# 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:** 95
**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:** [January 11, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1889 "2022-01-11T21:57:19Z")
“I was single once, and young.” _Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library_, by Don Borchert ---
**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:** [January 13, 2022, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1890 "2022-01-13T20:56:54Z")
“August came in, that summer of 1141, tawny as a lion and somnolent and purring as a hearthside cat.” _An Excellent Mystery_, by Ellis Peters ---
**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:** [January 14, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1891 "2022-01-14T15:29:35Z")
“A woman sat in a hotel bar, watching the door. Her appearance was neat and tidy: white blouse, fair hair tucked behind her ears.” _Beautiful World, Where Are You_ by Sally Rooney ---
**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:** [January 16, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1892 "2022-01-16T18:33:43Z")
“All my life, for as long as I can remember, I grew up thinking that there existed only two types of black people: those who passed the ‘brown paper bag and ruler test’ and those who didn’t.” _Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class_, by Lawrence Otis Graham ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1893 "2022-01-16T21:07:19Z")
“I don’t want any damned dukedom, Mr. Anderson,” Hamish MacHugh said softly.” _The Trouble with Dukes_ by Grace Burrowes ---
**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:** [January 17, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1894 "2022-01-17T17:10:19Z")
“Manitoba, the ‘land of 100,000 lakes,’ is today the easternmost of Canada’s three prairie provinces.” _Sawchuk - The Troubles and Triumphs of the World’s Greatest Goalie_ ---
**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:** [January 19, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1895 "2022-01-19T18:43:42Z")
“Vivian Dalton’s worn old ankle boots crunched over the packed snow in front of Freedlanders, the bright lights of the department store spilling right out onto the sidewalk and mixing with the glow of the streetlamps.” _The Operator_, by Gretchen Berg. ---
**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:** [January 21, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1896 "2022-01-21T14:17:45Z")
“On a January night in 1938, Dessa Tippetts hurried to her seat in the cavernous gymnasium on the campus of the University of Wyoming in Laramie.” _Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans from World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation_, by David Davis. ---
**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:** [January 23, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1897 "2022-01-23T18:04:41Z")
“We’re almost halfway through September.” _Sowed to Death_ by Peg Cochran ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1898 "2022-01-24T00:13:06Z")
"I know, I know—it seemed crazy that the alien had come to Toronto. " _Calculating God_ by Robert Sawyer ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1899 "2022-01-24T14:56:45Z")
“There were two movie theaters on Main Street when I was growing up in Swifton, Arkansas.” -_Hello Everybody, I’m George Kell_ by George Kell with Dan Ewald ---
**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:** [January 24, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1900 "2022-01-24T19:51:33Z")
“I’m descended from a long line of Quaves, running all the way back to Juan de Cuevas, born in Algamitas, Spain, in 1762, who settled in what is now known as Harrison County, Mississippi.” _The Plant Hunter: A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines_, by Cassandra Leah Quave. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2022, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1901 "2022-01-25T17:00:45Z")
“It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria. Alongside the platform at Aleppo stood the train grandly designated in railway guides as the Taurus Express. It consisted of a kitchen and dining-car, a sleeping-car and two local coaches.” _Murder on the Orient Express_ by Agatha Christie ---
**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:** [January 26, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1902 "2022-01-26T00:06:12Z")
> [@What is the first sentence from the book you are currently reading?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1427): > > “It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria.” \*Murder on the Orient Express”, by Christie. Want me to tell you how it comes out? Somebody gets murdered and Poirot figures it out. 😉 ---
**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:** [January 26, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1903 "2022-01-26T02:00:52Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Want me to tell you how it comes out? > > Somebody gets murdered and Poirot figures it out. So the movie followed the book? ---
**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:** [January 26, 2022, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1904 "2022-01-26T02:10:51Z")
Took some liberties. They always do. ---
**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:** [January 26, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1905 "2022-01-26T14:53:52Z")
“Just under the surface of the waves where the ocean met the land, a hand without a body reached out for someone to grab it.” _Spare and Found Parts_, by Sara Maria Griffin ---
**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:** [January 27, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1906 "2022-01-27T14:07:16Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > [What is the first sentence from the book you are currently reading? - #1427 by Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1427) > > Want me to tell you how it comes out? > > Somebody gets murdered and Poirot figures it out. 😉 Oh, man… 😒 ---
**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:** [January 27, 2022, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1907 "2022-01-27T14:13:03Z")
“The tourists crashed through the sheriff’s blockade so they wouldn’t miss the rumrunner special at a popular tiki bar.” _Mermaid Confidential_ - Tim Dorsey ---
**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:** [January 28, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1908 "2022-01-28T20:49:00Z")
“To imagine the spirit of poetry is much like imagining the shape and size of knowing.” _Poet Warrior: A Memoir_, by Joy Harjo [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=94) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=96)