# 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:** 60
**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 18, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1186 "2020-08-18T18:26:40Z")
“My home town was just a village of six hundred or so (and still is, although I have moved away), but we had the Internet just like the big cities, so my father and I got less and less personal mail.” _It It Bleeds_ by Stephen King ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1187 "2020-08-18T20:12:22Z")
I’ll spoiler tag mine, which may seem odd because it’s a first sentence, but it’s the 16th book in a series, so if someone’s reading the earlier ones and isn’t all caught up, there are a couple of minor spoilers in it… “My brother ruined a perfectly good run by saying, ‘Justine is pregnant.’” - Peace Talks, by Jim Butcher (book 16 of The Dresden Files) ---
**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 20, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1188 "2020-08-20T23:34:04Z")
“We arrive at the bungalow after midnight, Eddie snoring in his booster seat and Happisburgh lighthouse blinking in the distance.” _The Lamppost Huggers and Other Wretched Tales_, by Christopher Stanley ---
**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 21, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1189 "2020-08-21T01:03:55Z")
“Come in,” Ed Piazza said, in response to a knock on his office door. _1636: The Atlantic Encounter_, by Eric Flint and Walter H Hunt ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1190 "2020-08-21T01:34:30Z")
> _September 5, 1990, 10:49 pm, Yokohama_ > A row of condominium buildings, each fourteen stories high, ran along the northern edge of the housing development next to the Sankeien garden. - **Ring** , Koji Suzuki ---
**Author:** ![Hilary\_Algar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilary_algar/32/4282_2.png) [@Hilary\_Algar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilary_Algar)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1191 "2020-08-21T04:34:42Z")
“My name is Ishmael” Moby Dick Herman Melville This book is so tedious. I have no intention of ever completing it. ---
**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 21, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1192 "2020-08-21T14:04:02Z")
Really? I hear it’s a whale of a good tale. ---
**Author:** ![RealBigOleDummy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realbigoledummy/32/4415_2.png) [@RealBigOleDummy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealBigOleDummy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1193 "2020-08-21T14:09:30Z")
Saunders had been dead for almost two weeks now and, so far, he hadn’t enjoyed a minute of it. Red Dwarf : Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers ---
**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 21, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1194 "2020-08-21T14:42:59Z")
“Here’s where I’m supposed to tell you about my family background and my childhood so you can speculate about why I turned out the way I did–so you can decide whether you want to blame heredity, environment, or alien abduction.” _Women Aren’t Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon_, by Harriet A. Hall ---
**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 23, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1195 "2020-08-23T04:22:11Z")
> [@Hilary\_Algar](#): > > “My name is Ishmael” > > Moby Dick > > Herman Melville > > This book is so tedious. I have no intention of ever completing it. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, but then I tend to like the classics. Give it a little more time. ---
**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 23, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1196 "2020-08-23T04:24:38Z")
“In 1815 Monsieur Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne.” – _Les Miserables_, by Victor Hugo ---
**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 23, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1197 "2020-08-23T14:18:24Z")
> [@Hilary\_Algar](#): > > “My name is Ishmael” > > Moby Dick… And, uh, I think it’s actually “Call me Ishmael.” ---
**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 23, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1198 "2020-08-23T19:45:54Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > And, uh, I think it’s actually “Call me Ishmael.” Yes it is, come to think of it. ---
**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 24, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1199 "2020-08-24T02:51:06Z")
"On the side of a four-lane road, obscured by snowdrifts five feet high, sat a small coffee kiosk, its bright teal paint vibrant against the asphalt and gray big-box stores. _American Predator_ by Maureen Callahan ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1200 "2020-08-24T03:07:19Z")
“I have no one to blame but myself.” _It Was All A Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump_ by Stuart Stevens ---
**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 24, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1201 "2020-08-24T13:47:36Z")
“Charlie looked up at Saturn and its dazzling rings.” _The Long Sunset_, by Jack McDevitt ---
**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 26, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1202 "2020-08-26T18:12:26Z")
“In a house, on a street, in a town ordinary enough in every aspect to cross over its own roots and become remarkable, there lived a girl named Katherine Victoria Lundy.” _In An Absent Dream_, by Seanan McGuire ---
**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 27, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1203 "2020-08-27T20:05:26Z")
“You know that thing they say about comedy being tragedy plus time?” _Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time_, by Simon Garfield ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1204 "2020-08-28T17:32:06Z")
"A hundred and fifty years before, when the parochial disagreements between Earth and Mars had been on the verge of war, the Belt had been a far horizon of tremendous mineral wealth beyond viable economic reach, and the outer planets had been beyond even the most unrealistic corporate dream. " (I’m rereading _Leviathan Wakes_ by James S. A. Corey) ---
**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 28, 2020, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1205 "2020-08-28T21:50:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The practice of condemning messengers, the Supreme Master thought, had not developed without reason. _The Initiate Brother_, by Sean Russell [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=59) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=61)