Machine Man

Barry, Max. Machine Man. New York: Vintage Books. 2011. Print
 
 

First Sentences: 

As a boy, I wanted to be a train. I didn't realize this was unusual -- that other kids played with trains, not as them. 

They like to build tracks and have trains not fall off them. Watch them go through tunnels. I didn't understand that. What I liked was pretending my body was two hundred tons of unstoppable steel. Imagining I was pistons and valves and hydraulic compressors.

Description:

Oh, how Max Barry can tell a story. His Machine Man, set in the not too distant future, tells the absolutely riveting story of man's quest for perfection at the dawn of an age when such improvement might just be possible. 

Charles Neumann, the central figure in the novel, works as a research scientist for Better Future, currently working on a boring project to test the melting point of polymers. An industrial accident involving the hydraulic "Clamp" leaves Neumann an amputee below his knee. 

Fitted with the latest in prostheses issued by the hospital, he soon discovers that this artificial limb is woefully inadequate and cumbersome for even the basic needs of sitting and walking. 

So he sets out to design his own model. And why not? He's smart, he's creative, and he has access to sophisticated tools and parts in his lab at Better Future. Certainly there is plenty of room for improvement in the world of prostheses that might bring him comfort and mobility, as well as profit to the company.

His own design for an artificial leg is revolutionary, a huge improvement over his hospital-issued version. This new model even proves superior to his remaining natural leg. Neumann finds it is now his healthy leg which holds him back, not the fully-functioning prostheses. This realization leads Neumann to thoughts of another encounter with the Clamp. Would two highly sophisticated artificial legs be preferable to his natural human legs? 

Neumann's soon must face questions regarding both the benefits and shortcomings of this new technology. How could two highly-functional prostheses affect not only his mobility but his mind as well? Are there other human body parts that can (or should)  be improved through re-examination of purpose and wishful thinking? If so, how far should man head down the road of replacing the flawed, natural human body with new technology?

For me to write more would spoil the core of this fascinating novel. Suffice to say, Machine Man offers a new perspective on human bodies and their functionality in an age where computer programming, sophisticated materials, and creative minds come together in one terrific scenario.

It is a book that grabs you with great writing and pulls you through each fascinating idea of possibility and development heading on a crash course with the unknown. You will read it in one sitting, it's that compelling.

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
 

Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot

Science fiction stories by the master, tracing the first development of a primitive house-keeping robot to the robotic scientists behind the development to the ultimate in robot sophistication - a presidential candidate that no one can tell whether he is a robot or not. 

See also The Rest of the Robots, Asimov's excellent sequel to I, Robot.

We Took to the Woods

Rich, Louise Dickinson. We Took to the Woods. New York: Atlantic-Little Brown 1942. Print 

First Sentences:

During most of my adolescence -- specifically, between the time when I gave up wanting to be a brakeman on a freight train and the time when I definitely decided to become an English teacher -- I said, when asked what I was going to do with my life, that I was going to live alone in a cabin in the Maine woods and write. It seemed to me that this was a romantic notion, and I was insufferably smug over my own originality. Of course, I found out later that everybody is at one time or another going to do something of the sort. It's part of being young. The only difference in my case is that, grown to womanhood, I seem to be living in a cabin in the Maine woods, and I seem to be writing.

Description:

The urge to live isolated in the woods where quiet and nature surround you is an enticing dream. Louise Dickinson Rich does more than just dream about such a life. Rich, the author of We Took to the Woods, details her fascinating experiences living in the backwoods of Maine in the 1930s so vividly and personally that she makes any reader long for his own cabin in the forest. 

We Took to the Woods is Rich's account of her chosen life living in a ancient fishing lodge located in the Rangeley Lakes area of northwestern Maine. The lodge and cabins are surrounded by hundreds of square miles of forest preserve with only five miles of usable road and the nearest town two miles away.

Her memoir is composed of equal parts wild environment, unique people who enter these woods, daily adventures, and seasonal challenges and delights. It details life narrowed down to the essentials of food, shelter, warmth, family, and enjoyment of the surrounding environment.

Rich lives with her husband, Ralph; their four-year-old son Rufus "who, not to mince words, is often a pest" and daughter Sally. 

