# 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:** 38
**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:** [July 15, 2019, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/742 "2019-07-15T04:41:59Z")
“Fourteen million and fifteen percent of the gross? For Michelle Beck? You’re out of your fucking mind, Tom.” _Agent to the Stars_ by John Scalzi (2005) ---
**Author:** ![boson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boson/32/11407_2.png) [@boson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boson)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/743 "2019-07-16T05:10:24Z")
“We are at rest five miles behind the front.” _All Quiet on the Western Front_ by Erich Maria Remarque ---
**Author:** ![Taesahnim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taesahnim/32/84_2.png) [@Taesahnim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taesahnim)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/744 "2019-07-16T12:58:18Z")
“Rahl stood on the port wing of the fast frigate’s bridge, looking out at the seeming endless gray-blue waters of the Eastern Ocean.” –L. E. Modesitt, Jr, _Mage-Guard of Hamor_ ---
**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:** [July 18, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/745 "2019-07-18T18:29:10Z")
“The firm close of the door, despite not having been remotely slammed, nevertheless reverberates through the profound emptiness of my house.” _Good Enough to Eat_, by Stacey Ballis ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/746 "2019-07-22T15:07:57Z")
“Every few months I get a call from some media person wanting to interview me about Florida, where I have lived for three decades.” _Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland_, by Dave Barry ---
**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:** [July 22, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/747 "2019-07-22T15:18:12Z")
“‘She’s a goddamned whore,’ Harry Kyle said. ‘And I don’t want her in this house again.’” _Ceremony_ by Robert B. Parker (1982) ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/748 "2019-07-22T15:44:51Z")
“The man who entered the airport washroom had light hair, cut neatly to collar length.” - License Renewed \* by John Gardner. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/749 "2019-07-23T03:45:26Z")
“The gun barrel pressed to my head was cold. It was dark, it was raining, and Bill Walton was singing the Grateful Dead.” _Friend of the Devil_ by James Kirkland. First of the Bill Walton Mysteries. > **[Amazon.com: Friend of the Devil (The Bill Walton Mysteries): 9781733642903:...](https://www.amazon.com/Friend-Devil-Bill-Walton-Mysteries/dp/1733642900)** > > Amazon.com: Friend of the Devil (The Bill Walton Mysteries): 9781733642903: Kirkland, James: Books ---
**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:** [July 23, 2019, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/750 "2019-07-23T05:22:17Z")
“Thundershowers hit just before midnight, drowning out the horn honks and noisemaker blare that usually signalled New Year’s on the Strip, bringing 1950 to the West Hollywood Substation in a wave of hot squeals with meat wagon backup.” – _The Big Nowhere_, by James Ellroy ---
**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:** [July 24, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/751 "2019-07-24T13:51:56Z")
“History has taught us that artists are often decades ahead of engineers and scientists in imagining the future, and so it was with the idea of voyaging to the moon.” _American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race_ by Douglas Brinkley (2019) ---
**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:** [July 27, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/752 "2019-07-27T13:58:33Z")
“The wintry gale was coming in fast and furious, whipping the water around Lime Rock Lighthouse into a roiling frenzy, and sending icy blasts of wind against the house, clattering the windows of the kitchen.” _The Keeper of Lime Rock: The Remarkable True Story of Ida Lewis, America’s Most Celebrated Lighthouse Keeper_, by Lenore Skomal ---
**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:** [July 28, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/753 "2019-07-28T18:16:37Z")
“I tried to get a straight answer from his grandson and granddaughter-in-law as to why their grandfather had been tied with a hundred feet of nylon rope to the rear bumper of the 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado.” _Junkyard Dogs_ by Craig Johnson ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/754 "2019-07-29T02:36:25Z")
“There was something about the man, that was all there was to it.” _109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos_ by Jennet Conant ---
**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:** [July 29, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/755 "2019-07-29T14:54:38Z")
“I heard it said God moves on the water.” -_Whiskey When We’re Dry_, John Larison ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/756 "2019-07-29T14:57:28Z")
“We need you to kill a man.” **The Cat Who Walks Through Walls** , Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![paulmarkj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@paulmarkj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulmarkj)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/757 "2019-07-29T17:51:49Z")
"Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John. " Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/758 "2019-07-30T10:28:54Z")
“No one saw them.” From new thriller – publ. 2018 – _The Fox_, by Frederick Forsyth. For me, Forsyth always manages to deliver a gripping read; even if the premise is ridiculous, or the content is recycled from earlier stuff of his. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/759 "2019-07-30T16:03:18Z")
“The Army of Northern Virginia was breaking camp.” _How Few Remain_, by Harry Turtledove ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/760 "2019-07-30T18:55:41Z")
“One warm, spring day in May of 2007, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants met for the Memorial Cup hockey championships in Vancouver, British Columbia.” _Outliers_ by Malcolm Gladwell But he’s Canadian so everything eventually gets around to hockey. He just got to it more soonly. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2019, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/761 "2019-07-31T13:47:05Z")
“If you’re looking to claw your way up the corporate ladder, succeed beyond your wildest dreams, and amass an enormous fortune, you’ve got the right book in your hands.” _None of My Business: P. J. Explains Money, Banking, Debt, Equity, Assets, Liabilities, and Why He’s Not Rich and Neither Are You_, by P. J. O’Rourke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=37) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=39)