# 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:** 191
### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3811 "2026-08-15T17:39:52Z")
“Forgive me for intruding, My Lord, but you and I need to talk.”
_At the Sign of Triumph_ (Safehold #9), by David Weber
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2026, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3812 "2026-08-15T20:59:49Z")
“In autumn 2019 I was in a cold London playground, spinning my son on a lurid, primary-coloured roundabout.”
_Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture_, by Samantha Ellis
“For the second day in a row, I overslept.”
_Eight Dogs Flying_, a cozy mystery by Karen Ann Wilson
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2026, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3813 "2026-08-19T00:21:52Z")
“I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual.”
_Storm Front_, by Jim Butcher
“Space was okay to look at but not super fun when you were out in it.”
_Platform Decay_, by Martha Wells.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2026, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3814 "2026-08-19T02:15:38Z")
“When Eben McMillan first moved to his ranch in eastern San Luis Obispo County, California, big shadows would cross the lawn while he and his family were having lunch.”
_In Condor Country_ by David Darlington
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2026, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3815 "2026-08-22T03:31:54Z")
“No matter how many times Owl and I look at it, it keeps coming up the same,” Nahrman Baytz said.
_Through Fiery Trials_ (Safehold #10), by David Weber
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3816 "2026-08-24T23:37:31Z")
“In an icy creek, a mile and a half high in the Rocky Mountains, a few stubborn miners were panning for gold.”
_Rabbi Harvey Rides Again: A Graphic Novel of Jewish Folktales Let Loose in the Wild West_, by Steve Sheinkin
“The search for reason ends at the shore of the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide.”
_I Asked for Wonder_, by Abraham Joshua Heschel
“Ross Murdock wouldn’t have seemed formidable to anyone glancing casually at him as he sat within the detention cell.”
_Time Traders_, by Andre Norton.
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2026, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3817 "2026-08-25T02:28:59Z")
“He looked like Clark Gable, could talk his way into or out of virtually anything, and loved to wear his cowboy boots and pearl-handled revolvers into battle.”
_Into the Fire: Ploesti, the Most Fateful mission of World War II_, by Duane Schultz
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3818 "2026-08-25T12:58:29Z")
“Eight hundred years after it was first granted beneath the trees of Runnymede, by the fertile green banks of the river Thames, the Magna Carta is more famous than ever.”
-- _Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty_, by Dan Jones
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### Author:  [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2026, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3819 "2026-08-26T06:04:23Z")
The Flinx was an ethical thief in that he stole only from the crooked.
The Tar Aiym Krang by Alan Dean Foster
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2026, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3820 "2026-08-27T23:54:10Z")
“As I hustled out from the hangar into the Persian Gulf twilight, my muscles tightened and power flowed into my hands.”
_American Craftsmen_, by Tom Doyle
“It had occurred to me that holding an old rock might be light looking at the stars.”
_Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon_, by Jim Paul
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2026, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3821 "2026-08-29T04:27:23Z")
“She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always used to.”
-- _Inherent Vice_, by Thomas Pynchon
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2026, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3822 "2026-08-31T05:10:14Z")
Seven was Carol’s number.
_I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home_, by Fergus Craig
_The harbor full of ships lay hull to hull, their masts spreading forest-like across the fifteen-mile stretch of Delaware Bay between Cape May, New Jersey, and Cape Henlopen, Delaware._
[Italics in original]
_The Dangerous Shore: How a Motley Crew of Scientists, Mobsters, Double Agents, Retirees, Volunteer Pilots (and a Boy Scout) Stopped the Invasion of America_, by Sara Vladic
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2026, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3823 "2026-09-02T18:47:54Z")
“Considering the circumstances, you could use another lieutenant.”
_Ancillary Sword_ by Ann Leckie
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### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2026, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3824 "2026-09-02T18:56:32Z")
I tell you it is sad, it is more than sad, it is fearful-- for it is a dreadful thing to go into the up-and-out, to fly without flying, to move between the stars as a moth may drift among the leaves on a summer night.
_Starships_, edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Greenberg, and Charles Waugh.
Sentence is from the first story, _The Burning of the Brain_ by Cordwainer Smith.
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3825 "2026-09-02T20:14:28Z")
“Acorn, the nut of an oak tree, is not exactly a choice food.”
_Edible Economics: The World in 17 Dishes_, by Ha-Joon Chang
“Agatha Panza von Sparkles settled into _Needle_’s pilot seat for the very first time.”
_Sunward_, by William Alexander
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2026, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3826 "2026-09-02T20:45:58Z")
Edward Coles had a lot on his mind.
_Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation_ by Nicholas Guyatt
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3827 "2026-09-05T22:29:38Z")
“‘Thicken Nugget, you evil bitch, stop murdering half the desert,’ I muttered from behind my camera.”
_I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com_, by Kimberly Lemming
“It’s human nature to categorize.”
_True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color–from Azure to Zinc Pink_, by Kory Stamper
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2026, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3828 "2026-09-07T02:33:31Z")
“It’s the first day of spring 2001, and Maxine Tarnow, though some still have her in their system as Loeffler, is walking her boys to school.”
_Bleeding Edge_, by Thomas Pynchon
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### Author:  [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3829 "2026-09-11T19:58:21Z")
“Giddy _optimists_ foretell our coming transcendence to a golden age of AI-managed abundance.”
_Ailien Minds: Advice About (and for) Our Natural, AI & Hybrid Heirs_, by David Brin
“It didn’t happen the way you think it did.”
_Extremity_, by Nicholas Binge
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### Author:  [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2026, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3830 "2026-09-12T01:26:41Z")
The Avenue stretched in a wide curve from Shirley Rise, just off the Lower Road, to the gates of the Rec’, at the junction of the Avenue, and Delhi Road.
_The Avenue Goes to War_, by R F Delderfield (fourth or fifth time I’ve read this one, too)
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