# 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:** 93
**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 13, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1849 "2021-12-13T16:38:28Z")
“In my dream, the girl was drifting far, far below the crashing waves and the cries of the gulls in the cold, sunless depths of the North Sea.” _The Woman in Cabin 10_, 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:** [December 14, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1850 "2021-12-14T21:34:57Z")
“Miguel and Fernandez were shooting inaccurately at each other across the valley when the flying saucer landed.” _Ahead of Time_, by Henry Kuttner (This is a short story collection. The above sentence is the beginning of the first story, “Or Else”.) ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1851 "2021-12-16T14:50:02Z")
Stella Wallace met her family’s god when she was nine years old. _Revelator_ by Daryl Gregory ---
**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 18, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1852 "2021-12-18T12:39:21Z")
Does anyone besides me read the name of the book and author first, _then_ the sentence? mmm ---
**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 20, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1853 "2021-12-20T14:34:34Z")
“The body of the ocean liner dominated the ocean floor, a great husk of rot and rust and broken glass.” _Submerged_, edited by S. C. Butler and Joshua Palmatier (Note that this is an anthology. The above sentence is from the first story, “Rust in Peace”, by Seanan McGuire) ---
**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 20, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1854 "2021-12-20T16:31:59Z")
“It was supposed to rain for real and that would have put a damper on the annual rain of lead.” _The Dark Hours_ by Michael Connelly ---
**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 20, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1855 "2021-12-20T19:22:18Z")
“Someone was digging a grave in one corner of the cemetery as I went in through the lychgate.” _The Eagle Has Landed_ by Jack Higgins ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1856 "2021-12-20T19:42:58Z")
I read Savages years before this thread was created. The first word were “F— you.” and no, it wasn’t censored. Furthermore, that was the entirety of the first chapter 🙂 I’m currently reading Target by Simon Kernick, who writes crime novels. Sometimes from the police perspective, something from the criminal perspective, and sometimes they’re one and the same. In this case, there were three protagonists, a totally untrained civilian and two police officers. The first sentence is “Sir Henry Portman was a man who liked his vices.” IMO his best book is Relentless, where the main character is also a totally untrained civilian. I compare it to D&D games where someone forgot to DM-proof their character. The protagonist took no martial arts lessons, has access to no guns or any real weapons, isn’t a genius of some kind, is married and has two kids under the age of twelve. To say the protagonist was stressed out is an understatement. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1857 "2021-12-20T23:24:07Z")
“So now get up.” _Wolf Hall_, Hilary Mantel ---
**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 20, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1858 "2021-12-20T23:56:56Z")
“The question of how the world will end has been the subject of speculation and debate among poets and philosophers throughout history.” _The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)_, Katie Mack ---
**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 21, 2021, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1859 "2021-12-21T21:03:51Z")
“I’ve always wanted to do something for the golfer who has everything.” _Unplayable Lies: The Only Golf Book You’ll Ever Need_, by Dan Jenkins ---
**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 23, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1860 "2021-12-23T19:00:16Z")
“The conversation in the bar-parlour of the Anglers’ Rest had turned to the subject of the regrettably low standard of morality prevalent among the nobility and landed gentry of Great Britain.” _Mulliner Nights_, by P. G. Wodehouse ---
**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 25, 2021, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1861 "2021-12-25T16:31:04Z")
“REMEMBER HER WITH HER FAVORITE FRAGRANCE” _The 1945 Sears Christmas Book Facsimile Edition_ ---
**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:** [December 25, 2021, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1862 "2021-12-25T20:07:45Z")
John Marshall Harlan was born on the precipice; on the very hinge of a society splitting in half. _The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero_ by Peter S. Canellos ---
**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 25, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1863 "2021-12-25T23:45:14Z")
“The applause did not subside; the cheering continued” _Inside Star Trek: The Real Story_ by Herb F. Solow and Robert H. Justman ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2021, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1864 "2021-12-26T00:04:25Z")
“This two-year course in physics is presented from the point of view that you, the reader, are going to be a physicist.” _The Feynman Lectures on Physics_. ---
**Author:** ![LilXMo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lilxmo/32/4225_2.png) [@LilXMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilXMo)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1865 "2021-12-26T00:21:57Z")
“Captain Wolfgang Hoffman was a zealous executioner of Jews.” Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen ---
**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:** [December 26, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1866 "2021-12-26T00:26:03Z")
“See the child.” – _Blood Meridian_, by Cormac McCarthy ---
**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:** [December 26, 2021, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1867 "2021-12-26T01:21:38Z")
In order that they might enjoy their after-luncheon coffee in peace, the Crumpet had taken the guest whom he was entertaining at the Drones Club to the smaller and less-frequented of the two smoking-rooms. « Uncle Fred Flits By », in _The Plums of P.G.Wodehouse_ ---
**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 26, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1868 "2021-12-26T19:07:43Z")
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