And, of course, she has unique pets running around. Tim is their cat whose "idea of an average day is to get up at noon, trounce the dog for looking at him, go out and chase a deer away from the clearing and set out the two miles for Middle Dam, there to visit with his girl, the Millers' cat, after half murdering her other three suitors." Kyak, their "art dog" husky, is "completely non-functional." Rollo is their un-descented pet skunk.

We Took to the Woods divides Rich's life into chapters which focus on a frequently-asked question from people curious about her life. Chapters include "How do you make a living?" "But you don't live here all the year round?" "Aren't the children a problem?" "Don't you ever get bored" "Don't you get awfully out of touch?" etc. She recounts episode after episode in her daily life that clearly and humorously depict how she addresses each of these concerns.

Her daily work involves keeping the lodge operating and occasionally acting as a fishing guide for tourists. She tells wonderful stories of berry picking, fishing, rowing boats, house repairs, making ice cream, and preparing meals, including those makeshift ones when standard ingredients have run out (or were forgotten to have been purchased before winter shut down the only road). The allure of isolated living takes on a new image when there is no running to the local Kwik-E-Mart for milk, salt, butter, or flour.

This book is a gem. Each page shows the passion and love the author has for her wilderness life and all elements in it. When she describes the beauty found in their vegetable garden, the break-up of the ice, the loggers riding huge numbers of trees down the river, rowing around B Pond to watch loons, and her interactions with grizzled locals, fresh-faced tourists and various animals wild and tame, there is a contentment emanating from her words and depictions as if she is talking about a good meal in front of the fire. The book provides readers a similar satisfied feeling, knowing that here is a person and setting that are admirable, enticing, and just plain interesting to hear about.

It is a classic book in Maine, found in every bookstore there, and highly recommend for any age person interested in immersing himself into a real-life story of survival, family, laughter, and perseverance. 

Happy reading.

Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, there are many other books available by Louise Dickinson Rich about her life and family in Maine as well as some children's books she authored. 

Rich, Louise Dickinson. Happy the Land

      Follow-up memoir to We Took to the Woods.

Hoover, Helen. Gift of the Deer.

A couple move to a primitive house in the backwoods of Minnesota to live a simpler life. Highly recommended

Beston, Henry. The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod.

Recollections and musings from the author who lived alone on a New England quiet beach for a year, studying nature and himself during this period. A classic.

To End All Wars

Hochschild, Adam. To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. Print

First Sentences: 

The city had never seen such a a parade. 

 Nearly 50,000 brilliantly uniformed troops converged on St. Paul's Cathedral in two great columns. One was led by the country's most beloved military hero, the mild-mannered Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, a mere five feet two inches in height, astride a while Arabian horse like those he had ridden during more than 40 years of routing assorted Afghans, Indians, and Burmese who had the temerity to rebel against British rule. Mounted at the head of the other column, at six feet eight inches, was the tallest man in the army. Captain Oswald Ames of the Life Guards, wearing his regiment's traditional breastplate, which, with the sunlight glinting off it, seemed as if it might deflect an enemy's lance by its dazzling gleam alone.

Description:

A friend whose opinions about books I respect, recommended this World War I historical account as the best book she had read in 2012, so I jumped on it. Turns out she was spot on. To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild is a sprawling account of the Great War, recounted primarily from people and resources from Great Britain.  

Using diaries, newspaper accounts, military reports, love letters, speeches, and other primary sources, To End All Wars focuses on the deeply-rooted causes that led up to the global war and which then continued to stoke the war engine with money and millions of lives. Hochschild focuses on the individuals and their culture as the true culprits - the greed, colonialism, nationalism, pride, and over-confidence of men (and women) seeking to obtain or hold onto power.
 
Readers are first introduced to the fully colonized world of the early 1900's. Imperialistic nations like Great Britain, Germany, and France had to seek new means to demonstrate their might and expand their empires. To this end, for example, British armies battled the South African Boers simply to take the diamond-rich land for themselves. Hochschild shares a report from Morning Post correspondent Winston Churchill who watched British troops armed with the new Maxim machine gun mow down tens of thousands of Sudanese troops in one battle. In a few years this weapon would be used against English and French troops to deadly effect.

