to Stanford University has involved crossing paths with tours led by undergraduates who, walking backward, face a trailing audience of prospective students and their families.”
_Who Killed Jane Stanford?_ by Richard White
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3792 "2026-07-27T15:03:21Z")
“When I was young I lived in a place called Timber Town.”
_Totalitopia Plus…_, by John Crowley (This is a story collection; this quote is from “This Is Our Town”.)
“Captain Ben Gibson had risen at four a.m., or at least as close as the U.S. Army could estimate four a.m. in Va’Sh’s 26-hour day and had started the morning with physical training.”
_Holdouts_, by Thomas J. Doscher
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2026, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3793 "2026-07-27T18:13:22Z")
Nights didn’t come much darker, Merlin Athrawes reflected as he stood gazing up at the cloud-choked, stormy sky.
_How Firm a Foundation_, by David Weber
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### Author:  [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3794 "2026-07-27T23:05:59Z")
“Some men enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever.”
Twisted Twenty-six, Janet Evanovich
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### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2026, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3795 "2026-07-28T20:32:45Z")
Gunnar Heim halted in midstride.
_The Star Fox_ by Poul Anderson
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2026, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3796 "2026-07-29T21:38:26Z")
“On Thursday 28 June 1781, two officers and their escort of green-coated cavalry rode along a narrow peninsula in eastern Virginia, towards Chesapeake Bay.”
_Yorktown 1781_ by Brendan Morrissey
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2026, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3797 "2026-07-30T04:17:55Z")
“Death was coming. There was nothing the old librarian could do about that.”
- Ramy Vance
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2026, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3798 "2026-07-30T20:16:56Z")
“In 2001, I was about to start a new chapter in my life as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Riverside.”
_Close Encounters with Humankind: A Paleoanthropologist Investigates Our Evolving Species_, by Sang-Hee Lee with Shin-Young Yoon
“When I see a brave building/straining high and higher,/hard and bright and sassy in the seasons,/I think of the hands that put that strength together.”
_Children of Promise: African-American Literature and Art for Young People_, edited by Charles Sullivan. (Quote is from the poem “Building” by Gwendolyn Brooks.)
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3799 "2026-07-31T17:52:35Z")
Snow veils hung in the clear, icy air, dancing on the knife-edged wind that swirled across the snowpack, and the highest peaks, towering as much as a mile higher than his present position, cast blue shadows across the snow.
_Midst Toil and Tribulation_, by David Weber
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2026, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3800 "2026-08-02T16:23:38Z")
“The corpse was suspiciously fresh.”
_The Cadaver Princess_, by Chuck Rothman
“Josiah heard the knock on the front door and shuddered.”
_Arch of Bone_, by Jane Yolen.
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3801 "2026-08-05T21:12:40Z")
“Don’t call me Abraham: Call me Abe”
_The Fisherman_ by John Langan
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3802 "2026-08-05T23:42:53Z")
“The Grand River defines the city it divides, with a ragged symmetry little changed in the two centuries since rival entrepreneurs of faith and commerce staked their claims to opposite shores.” – _An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford_ by Richard Norton Smith
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3803 "2026-08-06T02:27:32Z")
The listening device deployed onto the shoulder of Bishop Militant Cahner Kaitswyrth’s tunic was far too small for the unaided human eye to see, but it was capable of remarkable sensitivity, and Merlin Athrawes leaned back in his chair in far-off Siddar City, where darkness had already fallen, listening to its take.
_Like a Mighty Army_ (Safehold #7), by David Weber
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3804 "2026-08-06T02:37:06Z")
Ed Greenfield collected people the way other men collected comic books or old stamps or vintage cars.
_If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future_ by Jill Lepore
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2026, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3805 "2026-08-07T11:58:56Z")
“The courtship and remarriage of an old widower is always made more difficult when middle-aged children are involved–especially when there are unmarried daughters.”
_A Summons to Memphis_, by Peter Taylor
“Even the most fortunate circumstances contain the seeds of their own destruction.”
_A Phule and His Money_, by Robert Asprin with Peter J. Heck
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2026, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3806 "2026-08-09T02:57:46Z")
“_We the People_. The Constitution of the United States is made of things that are born, live, thrive, decay, and die: insects, animals, plants, ideas.”
_We the People_ by Jill Lepore
“It was a great temptation, when invited to write a book with this title, to submit a three and a half word draft that read: ‘There wasn’t much.’”
_War at Sea in the Ironclad Age_ by Richard Hill
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3807 "2026-08-10T23:37:30Z")
“It was all vaguely reminiscent: the hard lurch of the arrested landing, the wind and din of the flight deck, the orderly violence of the catapults hurling jets off the bow.”
_Bogeys and Bandits: The Making of a Fighter Pilot_, by Robert Gandt
“Mr. Martin bought the pack of Camels on Monday night in the most crowded cigar store on Broadway.”
_Thurber on Crime_, by James Thurber (Note: This is from the first story, “The Catbird Seat”.)
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3808 "2026-08-13T01:53:43Z")
The roaring, shingle-lifting bluster of snow-laden wind only made the sudden, profound silence more complete.
_Hell’s Foundations Quiver_ (Safehold #8), by David Weber
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3809 "2026-08-13T17:02:43Z")
There are certain values that we all hold dear - longevity, prevention of disease and a beautiful, healthy planet.
_The Proof is in the Plants (How science shows a plant-based diet could save your life and the planet), by Simon Hill_
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3810 "2026-08-15T01:13:44Z")
Before there was memory, before there was history, there were the leviathans: the colossal, monstrous creatures that lumbered ashore each wet season and went wandering the plains, bringing death and panic with them.
_Trade of Blood_ by Robert Jackson Bennett
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