# 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:** 75
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1487 "2021-03-13T15:38:06Z")
“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world — one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love… That one thing is trust.” _The Speed of Trust_, by Stephen M. R. Covey ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1488 "2021-03-13T15:41:07Z")
… and that sentence hints of Curly’s Law: “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean shit.” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1489 "2021-03-13T16:43:45Z")
“One of the latest entries of the NASS Registry illustrates what can happen to an unprotected sundial gnomon.” _The Compendium_ _Journal of the North American Sundial Society_ ---
**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:** [March 13, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1490 "2021-03-13T20:35:54Z")
“I heard a voice unlike the ones in my house or on the news that told me my place in the world.” _Heartland_ by Sarah Smarsh ---
**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:** [March 14, 2021, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1491 "2021-03-14T17:39:44Z")
“The American handed Leamas another cup of coffee and said, ‘Why don’t you go back and sleep? We can ring you if he shows up.’” _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_ by John Le Carre ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1492 "2021-03-14T17:48:15Z")
“Every man had his own special moment when he first knew that something was wrong. For RAF Group Captain R.C.M. Collard, it was he evening of May 14, 1940, in the market town of Vervins in northeastern France.” — Walter Lord, _The Miracle of Dunkirk_ ---
**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:** [March 14, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1493 "2021-03-14T18:44:08Z")
“Hey, could you come over?” _Lobster is the Best Medicine: A Collection of Comics about Friendship_, by Liz Climo. “Every night, when you stand outside and gaze upon the stars, you are bathing in time as well as light.” _The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary_, by Ken Liu. ---
**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:** [March 14, 2021, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1494 "2021-03-14T19:33:42Z")
**Hans Richter Field Near Grantville, in the State of Thuringia December 1633** Colonel Jesse Wood turned off the computer in his office, removed the floppy disk and carefully slid it into its protective sleeve. _1634: The Baltic War_, by Eric Flint & David Weber ---
**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:** [March 15, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1495 "2021-03-15T14:27:43Z")
“Mahit came down to the City, heart-planet and capital of the Teixcalaanli Empire, in a seed-skiff, a bubble of a ship hardly big enough for her body and her luggage both.” _A Memory Called Empire_, by Arkady Martine ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1496 "2021-03-15T16:43:52Z")
“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.” _The Knife of Never Letting Go_ by Patrick Ness. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1497 "2021-03-15T21:34:30Z")
“Both sides of the American Civil War professed to be fighting for freedom.” _Battle Cry of Freedom – The Civil War Era_, by James McPherson ---
**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:** [March 18, 2021, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1498 "2021-03-18T02:39:39Z")
“Stop whining, Harry,” said Anne Jefferson. “Steps in the Dance”, by Eric Flint First story in _Grantville Gazette II_, edited by Eric Flint ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1499 "2021-03-18T16:46:56Z")
I usually have several on the burner at once . . . “The curiosity entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction.” _ **The History of England** _ David Hume, 1754 “Whether or no, she, whom you are to forgive, if you can, did or did not belong to the Upper Ten Thousand of this our English world, I am not prepared to say with any strength of affirmation.” _ **Can You Forgive Her?** _ Anthony Trollop, 1864 “On the afternoon of the Day of Truth, eighty seven years after the Revolution, Jennifer Mazdan, a server for the Mid-Hudson Energy Board, fell asleep and underwent a strange dream, one not found anywhere in the catalogues.” _ **Unquenchable Fire** _ Rachel Pollock, 1988 ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1500 "2021-03-19T05:54:08Z")
“I’m telling you, Mike, we can do this!” “In the Navy”, by David Weber First story in _Ring of Fire_, edited by Eric Flint ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyWest](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnywest/32/7223_2.png) [@JohnnyWest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyWest)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1501 "2021-03-19T14:02:00Z")
“Short of Aphrodite, there is nothing lovelier on this planet than a flower, nor more essential than a plant.” - _The Secret Life of Plants_, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1502 "2021-03-19T17:00:05Z")
Welcome, **JohnnyWest**! Good to have you here. “Beth learned of her mother’s death from a woman with a clipboard. The next day her picture appeared in the _Herald-Leader_.” _The Queen’s Gambit_ by Walter Tevis ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1503 "2021-03-19T18:11:28Z")
“It had been eight years since I first made the leap across the Atlantic from England to Broadway.” _Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years_, by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1504 "2021-03-19T18:26:31Z")
“During a routine medical visit at a Virginia hospital in the mid-1990s, Susan, a 26-year-old single mother, was screened for HIV.” –Reckoning with Risk: Learning to Live with Uncertainty by Gerd Gigerenzer ---
**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:** [March 20, 2021, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1505 "2021-03-20T23:14:16Z")
“Hey, Mouse!” _Nova_, by Samuel R. Delany ---
**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:** [March 22, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1506 "2021-03-22T14:47:44Z")
“I was building shelves in the garage when our neighbor girl, one of my four-year-old daughter’s nosy friends, approached me and said, ‘I just saw in your house.’” _I’m Sorry…Love, Your Husband: Honest, Hilarious Stories From a Father of Three Who Made All the Mistakes (And Made Up for Them)_, by Clint Edwards [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=74) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=76)