# 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:** 8\ **Page:** 194
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3871 "2026-11-07T01:31:35Z")
_Bethesda Naval Hospital, Maryland January 1944_ He couldn’t wait to get back out there. _Days of Steel Rain: The Epic Story of a WWII Vengeance Ship in the Year of the Kamikaze_, by Brent E Jones _Helena, Montana Winter 1943_ Montana is famous for many things – deep coulees, high mountains, gold, a spirit of defiance – but in the early part of the twentieth century visitors to the state often remarked upon the intensity of its quiet – particularly at night. _A Perfect Hell: The True Story of the Black Devils, the Forefathers of the Special Forces_, by John Nadler ---
**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:** [November 7, 2026, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3872 "2026-11-07T02:07:12Z")
“Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede jacket, sneakers and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk, Virginia.” -- _V_, by Thomas Pynchon ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2026, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3873 "2026-11-07T07:36:51Z")
“The council convened in the presidential suite of the best hotel in Jackson City, a gathering of representatives of law enforcement bodies all over Wyoming Territory.” Eight Defiant Men - by Marshall Grover ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2026, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3874 "2026-11-08T02:09:28Z")
“I never had a brain until Freak came along and let me borrow his for a while, and that’s the truth, the whole truth. From Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. It’s a middle schoolers book I’m reading for a school book club. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2026, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3875 "2026-11-08T23:53:42Z")
“One road leads to Rome.” _Small World: A Microcosmic Journey_, by Brad Herzog “Now…from approximately coast to coast…it’s The Bob and Ray Show!” _From Approximately Coast to Coast…It’s The Bob and Ray Show_, by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2026, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3876 "2026-11-09T21:36:05Z")
“It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England, and so reigned, that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time.” –_Le Morte D’Arthur_ by Sir Thomas Malory ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2026, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3877 "2026-11-11T23:14:10Z")
_Kearny, New Jersey, 1958_ In the tidal flats of the Hackensack River rested a warship waiting to die. Enterprise, _America’s Fightingest Ship and the Men Who Helped Win World War II_, by Barrett Tillman Once, on a fine summer evening a long time before everything happened, when they were having something that was not quite a fight and not quite _not_ a fight, Sparrow said to her, “That’s the real problem, Cod. By the time we met you’d already fallen in love with a myth.” _Heaven’s Graveyard_, by Grace Curtis ---
**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:** [November 12, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/3878 "2026-11-12T18:37:48Z")
“Never lend money to relatives.” _Watchdog_, by Laurien Berenson “If you are a parent like me, you probably have a few games lying around the house.” _Exhumed: Unearthing the History of the American Vampire_, by Aaron Mahnke [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=193)