# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/101 "2017-07-04T17:22:34Z")
“The trees are mostly skinny where the hermit lives, but they’re tangled over giant boulders with deadfall everywhere like pick up sticks.” From The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit- Michael Finkel The true story of a man who spent 27 years living in the Maine woods alone in a tent. I blew through this in two days, only because sleep and other stuff made me put it down. ---
**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 4, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/102 "2017-07-04T17:35:39Z")
We had a similar thread years ago, but it quietly died. I always liked it. “Brian Engle rolled the American Pride L1011 to a stop at Gate 22 and flicked off the FASTEN SEATBELT light at exactly 10:14 P.M.” – _The Langoliers_, by Stephen King, the first novella in his collection _Four Past Midnight_. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/103 "2017-07-04T18:02:13Z")
The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-wracked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards. Ursula Le Guin; A Wizard of Earthsea ---
**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 4, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/104 "2017-07-04T18:31:13Z")
It was with his usual alertness that T. J. Lambert noticed the shapely adorable when she came in the bar with her two best friends, which some people used to call tits. Dan Jenkins, _Rude Behavior_ ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/105 "2017-07-04T18:32:21Z")
“Call me Jonah” Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/106 "2017-07-04T18:45:32Z")
Okay, I’ll play. “On a chilly April night in 1940, leading officials of the Norwegian government were invited to the German legation in Oslo for the screening of a new film.” - Lynne Olson, _Last Hope Island_ ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/107 "2017-07-04T18:49:56Z")
“The newest girl had finally cried herself into exhaustion at last and slept, her tear-streaked face half hidden in her disordered hair, head cradled in the silken folds of Jeanette’s midnight-colored skirt.” -Mercedes Lackey, _The Black Swan_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/108 "2017-07-04T19:48:11Z")
“All rights are reserved under Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions.” ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/109 "2017-07-04T20:51:15Z")
“In the beginning, nearly fourteen billion years ago, all the space and all the matter and all the energy of the known universe was contained in a volume less than one-trillionth the size of the period that ends this sentence.” Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson ---
**Author:** ![Donegal\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Donegal\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donegal_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/110 "2017-07-05T13:13:37Z")
Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. just started my third attempt at reading Ulysses, doing much better this time.Quarter of the way through and I’m still motivated to finish, just don’t let Neil Stephenson or William Gibson put out a new book ( oh, shit) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/111 "2017-07-05T13:21:48Z")
> [@](#): > > When the gods of the West were gathered in their place of assembly, Drax, the Tritonian god of war, said in his ophidian hiss: > > “Events will take a deadly turn for us in the next century unless we change this patterns.” –_The Tritonian Ring_ by L. Sprague de Camp (1951, 1968) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/112 "2017-07-05T15:04:10Z")
Book: _End of Watch_, by Stephen King (reread, not my first time reading it). Prologue: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” Actual chapter one: “A pane of glass breaks in Bill Hodges’s pants pocket.” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/113 "2017-07-05T15:32:18Z")
“Some children are just born bad, plain and simple.” – [**Allegedly** , Tiffany Jackson](http://a.co/8WdmSIw) ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/114 "2017-07-05T15:40:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Against the evening swell and sweep of rollers half a mile long, where flying fish skimmed from one foam-capped mountain of water to another, the U-boat periscope stood no higher than a small shark’s fin. _Boarding Party_ by James Leasor. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/115 "2017-07-05T15:47:52Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > “The letter, several pages in length and signed by Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson, was addressed to Commander Thomas O. Selfridge.” > > From _The Path Between the Seas_, David McCullough’s terrific history of the building of the Panama Canal Did not know about this book, now added to my Amazon cart. Thanks for sharing. > [@Donegal\_Dragon](#): > > Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. > > just started my third attempt at reading Ulysses, doing much better this time.Quarter of the way through and I’m still motivated to finish, just don’t let Neil Stephenson or William Gibson put out a new book ( oh, shit) I read Ulysses. Every word. Could not tell you a thing about it except that you spend a single day with Leopold Bloom. mmm ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/116 "2017-07-05T15:48:05Z")
“Polly sighed and laid her book face down on her bed.” Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/117 "2017-07-05T15:53:21Z")
“The monster tract of land which our family own in Tennessee, was purchased by my father a little over forty years ago”. Mark Twain, _Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol 1_ ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/118 "2017-07-05T16:13:56Z")
“Around two o’clock on the cold, overcast morning of January 25, 1995, a group of four black men left the scene of a shooting at a hamburger restaurant in the Grove Hall section of Boston.” _The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us_ by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons ---
**Author:** ![Nightfall1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@Nightfall1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightfall1)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/119 "2017-07-05T16:18:23Z")
It was the day my grandmother exploded. The Crow Road by Iain Banks ---
**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 8, 2017, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/120 "2017-07-08T00:22:57Z")
I have the best commute in the world. Pancakes in Paris: Living the American Dream in France, by Craig Colson. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=7)