Book Week 28 - beginnings

Book Week 28

Beginnings 

The beginning of a book is rather important, don't you think.  What captures your attention when you first open a book?  The beginning, right.   But let's back up one step.   What made you pick up the book in the first place?  The cover.  A review.    Favorite author.   Perhaps a suggestion by a friend?   What makes you decide to get the book?    When I first pick up a book I'll look at the cover, flip over the book, read the synopsis and see if the story sounds interesting.  If it does, then I'll open up the book and start to read the first sentence, then the whole paragraph and continue on reading the first page.  Does it draw me in right away or make me say meh?   If the first page draws me in, then I'll pick random pages and see if the story and the writing continues to keep me interested.    If it does, I'll get the book.  

I love the "Click to look inside" feature on Amazon.  It gives me the ability to check out the book and see if it will draw me into the story and make me want to buy the book in order to continue reading and find out what happens.  My nook ereader also has a similar feature.  You can request a free sample of a book and read the first couple chapters.  A couple weeks ago we were in Borders and as we headed to the check out counter saw the "The Passage" and picked it up to look at because of all the hype.   For some reason it didn't capture my interest right away and I put it back.  My eyes were tired and the font just didn't sit well with me, plus my kid was ready to go.  Not conducive to picking out a book.  I put it back and several days later downloaded a sample on my e-reader. The sample included the first 3 chapters.  It was enticing enough I decided to buy the book. 

I didn't want to get it in ebook form because it's a long book.  I'd rather read a long book physically than on the e-reader.   Short books are fine, but longer books I have trouble with using an e-reader.  Perhaps its the fact you don't turn your head while reading and thus get a stiff neck and  it seems my comprehension and retention is different when I read something off a screen. But that's a discussion for another day.   A couple days ago, my son expressed interest in going to Borders and getting a Bionicles Graphic Novel.   He rarely asks to go to the book store to buy a book so of course I said yes.   And Yes, I picked up "The Passage." which for some reason they had in the Horror section instead of the Mystery/Thriller section.   If you ask me, that's kind of sneaky, but actually a good marketing ploy on behalf of Borders because it makes you look through the entire M/T section.  Which in turns causes you to find many, many tempting books you want to read. 

Tell me - does this beginning capture your attention:

"Before she became the Girl from Nowhere--The One Who Walked in, the First and Last and Only, who lived in a thousand years--She was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy, Amy Harper Bellafonte."

The day Amy was born, her mother Jeannette was nineteen years old. Jeannette named her baby Amy for her own mother, who died when Jeannette was little and gave her the middle name Harper for Harper Lee, the woman who written "To Kill a Mockingbird" Jeanette's favorite book -- truth be told, she'd made it all the way through in high school.

Enticing, yes.  Plus the mention of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee which I've been wanting to read for a long time but have never gotten around to it.  Did you know it is the 50th anniversary of the book?  50 years in publication.  Now would probably be the time to read it as well.  

What makes you decide to read a book?  

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