# 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:** 58
**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 18, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1145 "2020-07-18T03:45:34Z")
“On the eve of my twenty-fourth birthday I interview my mother.” _Unorthodox_ by Deborah Feldman ---
**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, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1146 "2020-07-18T20:16:57Z")
“As readers of Browsings will discover in the weeks to come, I’m pretty much what used to be called a ‘bookman’.” _Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books_, by Michael Dirda ---
**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 21, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1147 "2020-07-21T23:29:39Z")
“How long had he been watching me? I wondered.” _A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon_, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. (This is from the first story, “You’d Better Go in Disguise”, by Alan Bradley.) ---
**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 24, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1148 "2020-07-24T18:59:26Z")
“In the evening, we went to prayer meeting, had a spirited meeting.” _Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis_, edited and with extensive background information by Karsonya Wise Whitehead. ---
**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:** [July 24, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1149 "2020-07-24T20:08:27Z")
“Pete was hauling ass.” - _Heart Seizure_, Bill Fitzhugh ---
**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 25, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1150 "2020-07-25T20:56:43Z")
“Uniformed LAPD Officer Joe Pike could hear the _banda_ music even with the engine idling, the a.c. jacked to meat locker, and the two-way crackling callout codes to other units.” – _LA Requiem_, 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:** [July 26, 2020, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1151 "2020-07-26T19:32:05Z")
“It is necessary to tell you about Roger Torraway.” _Man Plus_, by Frederik Pohl ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1152 "2020-07-27T12:12:06Z")
“Contemporary events differ from history in that we do not know the results they will produce.” F.A. Hayek, _The Road to Serfdom_ (1944). ---
**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, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1153 "2020-07-28T21:30:51Z")
“The Wealth of Nations is, without doubt, a book that changed the world.” _On The Wealth of Nations_ by P.J. O’Rourke ---
**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:** [July 30, 2020, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1154 "2020-07-30T00:10:51Z")
She came to him toward morning. _The Last Wish_, by Andrzej Sapkowski The idea of summer in the woods of Michigan, staying in a cabin on Cedar Lake, greatly appealed to Jacqueline Fournier. _Women of Valor: The Rochambelles on the WWII Front_, by Ellen Hampton. ---
**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 31, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1155 "2020-07-31T00:37:13Z")
“Leo spun to life in late July in the restless waters of the far eastern Atlantic, about two hundred miles west of Cape Verde.” _Camino Winds_, by John Grisham ---
**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, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1156 "2020-07-31T16:22:14Z")
“His coming into our classroom that morning was the only new thing.” _Feathers_, by Jacqueline Woodson ---
**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:** [August 1, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1157 "2020-08-01T18:37:26Z")
“Beginning in July, 1837, Charles Darwin kept a small notebook, which he labeled “B,” devoted to the wildest idea he ever had.” _The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life_, by David Quammen ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1158 "2020-08-01T19:23:13Z")
“On the morning of May 19, 2004, Carla Reed, a thirty-year-old kindergarten teacher from Ipswich, Massachusetts, a mother of three young children, woke up in bed with a headache.” _The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer_, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.) ---
**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:** [August 1, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1159 "2020-08-01T20:25:40Z")
“Emily’s gone to take a shower. The room’s half-dark and I’m getting dressed, looking for a shirt with no blood on it, not having any luck.” _Cherry_ by Nico Walker ---
**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:** [August 5, 2020, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1160 "2020-08-05T20:28:08Z")
“It was from the air that the rawness of the land showed most: vast tracts where humanity had as yet made no difference, deserts unclaimed, stark as moons, scrag and woolwood thickets unexplored except by orbiting radar.” _Cyteen_ by C. J. Cherryh. ---
**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:** [August 6, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1161 "2020-08-06T18:33:02Z")
Alf grinned as he pushed open the whorehouse door into the damp London night. _The Case of the Spellbound Child_ (Elemental Masters #14), by Mercedes Lackey ---
**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:** [August 6, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1162 "2020-08-06T18:38:59Z")
O mighty caliph and commander of the faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence; a man can hope for no greater blessing as long as he lives. _Exhalation_ by Ted Chiang ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1164 "2020-08-08T13:43:40Z")
Commodore Eddie Cantrell looked past the bowsprit of the USE steam cruiser _Intrepid_ into the nautical twilight brightening the eastern horizon. _1637: No Peace Beyond the Line_ by Eric Flint and Charles Gannon (advance reader copy, printed book comes out in November). ---
**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:** [August 8, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1165 "2020-08-08T14:32:35Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > _1637: No Peace Beyond the Line_ by Eric Flint and Charles Gannon Thank you. I put that one on hold, too (along with _1636: The Atlantic Encounter_ and the two new Harry Dresdens). Now we need a sequel to _1635: A Parcel of Rogues_… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=57) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=59)