Hochschild carries readers step by step through key events throughout the world which lead to the major international conflict. At that time, Great Britain, Russia, and Germany were facing serious internal conflicts at home as their citizens demanded better pay and working conditions, and even votes for women. Once war was declared, however, almost immediately these individual issues were dropped and the people and rulers united behind their country's war effort.

The book details Britain dreams of revisiting its greatest conquests of the past, using military strategies and weapons that had proved successful in previous wars. But Hochschild points out these British leaders failed to grasp that the days of glorious cavalry charges were over. Repeatedly, the book documents battles where German troops, firmly settled in catacombs of underground trenches behind miles of barbed wire, repulsed the thousands of French and British troops charging on foot or horseback and brandishing lances. Records show that British military leaders considered the German use of trench warfare, barbed wire, machine guns, and mustard gas unsportsmanlike, eliminating the bravery of hand-to-hand combat.

Major people and international historical events are woven throughout the book, including the rise of Socialism, the suffrage movement, and the overthrow of the Russian monarchy. Influential men such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, and Winston Churchill, all play roles in the war, as do the royal houses of England, France, Germany, and Russia, many who at that time were related by marriage. The book also offers romantic escapades between military leaders, nobility, and commoners to counter-balance the fighting and death from battle scenes.

Hochschild is a master researcher and storyteller, someone able to present a clear picture of major characters and national forces to depict one of the bloodiest and often most idiotically-conducted wars of human history. This book is so well-written, so thorough in its research, so involving in its portrayal of the people that this historical account simply soars. 

This is a challenging and heart-breaking book in its depiction of bloodshed and needless loss of life driven forward by proud military and national leaders. But it is also a riveting piece of thorough research which documents the story of mankind in this era and the forces that lead the world into conflict.

Happy reading.

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, also be sure to check out:
 

Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken 

Absolutely first rate biography of an Olympic runner who is shot down during World War II, survives an arduous voyage in a life raft, only to be picked up by the Japanese and thrown into a POW camp with all its horrors. Extremely well-written and gripping for its details of this hero and what he endured, it is a story of triumph on many levels.

The End of Your Life Book Club

Schwalbe, Will.The End of Your Life Book Club. New York: Knopf. 2012. Print

First Sentences:

We were nuts about the mocha in the waiting room at Memorial Sloan-Kettering's outpatient care center.

The coffee isn't so good, and the hot chocolate is worse. But if, as Mom and I discovered, you push the "mocha" button, you see how two not-very-good things can come together to make something quite delicious. The graham crackers aren't bad either.

Description:

Cancer-related books deeply affect me as someone who is three and a half years in remission from Stage 4 Large B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Been there and done that. 

During that experience and currently, I read a lot of books about cancer and treatment as well as memoirs with personal stories written by fellow "combatants," (my term for any patient, doctor, family member or friend who has had to deal this disease first hand and continues to struggle against its possible return). 

Such writers detail, with humor and intelligence, their efforts to live life as a patient or care-giver without succumbing to the overwhelming sadness and helplessness brought on by this disease.

While these memoirs are fascinating to me as a cancer patient, I think they also are helpful to those living in "Wellville" (as Christopher Hitchens labels the non-afflicted populace in his brilliant cancer memoir, Mortality). These books gently and sometimes not so gently reveal to healthy people what we cancer patients experience, what we are thinking, and how we interact with friends and family. These memoirs reveal the long periods of uncertainty, of waiting, of hoping, and despairing with each new diagnosis and treatment. They describe the humor found in interactions with friends and medical environments alike. And they show the indomitable spirit of ordinary people.

Will Schwalbe's compassionate, humorous, and highly personal The End of Your Life Book Club is one of these great cancer combatant memoirs. In it, Schwalbe documents his relationship with his mother as she (and he) deal with her pancreatic cancer, usually a terminal form of the disease. Mother and son find themselves spending many hours in medical facilities waiting for appointments and treatments, passing the nervous minutes discussing any small matter, including the books each has recently read, to distract themselves. 

Seizing on their shared interest of reading, they form a two-person book club to insure that they read what the other is reading and can hold discussions that might take them away from the tedium of waiting. Through their comments about these books and the ensuing bantering talks, they slowly reveal details about their lives, their fears, and their hopes.

