# 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:** 96
**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:** [January 30, 2022, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1909 "2022-01-30T04:30:30Z")
"One evening, it was toward the end of October, Harry Arno said to the woman he’d been seeing on and off the past few years, ‘I’ve made a decision.’ " – _Pronto_, by Elmore Leonard ---
**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 30, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1910 "2022-01-30T17:08:06Z")
(After a quote from “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” by Robert Browning.) “But there was more to it than that. As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats.” _The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents_, by Terry Pratchett ---
**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:** [January 30, 2022, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1911 "2022-01-30T22:40:30Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > (After a quote from “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” by Robert Browning.) “But there was more to it than that. As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats.” > > _The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents_ , by Terry Pratchett Side note: I’ve visited the town of Hamelin (Hameln in German). They do indeed have a legend and play it up for the tourists. The town has some fine examples of wood-facaded homes. Most likely, the legend springs from a large number of the town’s children’s having eaten the poison the piper, called the “rat catcher” in the German tale IIRC, had laid out to rid the town of rats. ---
**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 31, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1912 "2022-01-31T18:21:51Z")
“On July 18, 2016, at 2:22 A.M., Andy Bramante’s cellphone buzzed with an incoming text.” _The Class: A Life-Changing Teacher, His World-Changing Kids, and the Most Inventive Classroom in America_, by Heather Won Tesoriero ---
**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:** [February 3, 2022, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1913 "2022-02-03T00:03:33Z")
“Time is money almost everywhere.” _Going for the Gold_, by Emma Lathen ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2022, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1914 "2022-02-03T09:40:18Z")
“At 9 a.m., Thursday, July 25, 2019, I was seated with a few other White House officials at the long table in one of the two Situation Rooms in the basement of the West Wing.” _Here, Right Matters: An American Story_ by Alexander Vindman. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1915 "2022-02-04T15:08:44Z")
“There was nothing cute about the first time Kerry Fuller met Jesse Strong.” _Real Men Knit_, by Kwana Jackson ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1916 "2022-02-05T15:04:08Z")
> Francisco Simó Orts stood on the deck of his fishing boat, squinting at the Spanish coastline. _The Day We Lost the H-Bomb_ by Barbara Moran Side Note: I was on the 6th Fleet Commander’s staff on the flagship that participated in the search for this bomb off the Palomares coast of southeast Spain in January 1966. The search was delayed because they did not believe the fisherman who reported where it fell into the Mediterranean Sea. ---
**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:** [February 6, 2022, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1917 "2022-02-06T06:54:59Z")
“The unhappy little home was out in the country, some six miles south of Clanton on an old county road that went nowhere in particular.” – _A Time for Mercy_, by John Grisham ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1918 "2022-02-06T15:58:40Z")
“On the night of January 23rd, unseasonably calm and warm, a woman named Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons went missing during a charity gala in the exclusive island town of Palm Beach, Florida.” - Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen. I’ve read many of his books and I was inspired by the Light and Amusing thread to get this one. So far, so good. Based on the title, I thought it would be a skewering of the orange growing industry. That isn’t the case. At least, not yet but I’ve just started it. ---
**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:** [February 6, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1919 "2022-02-06T19:26:05Z")
“Just outside the expanding light cone of the present a star died, iron-bombed.” _Iron Sunrise_, by Charles Stross ---
**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:** [February 6, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1920 "2022-02-06T19:44:49Z")
“_Stop fussing at it, now. Leave it alone._ But my nails found my scalp anyway, running from front to back to front again.” _The Other Black Girl_ by Zakiya Dalila Harris. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1921 "2022-02-07T20:54:16Z")
“There was an Angel of Death on top of an ornate mausoleum in one corner, arms extended. I remember that well because someone was practicing the organ and light drifted across the churchyard in colored bands through stained-glass windows.” _The Eagle Has Flown_ by Jack Higgins ---
**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:** [February 9, 2022, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1922 "2022-02-09T14:28:26Z")
“The manila folder was slapped down on my desk with a flick of a large, hairy wrist, snapping me out of my daydream.” _Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages_, by Cate Doty ---
**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:** [February 10, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1923 "2022-02-10T21:53:34Z")
“It wasn’t going well.” _How to Rule an Empire and Get Away With It_, by K.J. Parker ---
**Author:** ![4d3fect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/4d3fect/32/9728_2.png) [@4d3fect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4d3fect)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1924 "2022-02-10T23:14:28Z")
“On the very eve of the birth of the Third Reich a feverish tension gripped Berlin.” -_The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich_, William L. Shirer ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1925 "2022-02-11T01:44:35Z")
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” -_Lolita_ (Vladimir Nabokov) ---
**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:** [February 13, 2022, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1927 "2022-02-13T22:02:17Z")
“Before maps, we had elevation.” _Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America_, by Craig Childs ---
**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:** [February 15, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1928 "2022-02-15T18:56:21Z")
“High school assemblies are rarely the highlight of a student’s day.” _Immersion: A Pilgrimage into Service_ by James Menkhaus ---
**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:** [February 16, 2022, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858/1929 "2022-02-16T18:15:56Z")
“Rain and wind lashed the schooner _Diana_ as she heeled into the gale.” _The King of Next Week_, by E. C. Ambrose [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=95) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-first-sentence-from-the-book-you-are-currently-reading/784858.md?page=97)