# 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:** 92
**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:** [November 23, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1829 "2021-11-23T00:07:44Z")
“I had just finished one of Fritz Brenner’s hearty breakfasts–freshly squeezed orange juice, shirred eggs, Georgia ham, and hash brown potatoes–and gotten settled at my desk in the office when the phone squawked.” _Stop the Presses! A Nero Wolfe Mystery_, by Robert Goldsborough ---
**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:** [November 23, 2021, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1830 "2021-11-23T01:52:59Z")
“From the ‘About Us’ page of the Snoop company website: Hey. We’re Snoop. Come meet us, message us, snoop on us - whatever. We’re pretty cool. Are you?” _One By One_ by Ruth Ware ---
**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:** [November 24, 2021, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1831 "2021-11-24T16:36:04Z")
“On his way back from Aldebaran, a particular salesman stopped by the Vatican.” _Mysterion 2: Stories from the Online Magazine, 2018-2019_, edited by Donald S. Crankshaw and Kristin Janz. (This sentence begins the first story, “We Have Discerned a Potential Deal”, by J. P. Sullivan.) ---
**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:** [November 27, 2021, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1832 "2021-11-27T19:58:32Z")
“What David always hated most about the Sumner family dinners was the way everyone talked about him as if he were not there.” _Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang_, by Kate Wilhelm ---
**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:** [November 27, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1833 "2021-11-27T20:14:39Z")
“The angel was cleaning out his closets when the call came.” _Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal_ - Christopher Moore ---
**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:** [November 27, 2021, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1834 "2021-11-27T21:40:46Z")
“When the multiverse was confirmed, the spiritual and scientific communities both counted it as evidence of their validity.” _The Space Between Worlds_ , by Micaiah Johnson ---
**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:** [November 28, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1835 "2021-11-28T21:06:56Z")
“The mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis.” _The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries_, edited by Otto Penzler. (Note that the above sentence is the first in the first story in this anthology, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, by Edgar Allan Poe. ---
**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:** [November 28, 2021, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1836 "2021-11-28T21:38:31Z")
“The call came through the office landline, through a system that was at least twenty years old and had fought off all technological advances.” _The Judge’s List_ by John Grisham ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1837 "2021-11-28T23:33:53Z")
“Gold had been asked many times to write about the Jewish experience in America. This was not strictly true.” – _Good As Gold_, Joseph Heller ---
**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:** [November 29, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1838 "2021-11-29T01:14:28Z")
“The summer my father bought the bear, none of us was born – we weren’t even conceived: not Frank, the oldest; not Franny, the loudest; not me, the next; and not the youngest of us, Lilly and Egg.” – _The Hotel New Hampshire_, by John Irving ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1839 "2021-11-30T00:29:34Z")
“Mr Dunworthy opened up the door to the laboratory and his spectacles promptly steamed up.” -_Doomsday Book_, Connie Willis ---
**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:** [December 6, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1840 "2021-12-06T22:15:13Z")
“Canuck Canuck walks like a duck.” _Octagon Magic_ by Andre Norton ---
**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:** [December 7, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1841 "2021-12-07T16:54:47Z")
“Seen from a plane, the car would have looked like a slow beetle creeping across an endless beach, the sun glinting off its polished black armor.” _Never_ by Ken Follett ---
**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:** [December 7, 2021, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1842 "2021-12-07T21:23:43Z")
“The sound was born on a summer night at the old Crystal Springs pavilion in Fort Worth, Texas, when Bob Wills and his string band were entertaining the cowboys and their ladies from 9 until fist fight.” _Baja Oklahoma_, Dan Jenkins ---
**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:** [December 8, 2021, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1843 "2021-12-08T14:49:14Z")
“I suppose Russia must test new airplanes over the Pripet Marshes, or Siberia, or wherever desolation dictates.” - _ **Carrying the Fire** _, by Michael Collins ---
**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:** [December 8, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1844 "2021-12-08T14:50:59Z")
“Cow manure?” _The Gift of the Magpie_, by Donna Andrews ---
**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:** [December 8, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1845 "2021-12-08T20:00:57Z")
“The magpies are back.” _The Death of Mrs. Westaway_, by Ruth Ware (That is the actual first sentence. I had to laugh when I saw the previous post by @Dendarii_Dame!) ---
**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:** [December 9, 2021, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1846 "2021-12-09T00:16:16Z")
Hmm, “Speak to me only in first sentences…” Nah. 😀 ---
**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:** [December 12, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1847 "2021-12-12T14:02:40Z")
"Help Wanted: Raconteur Open-minded and gritty traveler, to recount his adventures through the universe, with particular attention to enlightenment and the various roles taken on by members of the local population." _Space, Inc_. Edited by Julie E. Czerneda (Note that this is an anthology, and this sentence is from the first story, “The Eightfold Career Path; Or Invisible Duties”, by James Alan Gardner.) ---
**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:** [December 13, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1848 "2021-12-13T13:09:04Z")
“As I hustled out from the hangar into the Persian Gulf twilight, my muscles tightened, and power flowed into my hands.” **American Craftsmen** , by Tom Doyle [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=91) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=93)