We learn that Mary Anne, Schwalbe's mother, is not merely a cancer patient, but a woman of wit and humor, of contemplation and intelligence. She is shown to be a complex, internationally-know humanitarian, the founder of the Women's Refugee Commission, a fundraiser for a new library in Afghanistan, director of admissions for major colleges, and a world traveler. And, of course, she is a voracious, opinionated reader. 

We also get to know Will Schwalbe and his struggles to cope with a family member facing terminal cancer. His worries and his hopes rise and fall with her treatments, revealed through the conversations between son and mother over books. The buoyancy and sadness these two experience with each diagnosis, pulls readers slowly and inexorably into their lives, their thoughts, and their emotions. Truly, these are two people you love getting to know.

While this may seem a depressing theme, the book is uplifting, funny, and introspective. Their dialog is witty and pointed as they argue over authors, chastise each other's book selection, and wander off-topic into areas that reveal their character.  

Each chapter focuses on a specific time period in her treatment and the book currently up for discussion. Schwalbe helpfully includes a bibliography at the end of the book listing all titles mentioned in their discussions, offering a plethora of reading temptations for any book lover.

The End of Your Life Book Club is highly recommended by one who has been there (me) as an accurate, sensitive portrayal of two individuals, one trying to maintain her wit and individuality while facing cancer treatments, and the other struggling with issues of care and support for a family member. Their relationship, their love of life, and their passion for books are inspiring, funny, and poignant. Please read this book.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mukherjee, Siddhartha. The Emperor of All Maladies.

Complete history of cancer from its first appearance and initial treatments to current efforts in the battle with this disease. Extremely readable and fascinating in its clear writing style, its depth of research, and its introduction of key milestones in cancer discoveries and treatments. 

Hitchens, Christopher. Mortality.

One man's personal thoughts on his battle with cancer. Very compelling reading to help readers understand what someone with this disease is feeling regarding his illness, how friends interact with him, care from his doctors, and his plans.

Diamond, John. Because Cowards Get Cancer Too: A Hypochondriac Confronts His Nemesis.

Thoughtful, personal, and humorous account of John Diamond's long struggle with cancer as originally told through his column in the Times of London. Highly recommended along with the Hitchens' book for anyone who wants to know what having cancer is like. His words ring true to me as a fellow cancer patient.

Halpern, Susan. The Etiquette of Illness: What to Say When You Can't Find the Words.

Excellent suggestions and practical applications for talking (or not talking) to people with illness: how to say what you want without causing offense or embarrassment, what they want you to say, when to just remain silent. Very valuable examples and advice for well-intentioned friends and family of patients of all ages and illnesses.

Smoke

Westlake, Donald E. Smoke. New York: Mysterious Press. 1995. Print.

 

First Sentences:

Freddie was a liar. Freddie was a thief.

Freddie Noon his name was, the fourth child of nine in a small tract house in Ozone Park. that's in Queens in New York City, next door to John F. Kennedy International Airport, directly beneath the approach path of every big plane coming in from Europe, except when the wind is from the southeast, which is very rarely is.

Throughout his childhood, the loud gray shadows of the wide-body jets swept across and across and across Freddie Noon and his brothers and his sisters and his house as though to wipe them clear of the table of life, but every shadow passed and they were still there.

Description:

What would be a better disguise for a thief than invisibility? Imagine how easy it would be to break into any building, leisurely explore rooms for loot, then leave the premises without any chance of someone seeing you, much less identifying you as a burglar. The possibilities are endless. Or so they might seem.

Invisibility is a two-edged sword as is soon discovered by Freddie Noon, the small time crook featured in Donald Westlake's Smoke. After being caught in the act stealing by two cancer researchers, Freddie "volunteers" to take their experimental drug designed to alter skin pigment and thus fight melanoma. Of course they reassure him that "Nothing will go wrong," and that they have the antidote which "won't be necessary at all." Cue the ironic music.

Freddie escapes and returns home only to discover his girlfriend cannot see him. She can hear him and feel him, but otherwise cannot detect him which obviously creeps her out. Even dressed, Freddie presents a headless and handless body of clothes across the breakfast table. Peg soon resolves this with full-head Halloween masks of Dick Tracy, Bart Simpson, Frankenstein's monster and the Ayatollah Khomeini. Playtex gloves complete his makeshift attire which he dons when entering the outside, visible world.

