# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/21 "2017-04-20T19:26:34Z")
“Thank you for coming. Please, won’t you sit with me a moment, my friend?” Although I think the chapter title is much more in line with the vibe of the book: “Hello, Slattern!” - [Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners](https://www.amazon.com/Unmentionable-Victorian-Ladys-Marriage-Manners/dp/031635791X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492715906&sr=8-1&keywords=unmentionable+the+victorian+lady%27s+guide+to+sex+marriage+and+manners) ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/22 "2017-04-20T20:02:38Z")
At a press conference held the day before the 2010 Chicago Marathon, returning champion Sammy Wanjiru confessed that he was only 75 percent fit for the race. from _[How Bad Do You Want It?](http://mattfitzgerald.org/how-bad-do-you-want-it/)_ by Matt Fitgerald ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/23 "2017-04-20T20:11:56Z")
“The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse.” - Reaper Man, Pterry ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/24 "2017-04-20T20:15:54Z")
“The goal of fly fishing isn’t just to catch fish, but to catch them with style.” _A Fly Rod of Your Own_-John Gierach. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/25 "2017-04-20T21:09:21Z")
'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." I’ve read a couple of Hunter S. Thompson’s books, but never _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/26 "2017-04-20T21:25:31Z")
It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future. – _The Shadow of the Torturer_ by Gene Wolfe ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/27 "2017-04-20T21:30:28Z")
The sun did not shine. –_D. Seuss_ ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/28 "2017-04-20T21:40:04Z")
“–Totally naked, for God’s sake?” “M/F”, by Anthony Burgess (1971) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/29 "2017-04-20T21:46:41Z")
“The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.” _Seveneves_ - Neal Stephenson ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/30 "2017-04-20T21:49:56Z")
“Mr. Dunworthy opened the door to the laboratory and his spectacles promptly steamed up.” – _Doomsday Book_, Connie Willis ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/31 "2017-04-20T21:50:35Z")
I was torn between posting “Call me Ishmael.” or “It was a dark and stormy night.” But the guy who posted “Fear and Loathing” gets points. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/32 "2017-04-20T21:54:02Z")
“A second later, I died.” Nope, not fiction. _Our Mathematical Universe_, Max Tegmark. He got better, thanks to the Copenhagen Interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/33 "2017-04-20T21:56:08Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > “The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.” > > _Seveneves_ - Neal Stephenson The book is all downhill from there. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/34 "2017-04-20T22:04:08Z")
“Morwenna’s face floated in the single beam of light, lovely and framed in hair dark as my cloak; blood from her neck pattered to the stones.” Claw of the Concillator - Gene Wolfe ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/35 "2017-04-20T22:35:09Z")
“Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning.” from “Daniel Deronda” by George Eliot ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/36 "2017-04-20T23:01:17Z")
“For the British, and, indeed, I think for most Europeans, Tibet has during the last fifty years held a growing and a particular fascination.” You can probably guess. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2017, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/37 "2017-04-20T23:04:06Z")
“A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind’s forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air.” Wicked - Gregory Maguire ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/38 "2017-04-21T00:34:15Z")
“I am a member of what I believe to be the last recognizable generation of full-time, life-time American novelists.” I am re-reading Kurt Vonnegut’s _Palm Sunday_ (or al least selected parts thereof) for the umpteenth time. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/39 "2017-04-21T00:52:35Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I was torn between posting > > “Call me Ishmael.” > > or > > “It was a dark and stormy night.” > > But the guy who posted “Fear and Loathing” gets points. Did you consider, you know, posting the first sentence from the book you are currently reading? mmm ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/40 "2017-04-21T00:56:50Z")
“ **I, Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus** This-that-and-the-other (for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles), who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as ‘Claudius the Idiot’, or 'That Claudius”, or ‘Claudius the Stammerer’, or ‘Clau-Clau-Claudius’, or at best ‘Poor Uncle Claudius’, am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, at the age of fifty-one, I suddenly found myself caught in what I may call the ‘golden predicament’ from which I have never since become dientangled." _ **I, Claudius** _ by Robert Graves. The second half of the book is _ **Claudius the God** _. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=3)