# 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:** 28
**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:** [November 20, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/542 "2018-11-20T19:37:09Z")
> [@DZedNConfused](#): > > No no no, in a window probably but never in a basement 😉 \*I haven’t play my guitar in ages8 It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll. 😃 ---
**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 23, 2018, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/543 "2018-11-23T21:12:11Z")
> [@bump](#): > > How is that? I have it on my Kindle list, but haven’t actually started yet. I thought _Children of Time_ was excellent, despite dragging a bit in spots. So did most of the science fiction book club I’m in, although a couple of people really disliked it. On topic: “It is unlawful to create more than one clone of a person at a time.” _Six Wakes_, by Mur Lafferty ---
**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 24, 2018, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/544 "2018-11-24T06:27:24Z")
“Above the barren, sandy cape where the river joins the sea, there is a promontory or cliff rising straight up hundreds of feet to form the last outpost of land.” – _The Confessions of Nat Turner_, by William Styron ---
**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 28, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/545 "2018-11-28T00:44:23Z")
“Ruth Ann was running now, moving as fast as she could through the dense forest.” _Robert B. Parker’s Blackjack_, by Robert Knott ---
**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:** [November 28, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/546 "2018-11-28T01:27:27Z")
Gotham has fallen silent. _Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year One_ by Tom Taylor ---
**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:** [November 28, 2018, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/547 "2018-11-28T02:12:35Z")
_“I’ve enjoyed traveling ever since I was boy and went on my first proper journey, from Glasgow to Blackpool.”_ –Journey to the Edge of the World by Billy Connolly ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/548 "2018-11-28T03:16:52Z")
“Even in Los Angeles, where there is no shortage of remarkable hairdos, Harry Peak attracted attention.” _The Library Book_ by Susan Orlean (2018) ---
**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:** [December 5, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/549 "2018-12-05T19:16:30Z")
“When I think of Nikola Tesla, I see the pigeons.” _ReVisions_, edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Isaac Szpindel. (Note, it’s a collection of short stories, and this sentence is from the first, “The Residence of Light” by Geoffrey Landis.) ---
**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:** [December 6, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/550 "2018-12-06T15:00:55Z")
“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: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West_ by Gregory Maguire ---
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/551 "2018-12-07T00:46:51Z")
“In retrospect, it seems America was destined to be the birthplace of tiki.” —_Smuggler’s Cove_ by Martin Cate, a must read for rum aficionados. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2018, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/552 "2018-12-09T21:14:37Z")
“Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a landowner well known in our district in his own day, and still remembered among us owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago, and which I shall describe in its proper place.” – _The Brothers Karamazov_, by Fyodor Dostoevsky ---
**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:** [December 10, 2018, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/553 "2018-12-10T00:04:48Z")
“Arthur Hammond prided himself on a certain degree of insensibility in the cause of duty–an indifference to physical discomfort and even to social awkwardness–a squelching of the natural repugnances, when these should interfere with the progress of a diplomatic mission.” _Crucible of Gold_, by Naomi Novik ---
**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:** [December 14, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/554 "2018-12-14T15:57:54Z")
“There is just enough space inside here for one person to live indefinitely, or at least that’s what the operation manual says.” _How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe_, by Charles Yu ---
**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:** [December 23, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/555 "2018-12-23T00:03:56Z")
“The morning before Easter Sunday, June Kashpaw was walking down the clogged main street of oil boomtown Williston, North Dakota, killing time before the noon bus arrived that would take her home.” _Love Medicine_, by Louise Erdrich. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/556 "2018-12-23T00:24:25Z")
“June the fourth was notable for Jesse Cullum, because that was the day he lost his favorite pair of Oakley sunglasses, and saved the life of General Ulysees S. Grant.” _Last Year,_ Robert Charles Wilson [Paraphrased from memory… Just finished listening to the audiobook, masterfully read by Scott Brick] ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/557 "2018-12-23T01:02:17Z")
“A canopied entrance off Madison Avenue leads to one of New York’s most intimate concert venues, a place where time has seemingly stood still for more than a half a century.” Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy (Jim Curtis) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/558 "2018-12-23T01:11:07Z")
“I was so supremely naive about so many things when I wrote _Kitchen Confidential_ – my hatred for all things Food Netowrk being just one of them.” _Medium Raw_ by Anthony Bourdain ---
**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:** [January 1, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/559 "2019-01-01T16:01:29Z")
“You’re still at Trinity?” _Toucan Keep a Secret_, by Donna Andrews ---
**Author:** ![Casparlatete](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/casparlatete/32/3377_2.png) [@Casparlatete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casparlatete)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/560 "2019-01-02T09:39:00Z")
“I dropped by the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas the other day.” MUSIC I-LXXIV by August Kleinzahler ---
**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:** [January 8, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/561 "2019-01-08T21:51:55Z")
“The explosion that blew out the west wall of the Physics Laboratory of the University of Tel Aviv did little real harm to Professor Arnie Klein who was working there at the time.” _The Daleth Effect_ by Harry Harrison [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=29)