Stealing while invisible presents its own set of problems for Freddie, as Westlake gleefully describes. Whatever loot Freddie grabs does not become invisible and appears floating in the air as he makes his escape. Each theft, therefore, requires Freddie to plan a series of innovative strategies to take advantage of and also overcome the limitations of his invisibility, providing plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong. 

All the while, Freddie is being pursued by the cancer researchers (hoping to confirm he actually is invisible so they can perfect and sell their formula), as well as a nefarious corporation who wants Freddie to be a spy for them and gather insider information from closed meetings, congressional hearings, jury deliberations, etc.

While this may all sound preposterous and idiotic, in the hands of a master storyteller like Donald Westlake, the characters are the spotlight. Unlike the invisibility of the scientist Griffin in H.G. Wells' Invisible Man which is haunting and eventually drives him mad, Freddie's situation is presented more ironically and comically as one offering tremendous possibilities along with unforeseen obstacles.

Westlake shares with readers all of Freddie's frustrations: shaving his invisible face, walking up stairs when he cannot see his feet,  resting his eyes when he can see through his eyelids, kissing his girlfriend who cannot see his lips, and more everyday pitfalls. And there is real tension as Freddie works his trade while eluding bad guys and good guys alike.

Who will gain control of Freddie, including Freddie himself? Is there an antidote? What if the invisibility cannot be reversed? Questions and characters drive this plot forward to the last page. A fun, engrossing, thoroughly unexpected and compelling read, with plenty of tension as well as humor. This is one of my favorite books.

And remember, Westlake has many, many more books out there to explore (see below).

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Westlake, Donald E. The Hot Rock  

John Dortrmunder and his gang of small time thieves must steal an emerald from its current owner and return it to its rightful owner. However, although the caper is successful, the gang finds it needs to commit another crime to complete the contract and secure the stone, then another, and then another, each excursion perfectly planned and executed without any violence, but with unexpected results.

Westlake, Donald E. The Ax  

A man decides his dream job is within his reach. All he has to do is kill the person holding the job and a small number of better qualified candidates. Can an ordinary man bring himself to commit several murders and make them look like accidents? 

Westlake, Donald E. The Hook

Two writers, one successful but facing writer's block, and one with a great book he cannot get published, agree to a pact to use each other's skills to get the book to market. Sounds straightforward? But wait, there is a murder clause in there that hangs over this suspenseful, twisting plot.

Also, check out this very handy Donald Westlake annotated bibliography of his writings under his own name. 

Plots are given as well as critical evaluations, but no spoilers are used, so you can pick what looks interesting. My favorites include books about the comic Dortmunder heist stories (Jimmy, the Kid); terrorist/pacifist group mix-up (The Spy in the Ointment);  locating Aztec statuettes (Dancing Aztecs); writing a porn novel (Adios, Scheherazade); fleeing from a gang (Fugitive Pigeon), and many, many more

On Westlake's web site, there is a bibliography of all his books, including those penned under his other pseudonyms.

Carter Beats the Devil

Gold, Glen David. Carter Beats the Devil. New York: Hyperion. 2001. Print

First Sentences:

On Friday, August third, 1923, the morning after President Harding's death, reporters followed the widow, the Vice President, and Charles Carter, the magician.

At first, Carter made the pronouncements he thought necessary. "A fine man, to be sorely missed," and "it throws the country into a great crisis from which we shall all pull through together, showing the strong stuff of which we Americans are made." When pressed, he confirmed some details of his performance the night before, which had been the President's last public appearance, but as per his proviso that details of his third act never be revealed, he made no comment on the show's bizarre finale. Because the coroner's office could not explain exactly how the President had died, and rumors were already starting, the men from Hearst wanted quite desperately to confirm what happened in the finale, when Carter beat the Devil.

Description:

When I was thinking about what book should be the first on presented in this blog, Carter Beats the Devil kept coming back to me as the embodiment of what I hold true: that a great read is exposed in the first sentence or two, and doesn't complacently expect a reader's patience to keep reading until things hopefully heat up. In contrast, a great read immediately grabs your mind with mental pictures, interesting characters, and surprising word usage that compels you to keep reading. It is the author's job to keep you reading, to make you move from one sentence, one page, one chapter to the next. And author Gold does this from page one to the end in Carter Beats the Devil.  

