# 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:** 45
**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, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/883 "2019-11-28T23:04:24Z")
“At Windsor, it was the evening of the state banquet and as the president of France took his place beside Her Majesty, the royal family formed up behind and the procession slowly moved off and through into the Waterloo Chamber.” _The Uncommon Reader_, by Alan Bennett (2007) ---
**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 29, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/884 "2019-11-29T04:18:37Z")
Three hours past midnight on April 16, 1945, approximately nine thousand Soviet guns opened fire on German positions along the Seelow Heights guarding the eastern approaches to Berlin. _The Cold War’s Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace_ by by Paul Thomas Chamberlin ---
**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 30, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/885 "2019-11-30T21:18:48Z")
“I love pinball.” _Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball_, by Adam Ruben ---
**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 30, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/886 "2019-11-30T21:44:44Z")
“When I was too young to check books out of the adult section of the local library, I spent a lot of weekend time sitting there and reading the forbidden texts.” _A Separate War and Other Stories_ by Joe Haldeman (2006) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/887 "2019-11-30T22:06:04Z")
“They waited at the dock, the three Venetians, for the fool to arrive.” “The Serpent of Venice” by Christopher Moore, a mashup of King Lear, The Cask if Amontillado, The Merchant of Venice, Marco Polo, and a supernatural sea monster ---
**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 1, 2019, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/888 "2019-12-01T05:56:22Z")
“There were no stars.” – _The Reckoning_, by Sharon Kay Penman ---
**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 3, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/889 "2019-12-03T14:08:59Z")
“Melchior! Give Caspar back the frankincense! And Balthazar, if you don’t stop throwing myrrh at the shepherds, I’m demoting you to junior sheep!” _Lark! The Herald Angels Sing_, by Donna Andrews ---
**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:** [December 3, 2019, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/890 "2019-12-03T14:41:06Z")
“‘Pass the word for Captain Aubrey, pass the word for Captain Aubrey,’ cried a sequence of voices, at first dim and muffled far aft on the flagship’s maindeck, then growing louder and more distinct as the call wafted up to the quarterdeck and so along the gangway to the forecastle, where Captain Aubrey stood by the starboard thirty-two-pounder carronade contemplating the Emperor of Morocco’s purple galley as it lay off Jumper’s Bastion with the vast grey and tawny Rock of Gibraltar soaring behind it, while Mr Blake, once a puny member of his midshipman’s berth but now a tall, stout lieutenant almost as massive as his former captain, explained the new carriage he had invented, a carriage that should enable carronades to fire twice as fast, with no fear of oversetting, twice as far, and with perfect accuracy, thus virtually putting an end to war.” _The Far Side of the World_ by Patrick O’Brian (1984) Now _that’s_ an opening sentence. ---
**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 6, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/891 "2019-12-06T19:47:11Z")
“On November 19, 1833, a newspaper in Cumberland, MD, told of a strange and terrifying event.” _Mysteries and Lore of Western Maryland: Snallygasters, Dogmen and Other Mountain Tales_, by Susan Fair ---
**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 7, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/892 "2019-12-07T15:17:15Z")
“Once upon a time, long long ago, there lay in a valley far, far away in the mountains, the most contented kingdom the world has ever known.” _The Mammoth Book of Awesome Comic Fantasy_, edited by Mike Ashley (Specifically, this is from its first story, “Happy Valley” by John Cleese and Connie Booth.) ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/893 "2019-12-08T03:56:49Z")
“What the world needs now is more lovely, life-affirming sleep.” IKEA Catalog 2020 ---
**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:** [December 10, 2019, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/894 "2019-12-10T14:17:34Z")
“‘Thinner,’ the old Gypsy man with the rotting nose whispers to William Halleck as Halleck and his wife, Heidi, come out of the courthouse.” _Thinner_ by Stephen King (1984) ---
**Author:** ![Rough\_Draft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@Rough\_Draft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rough_Draft)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/895 "2019-12-10T16:30:37Z")
“For the last five or six days Hewey Calloway had realized he needed a bath”. _The Good Old Boys_ by Elmer Kelton. ---
**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 12, 2019, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/896 "2019-12-12T23:38:07Z")
“Pancho Alvarez glanced at the wall clock just above his operating console: three hours and ten minutes remaining to complete the twenty-four-hour VLBI observing program.” _Latitude: How American Astronomers Solved the Mystery of Variation_, by Bill Carter and Merri Sue Carter ---
**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 16, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/897 "2019-12-16T00:18:20Z")
“Once there was an old man named Armand who wouldn’t have lived anywhere but in Paris.” _The Family Under the Bridge_, by Natalie Savage Carlson ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/898 "2019-12-16T00:27:34Z")
" On Waverly Street, everybody knew everybody else. " — \*\*Saint Maybe \*\*, by Anne Tyler. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/899 "2019-12-16T01:13:19Z")
It was Sunday, and the day was clear and crisp as I walked from my duplex apartment at 645 Park avenue to the Mountain View hospital, a small, twenty-five bed private facility located at 1530 Marsh street. _Nurse of Manzanar_, by Samuel Nakamura Derived from _My Memories of World War 2_ by Toshiko Eto Nakamura ---
**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 17, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/900 "2019-12-17T00:41:22Z")
“From the outside, Jamie Hyneman’s workshop may seem like just another workshop in San Francisco’s south side industrial district, where the streets are named after different states of the Union.” _Mythbusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time_, by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, with Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, and Peter Rees. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2019, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/901 "2019-12-17T04:46:24Z")
“Son, last Sunday the host of a popular Sunday news show asked me what it meant to lose my body.” _Between the World and Me_ by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015) ---
**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 18, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/902 "2019-12-18T21:22:36Z")
“You never see Gliese.” Dream Houses, by Genevieve Valentine [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=44) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=46)