# 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:** 62
**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:** [September 15, 2020, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1226 "2020-09-15T00:56:10Z")
“Michelangelo Osiris Leary Kusanagi-Jones had been drinking since fourteen hundred.” _Carnival_ by Elizabeth Bear ---
**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:** [September 15, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1228 "2020-09-15T13:52:04Z")
“Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians.” Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1229 "2020-09-17T21:12:31Z")
“When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” _The Last Good Kiss_, James Crumley Also: “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” _Ulysses_, James Joyce ---
**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:** [September 20, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1230 "2020-09-20T02:33:32Z")
“Beyond the window, water slapped against the pilings of the wooden sidewalk along the canal. Dirk t’Larien looked up and saw a low black barge drift slowly past in the moonlight.” _Dying of the Light_ by George R.R. Martin ---
**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:** [September 21, 2020, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1231 "2020-09-21T03:37:36Z")
“In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.” _A Farewell to Arms_ by Ernest Hemingway ---
**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:** [September 21, 2020, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1232 "2020-09-21T04:03:17Z")
“They call it ‘getting red-pilled’.” — _Red Pill, Blue Bill: How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories that are Killing Us_, by David Neiwert ---
**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:** [September 21, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1233 "2020-09-21T15:25:43Z")
The Inland Sea of Japan was still veiled in darkness when the anchorage at Hashirajima began to awaken. _Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway_ by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully ---
**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:** [September 22, 2020, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1234 "2020-09-22T17:44:18Z")
“A woman waved me over to the computer she was using.” _I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks_, by Gina Sheridan ---
**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:** [September 24, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1235 "2020-09-24T16:06:09Z")
“The main thing to remember in autobiography, I have always thought, is not to let any damned modesty creep in to spoil the story.” _Mr. Campion: Criminologist_, by Margery Allingham ---
**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:** [September 25, 2020, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1236 "2020-09-25T00:44:21Z")
“I’m standing at the centermost of the three contestant podiums, which are wider and deeper than they look on TV.” _Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy!_ by Bob Harris ---
**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:** [September 28, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1237 "2020-09-28T19:08:47Z")
“The first cattle to set foot in Hawaii didn’t live to see sunset.” _Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, The World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West_, by David Wolman and Julian Smith. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2020, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1238 "2020-09-30T00:56:15Z")
> Brenden Vetch found the Od School of Magic beneath a cobbler’s shoe on a busy street in the ancient city of Kelior. _Od Magic_, by Patricia McKillip (A re-read, but lordy I need some comfort reading now and there are few writers as fine as McKillip in her use of language.) ---
**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:** [September 30, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1239 "2020-09-30T19:44:26Z")
“What do you do when you’re not sure?” _Doubt_, by John Patrick Shanley ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1240 "2020-09-30T19:57:32Z")
“From the man who at puberty said, “To hell with religion!” and proceeded to ignore its various organized aspects ever since to the man who at fifty is hopelessly and delightfully entangled in the meshes of a highly organized religion, these and all the various types of response to life in between, all are involved in religion.” _On Religious Maturity_ by M. Belanger ---
**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:** [September 30, 2020, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1241 "2020-09-30T23:46:40Z")
“She liked his car. It was the first time she had been in an electric.” _Fair Warning_ by Michael Connelly ---
**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:** [October 1, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1242 "2020-10-01T22:58:28Z")
“I’m Deafblind.” _Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law_, by Haben Girma ---
**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:** [October 3, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1243 "2020-10-03T15:09:24Z")
“Ethan died of a burst appendix.” _The Dark Side of Nowhere_, by Neal Shusterman ---
**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:** [October 3, 2020, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1244 "2020-10-03T16:01:08Z")
“A woman screams. Shrill and desolate, the brief sound rips through the solemn hush in the corridors of the old federal courthouse.” _The Last Trial_, by Scott Turow ---
**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:** [October 4, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1245 "2020-10-04T01:04:03Z")
In November 1962, at his self-proclaimed “last press conference” following his loss in the California gubernatorial contest, Richard Nixon announced that he was walking out of history. _Nixon Volume II: The Triumph of a Politician 1962-1972_ by Stephen Ambrose ---
**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:** [October 4, 2020, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1246 "2020-10-04T20:59:02Z")
“Five thousand years ago, a star-struck night blinked down at them, huddled by twig fires among towering pines and hazel wood.” Monumental Verses, by J. Patrick Lewis. (Note: This is the first line of the first poem, “Stonehenge”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=61) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=63)