Gold starts Carter with an opening sentence/paragraph containing all the elements I need to keep me going and promise a compelling read. Interesting characters? Check (a president and magician). Quality writing? Check (even got me to look up "proviso" ["A clause in a document making a  qualification, condition, or restriction. according to thefreedictionary.com]. And what exactly is done when you "beat the Devil")? Intriguing situation? Check ("President's last public appearance" possibly connected with a magic act's "bizarre finale" and the quiet statement that the "coroner's office could not explain exactly how the President had died"). I am definitely intrigued to read more. 

And who doesn't like magic? Mysterious death scenarios? Love stories? Intrigue? Carter Beats the Devil has them all, presented in a fast-paced style that will wrap you up like a blanket on a cold night. After Carter, (the lead character is based on the real life historical magician, Charles Carter), gives his last grandiose performance with President Warren G. Harding in the audience, the President returns home and dies mysteriously. The magician, under immediate suspicion, eludes pursuers and disappears. Did he or didn't he? And if he did, how exactly could he have killed a president so ingeniously that history would not mention Garfield's death as a murder? 

After this opening scene of magic performance, death, pursuit, and escape, the book jumps back to the beginnings of Carter's life, his introduction to magic via the book, The Practical Manual of Legerdemain by Prof. Ottawa Keyes, (and yes, I looked it up on Amazon and WorldCat, but couldn't find it). I love exploring new information, definitions, and pathways introduced in a great read such as this one.  

It's delightful to read of Carter's early performances and the people of his life: family, friends like Houdini, and lifelong rivals like Mysterioso. We watch Carter's drive to master old tricks, peering over his shoulder during his early years performing on the road, developing his craft, and eventually creating new illusions until he becomes a figure of international fame, as well as a hated rival and eventual fugitive of the law.

Of course, there is a love interest who emerges for Carter as well as the inevitable final confrontation between him and the embittered Mysterioso, but it is a testament to Gold's skills to make a fascinating read of these familiar conventions. 

This book enveloped me. I loved seeing in my mind Carter's performances, wondering at his illusions, and getting to know the variety of people in his life, ranging from Carter's love to the dogged Secret Service agent always in the wings, seeking to uncover the magician's role in the death of a president.

It's a long book, over 480 pages, but if you are like me, you accept and even relish the time necessary to unfold a great story with interesting characters and actions. So curl up on a weekend and let yourself fall into this novel and explore the lives of unique people and events of life magic, mystery, and love at the turn of the century. You won't regret it. 

Happy reading.  

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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It this book interests you, be sure to check out: 

Steinmeyer, Jim. The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the Marvelous Chinese Conjurer 

Introduction to The First Sentence Reader

Call me Fred.  

A terse, yet friendly opening line to introduce the author (me) of this new blog about books. Shows a certain style, don't you think? For sure, a blatant appeal to your literary sense with this play on other great first lines: “Call me Ishmael” (Herman Melville’s Moby Dick),” Call me Jonah” (Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle) or even “Call me Smitty” (Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel). Even Calvin starts his journal with "Call me Calvin, Boy Genius. Hope of Mankind." So I am in good company.

But why start a new blog with this particular sentence? Because I feel the first line is critical to making you, the reader, continue to read. That is the goal for every author. And I do want you to continue reading my blog, if for no other reason than to hear me out on my radical theory for how to select quality books to read, and then in later posts to share some of these titles with you.

Riddle me this: How do we choose to read the books we read? What makes us willing to devote our precious time to a particular book over other temptations? Its cover? Length? Pictures? Characters? Plot? Writing style? Book club demands?  To read it or not to read it, that is the challenge of the times we live in, with the constant siren calls of Web sites, games, news articles, Twitter feeds, Facebook, blogs, recipes, and reviews requesting your time. This is a very important decision: how and why we select which books deserve our time.

