# 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:** 40
**Author:** ![sps49sd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@sps49sd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sps49sd)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/782 "2019-09-01T00:07:41Z")
“The man in the powder-blue suit- which wasn’t powder-blue under the lights of the Club Bolivar- was tall, with wide-set gray eyes, a thin nose, a jaw of stone.” _Blackmailers Don’t Shoot_, opening story in the Criterion Collection of every Raymond Chandler short story. ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/783 "2019-09-01T00:12:34Z")
“Everybody all set?” Young Ross Jenkins glanced nervously at his two chums. “How about your camera, Art? You sure you got the lens cover off this time?” _Rocket Ship Galileo_ by Robert A. Heinlein (1947) ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/784 "2019-09-01T09:12:31Z")
THIS COULD HAVE OCCURRED [sic] nowhere but in England, where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak - the sea entering into the life of most men, and the men knowing something or everything about the sea, in the way of amusement, of travel, or of bread-winning. \*YOUTH A NARRATIVE \* Heart of Darkness & Other Stories. Joseph Conrad ---
**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:** [September 1, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/785 "2019-09-01T13:45:31Z")
“A small ship–a freighter–on a very large sea.” _And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings_, by Madeleine L’Engle. ---
**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:** [September 3, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/786 "2019-09-03T19:00:33Z")
“London. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.” _Bleak House_, by Charles Dickens ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/787 "2019-09-03T22:19:39Z")
“Fine needle aspiration (FNA) plays an essential role in the evaluation of the euthyroid patient with a thyroid nodule; it reduce unnecessary surgery for patients with benign nodules and appropriately triages patients with malignant nodules for timely clinical intervention.” - _The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology_ by Ali and Cibas (editors). The plot gets a bit hard to follow during Atypia of Unknown Significance but ultimately has a rewarding resolution. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2019, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/788 "2019-09-08T13:45:13Z")
“High above the tossing trees that were the roof of the world, the fierce white sun burned in a wind-swept sky.” _Unearthly Neighbors_, by Chad Oliver. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/789 "2019-09-08T20:33:04Z")
“The two thirty-eights roared simultaneously.” _Moonraker_ by Ian Fleming (1955) ---
**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:** [September 8, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/790 "2019-09-08T23:59:45Z")
“On a cold morning in early October of 1946, Pete Banning awoke before sunrise and had no thoughts of going back to sleep.” – _The Reckoning_, by John Grisham ---
**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:** [September 9, 2019, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/791 "2019-09-09T11:37:43Z")
“X - This day when it had light mother called me retch. You retch she said. I saw in her eyes the anger. I wonder what it is a retch.” - The Best of Richard Matheson Yeah, it was more than one sentence. I couldn’t bring myself to cut it short. ---
**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:** [September 9, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/792 "2019-09-09T18:30:35Z")
What short story is that from, **DB**? ---
**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:** [September 9, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/793 "2019-09-09T18:51:29Z")
_Born of Man and Woman_, a most bodacious short story. You can read it here: [BORN OF MAN AND WOMAN Richard Matheson X — This day ...](https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/50046136/born-of-man-and-woman-richard-matheson-x-a-this-day-) ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/794 "2019-09-09T20:48:34Z")
“Between eight and nine o’clock in the morning.” The Stories of Anton Tchekov Should introductions be considered, like with posthumous short story collections, or is the aim for relevant text by the writer(s)? ---
**Author:** ![EastUmpqua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eastumpqua/32/6025_2.png) [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/795 "2019-09-09T21:55:08Z")
The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light-years and eight centuries. ‘A Deepness In The Sky’ Vernor Vinge ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/796 "2019-09-09T22:11:15Z")
History has been described as one damn thing after another Richard Dawkins–_The Ancestor’s Tale_ ---
**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:** [September 10, 2019, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/797 "2019-09-10T01:26:31Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > _Born of Man and Woman_, a most bodacious short story. You can read it here: [BORN OF MAN AND WOMAN Richard Matheson X — This day ...](https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/50046136/born-of-man-and-woman-richard-matheson-x-a-this-day-) Thanks! > [@Stowed\_Bob](#): > > …Should introductions be considered, like with posthumous short story collections, or is the aim for relevant text by the writer(s)? The latter, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/798 "2019-09-10T01:33:24Z")
It was a hot, sticky night in Barcelona and all the good shores had the summer flu. Limo by Dan Jenkins and Bud Shrake ---
**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:** [September 10, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/799 "2019-09-10T13:36:55Z")
“Will Graham sat Crawford down at a picnic table between the house and the ocean and gave him a glass of iced tea.” \*Red Dragon \*by Thomas Harris (1981) ---
**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:** [September 11, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/800 "2019-09-11T13:36:20Z")
“Lummox was bored and hungry.” _The Star Beast_ by Robert A. Heinlein (1954) ---
**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:** [September 11, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/801 "2019-09-11T14:06:26Z")
“Half an hour after Tim Jamieson’s Delta flight was scheduled to leave Tampa for the bright lights and tall buildings of New York, it was still parked at the gate.” - _The Institute_, Stephen King [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=41)