# 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:** 51
**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:** [March 9, 2020, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1003 "2020-03-09T07:58:19Z")
\*\*THE AENEID, Virgil. Book 2 (for Book 1, please see somewhere above) \*\* They all fell silent, gazing at Father Aeneas, and he began to speak from his raised couch: 'O queen, the sorrow you bid me bring me back to life again is passed all words, the destruction by the Greeks of the wealth of Troy and the kingdom that will be mourned for ever, and all the horrors that I have seen, and in which I played a large part. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1004 "2020-03-09T20:17:41Z")
I’m pretty much fucked. _The Martian_, by Andy Weir. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2020, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1005 "2020-03-10T18:43:35Z")
“The Jews started it all–and by “it” I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and gentile, believer and atheist, tick.” _The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels_, by Thomas Cahill ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1006 "2020-03-10T19:59:42Z")
“She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.” _The Hero and the Crown_, by Robin McKinley. ---
**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:** [March 10, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1007 "2020-03-10T21:24:31Z")
“Foley had never seen a prison where you could walk right up to the fence without getting shot.” _Out of Sight_ by Elmore Leonard ---
**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:** [March 11, 2020, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1008 "2020-03-11T12:30:00Z")
“The night it all ended, Vivian was alone.” -The Sun Down Motel, by Simone St. James ---
**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:** [March 12, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1009 "2020-03-12T18:32:49Z")
“It’s a new elevator, freshly pressed to the rails, and it’s not built to fall this fast.” _The Intuitionist_, by Colson Whitehead ---
**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:** [March 14, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1010 "2020-03-14T23:18:56Z")
“Really, the things we remember are the things we forget.” (Quoted in _Ex Libris G. K. Chesterton_, compiled by Dale Ahlquist, originally published in Chesterton’s _Autobiography_.) ---
**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:** [March 16, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1011 "2020-03-16T14:18:12Z")
“Mom, can I go see the stars?” _Record of a Spaceborn Few_, by Becky Chambers ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1012 "2020-03-16T18:57:36Z")
Vera Atkins did not, as a rule, take too much notice of the opinions of others. _A Life in Secrets_, by Sarah Helm ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1013 "2020-03-16T18:59:05Z")
Ignore this. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1014 "2020-03-19T19:19:35Z")
“Tomorrow is my birthday.” _Child of the Dream: A Memoir of 1963_, by Sharon Robinson ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1015 "2020-03-20T02:15:06Z")
“The fretwork hands stood at five past four.” Aleksandr I Solzhenitsyn - The First Circle (Thomas P. Whitney translation) ---
**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:** [March 20, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1016 "2020-03-20T22:52:11Z")
“In a little room in South Great George Street in the city of Dublin, two girls were discussing a matter of great importance to them.” _Goddess of the Green Room_, by Jean Plaidy ---
**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:** [March 20, 2020, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1017 "2020-03-20T23:17:29Z")
“He’s a Mad Scientist and I’m his Beautiful Daughter.”\* _The Pursuit of the Pankera_ - Robert Heinlein - - This is also the opening sentence of _-Number of the Beast_. The books don’t diverge until the second paragraph of page 152. They even provide a little carat mark to show the place. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1018 "2020-03-21T18:06:36Z")
Like a glowing jewel, the city lay upon the breast of the desert. — _The City and the Stars_, Arthur C. Clarke. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1019 "2020-03-21T21:46:04Z")
" ‘So that’s settled, then; we bury her alive in the iron bridle.’ " – _Company of Liars_, by Karen Maitland ---
**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:** [March 23, 2020, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1020 "2020-03-23T19:47:16Z")
“Horror, strangeness, and fear have always been part of literature.” _Monster She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction_, by Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson ---
**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:** [March 25, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1021 "2020-03-25T20:43:18Z")
“My eye kept coming back to the big gray.” _A Horse to Remember_ by Sam Savitt ---
**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:** [March 26, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1022 "2020-03-26T15:11:00Z")
“Man in general doesn’t appreciate what he has until he is deprived of it.” _The Court of Last Resort_, by Erle Stanley Gardner [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=50) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=52)