# 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:** 59
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1166 "2020-08-08T16:43:57Z")
“Mrs. Tiffen could play the Bouzouki.” _Early Riser_ by Jasper Fforde ---
**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, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1167 "2020-08-08T19:02:29Z")
By the spring of 1776, British and American troops had been killing each other at a robust rate for a full year. _Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence_, by Joseph J Ellis ---
**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:** [August 9, 2020, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1168 "2020-08-09T04:58:18Z")
“Duke Russell is not guilty of the unspeakable crimes for which he was convicted; nonetheless, he is scheduled to be executed for them in one hour and forty-four minutes.” – _The Guardians_, 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:** [August 11, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1169 "2020-08-11T20:49:42Z")
“This is not a ‘definitive guide book’ to Manhattan.” _Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York_, by Roz Chast ---
**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 12, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1170 "2020-08-12T18:24:57Z")
“It would’ve been the first part of May.” _The House of Daniel_, by Harry Turtledove ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1171 "2020-08-13T20:09:41Z")
“Coriolanus released the fistful of cabbage into the pot of boiling water and swore that one day it would never pass his lips again.” _The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes_, by Suzanne Collins ---
**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:** [August 13, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1172 "2020-08-13T20:34:12Z")
“Three months. That’s how long Dr. Sheila Tao had been sleeping with Ethan Wolfe. Three months, four days, and approximately six hours.” _Creep_, by Jennifer Hillier ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1173 "2020-08-13T21:51:17Z")
The red glow from the stoplight wrapped around Daisy like a bloody veil. - Tony Dunbar, _Crime Czar_ ---
**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 13, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1174 "2020-08-13T22:25:40Z")
It might have been coincidence – the chairman of Eaglehawk Company standing in the foyer of the Grande Hotel, watching the news vid on the three-floor-high screen – but Leonard Wickmore didn’t believe in coincidences. – "Stars Beyond\*, by S K Dunstall ---
**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 14, 2020, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1175 "2020-08-14T04:15:08Z")
“I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife’s grave. Then I joined the army.” _Old Man’s War_ by John Scalzi ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1176 "2020-08-14T09:54:56Z")
_Picture it. London, 1953, the A&B Club in Rupert Court, Soho._ _Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language_ ---
**Author:** ![lawf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@lawf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawf)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1177 "2020-08-14T10:33:15Z")
“One may as well begin with Jerome’s emails to his father.” Zadie Smith, On Beauty ---
**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 15, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1178 "2020-08-15T04:54:47Z")
“In 1956, at the age of three, I was walking home with my father, physicist Freeman Dyson, from his office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, when I found a broken fan belt lying in the road. I asked my father what it was. ‘It’s a piece of the sun,’ he said.” _Turing’s Cathedral_ by George Dyson ---
**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 15, 2020, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1179 "2020-08-15T16:19:53Z")
“As early as during the First World War studies on a new type of warship - the aircraft carrier - were conducted in Germany.” _The German Aircraft Carrier Graf Zeppelin: Super Drawings in 3D_ by Stefan Draminski ---
**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:** [August 16, 2020, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1180 "2020-08-16T04:56:38Z")
“I’d always liked my name.” – _Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man_, by Mary L Trump, PhD. ---
**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 16, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1181 "2020-08-16T20:54:01Z")
“The art of war is of vital importance to the State.” _The Art of War_ by Sun Tzu ---
**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 17, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1182 "2020-08-17T03:31:16Z")
“The storm had raged through most of the night. In the wide bed she shared with her mother, the child lay awake beneath the scratchy woolweed blanket, listening.” _Windhaven_ by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle ---
**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:** [August 17, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1183 "2020-08-17T03:56:57Z")
“I went to Arizona that summer for my health. Talk about irony…” _Summer of the Dragon_ by Elizabeth Peters ---
**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 17, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1184 "2020-08-17T23:21:41Z")
“A plume of vapor from a garment steamer clouded the backstage section where Caroline was working.” _The Oysterville Sewing Circle_, by Susan Wiggs ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1185 "2020-08-18T01:11:11Z")
_In 1904, Winslow Homer spent the month of January fishing midway up Florida’s west coast, where the Homosassa River quietly slips into the Gulf of Mexico._ –The Gulf by Jack E. Davis [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=58) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=60)