# 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:** 44
**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 10, 2019, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/863 "2019-11-10T20:24:19Z")
"‘I’m sorry, Mr. Cole, this has nothing to do with you.’ " – _The Monkey’s Raincoat_, by Robert Crais ---
**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 10, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/864 "2019-11-10T21:56:56Z")
“This is a damned peculiar way to travel,” remarked Commodore William Abernathy in a sour tone. _Restless Lightning_ by Richard Baker ---
**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, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/865 "2019-11-12T21:53:44Z")
“Michael sat down on the bed that used to be his and watched his great-great-aunt, Aunt Dew, rocking in the rocking chair.” _The Hundred Penny Box_ by Sharon Bell Mathis ---
**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 13, 2019, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/866 "2019-11-13T06:02:58Z")
“Elijah Baley found himself in the shade of the tree and muttered to himself, ‘I knew it. I’m sweating.’” _The Robots of Dawn_ by Isaac Asimov (1983) ---
**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 13, 2019, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/867 "2019-11-13T13:54:49Z")
“The drome first came to me in the mirror when I was six.” _There There_ by Tommy Orange (2018) “Drome” refers to fetal alcohol syndrome, which changed the narrator in ways he doesn’t fully understand or like. ---
**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 13, 2019, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/868 "2019-11-13T20:38:25Z")
“Truth to tell, I have absolutely no memory of my first day in kindergarten at Lincoln School in Sterling, Illinois.” _School Days_, edited by Clancy Strock. ---
**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 15, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/869 "2019-11-15T13:55:54Z")
“The girl couldn’t stop doing her homework, and it was killing her.” _Autonomous_, by Annalee Newitz ---
**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 17, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/870 "2019-11-17T20:35:11Z")
“I was standing on my head in the middle of my office when the door opened and the best looking woman I’d seen in three weeks walked in.” – _Stalking the Angel_, by Robert Crais ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/871 "2019-11-18T00:03:03Z")
"If we don’t allow presidential impeachment, warned Benjamin Franklin, then the only recourse for abuse of power will be assassination. " –_To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment_, by Laurence Tribe & Joshua Matz ---
**Author:** ![cieskokid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cieskokid/32/5374_2.png) [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/872 "2019-11-18T03:08:48Z")
“We will have achieved much for the scientific study of aesthetics when we come, not merely to a logical understanding, but also to the certain and immediate apprehension of the fact that the further development of art is bound up with the duality of the Apollonian and the Dionysian, just as reproduction similarly depends upon the duality of the sexes, their continuing strife and only periodically occurring reconciliation.” \*\*\*The Birth of Tragedy \*\*\* =\>Friedrich Nietzsche ---
**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 18, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/873 "2019-11-18T15:35:53Z")
“In extent, the kingdom to which Edward returned in 1042 after nearly thirty years of exile differed more from the realm inherited by his grandfather, Edgar, than from the England we know today.” _1066: The Story of a Year_, by Denis Butler ---
**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 18, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/874 "2019-11-18T16:01:39Z")
If there was a single moment it all began, it was that of Muhammad’s death. _After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split_ by Lesley Hazleton ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/875 "2019-11-19T15:54:21Z")
Blowtorches, whipping siphons, and syringes? Modernist Cuisine - At home by Nathan Myhrvold with Maxime Bilet ---
**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 19, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/876 "2019-11-19T20:22:18Z")
“To one side of the _Explorator Four_ flared a dim and aging star, Carinae 4269.” _City of the Chasch_ by Jack Vance (1968) ---
**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 21, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/877 "2019-11-21T04:29:38Z")
“With its two fighting claws held forward like a wrestler’s arms the big _pandinus_ scorpion emerged with a dry rustle from the finger-sized hole under the rock.” \*Diamonds are Forever \*by Ian Fleming (1956) ---
**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 22, 2019, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/878 "2019-11-22T15:00:45Z")
“The half-drunk glass of lemonade in her hand grew warm as Arabella watched the other guests from a small alcove nearly completely shrouded by a voluminous potted palm.” _The Clockwork Witch_, by Michelle D. Sonnier ---
**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 24, 2019, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/879 "2019-11-24T02:23:45Z")
“Some have claimed that we are damaged angels; others, that we are improved apes.” _A Second Browser’s Dictionary_, by John Ciardi ---
**Author:** ![Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@Weaver\_of\_Nightmares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weaver_of_Nightmares)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/880 "2019-11-24T15:12:40Z")
I’m reading two books at the moment. “Jasnah Kholin pretended to enjoy the party, giving no indication that she intended to have one of the guests killed.” _Words of Radiance_, the second book in _The Stormlight Archive_, by Brandon Sanderson. “Irene passed the mop across the stone floor in smooth, careful strokes, idly admiring the gleam of wet flagstones in the lantern-light.” _The Invisible Libray_, by Genevieve Cogman. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2019, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/881 "2019-11-25T09:49:53Z")
Can’t resist adding this to this thread. (I swear, I’m sober! Your opinion may vary.) “From prehistoric times, humans have watched the flight of birds, and longed to imitate them, but lacked the power to do so.” From (take a guess first): Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (2016 edition) by Federal Aviation Administration. ---
**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 27, 2019, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/882 "2019-11-27T18:04:39Z")
“‘Oh God, make him pull over,’” I said as the car slung around yet another curve in almost total darkness." _At the Water’s Edge_ by Sara Gruen (2015) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=43) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=45)