And then once a book is selected, what makes us keep reading it or decide to call it quits, if we have the strength and commitment to actually stop reading and move on? How much of a chance to we give a book? The entire book? 50 pages? 10 pages? Less? Are you a member of the clean-plate-finish-every-book-no-matter-what club or can you set a book down, with no intention to ever pick it up again?

I submit that it is the very first sentence of a book that makes or breaks any hopes it might have to capture our attention and be deemed worthy of our time. The tone for the entire book is set by how the author selects and uses those first words to convey the foundation of the book, its emotion, characters, and action. These words show the author's commitment to create an interesting situation that will make us want to read more. 

Works that start off poorly, in my experience, rarely improve in style, characters, plot, etc., so why should I continue spending time with these books to the end?  Any author who is confident that a reader will patiently give him/her additional time, say 50 pages, to develop these areas and grab our interest is fooling him/herself. (OK, I've been PC enough with the s/he attempts. From now on, I'll use the masculine pronoun with the understanding this is inclusive of women as well.) 

I for one simply won't spend hours on a book that on the first page already requires I must slog through it. The telling signs of my impatience include: 1) checking how many pages are left in the chapter; 2) skimming to another chapter: 3) hefting the book to estimate the time I will have to be involved in this book before I can start another one. These actions are huge red flags telling me to stop reading. Other books are calling, so I have no problem cutting my losses after one paragraph, sentence or first page, abandoning that book, and dipping into something else more interesting.

Skeptical? OK. Try it yourself. Get up and go grab one of your own favorite books and take a look at the first sentence and first paragraph. (If the book is not readily available, you can often find the first sentence in the "Look Inside" link in its Amazon listing, my new way of identifying quality reads). Notice the presence of three key elements that are introduced immediately - interesting characters, quality writing style, and intriguing story line or topic - and then critically evaluate these by your own definition of quality and interest.  Probably, you found something in this favorite book which you immediately liked and were intrigued enough to keep reading.

Now pick up any book you were disappointed with and examine its first sentences. What did this author give you from the onset to make you turn the pages? Not much is my bet. Probably you noticed that the first page was slow in the introduction of plot and character, the writing style not to your liking for some reason, the plot forgettable, offensive, or uninteresting to you. Need you read further to reinforce your first impression? 

If you still need convincing, open that same disappointing book to any random page and read a few paragraphs. Probably you'll find the plot, style, and characters have not improved. What you saw originally is carried out throughout the book. While it might be considered a good book by some standards, for you it is just not a great book.

I am now only looking for the great, the fascinating, compelling, and memorable reads, and don't want to pursue unsatisfying works that disappoint from the opening sentences. Sure, I probably missed out on a couple of good books, but likewise I have not wasted a huge amount of time hoping a bodice-ripper will eventually turn out to be another Anna Karenina. "Entice me or you're gone" is my motto. (I do have my own quirky exceptions to this rule -- non-fiction on topics I have an interest in and very long novels -- but more about those in a later post.)

Big talk, you're probably thinking. Show me some examples. So now it's Quiz Time. Take a look at the first lines below. See how many catch your interest. How many can you identify? (answers at the end of this post).

First Sentences:

1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 

2. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. 

3. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. 

4. I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie  ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. 

5. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. 

6. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 

7. You better not never tell nobody but God. 

8. I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. 

9. Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women. 

10. All children, except one, grow up. 

11. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. 

12. It was a pleasure to burn. 

13. Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. 

14. This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve.  

15. The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard.                

                       [Answers are below. Go ahead and peek.]

Well, was I right? Didn't each one of these opening sentences grab you enough that you were curious to want to read more? Even if a particular sentence was not your cup of tea, you have to admit that each one demonstrated a writing style that stands out above the norm of most books.

If none of these sentences grabbed you, no problem. It's OK. We all have our individual tastes for plot, character, and style. There are plenty of other opening lines out there for you to pursue and be hooked on according to your own preference. Keep looking until you find these great reads written by authors who want your attention and have taken the trouble to create compelling openings. Don't settle for anything less and continue to read a disappointing book just to say you have finished it. When you are only reading the first sentences, you can evaluate a large number of books quickly!

This first sentence/paragraph indicator of quality is the philosophy I will defend in this blog, presenting books that I have not merely read, but savored, and now want to share with you. The titles selected for postings might come from current best seller lists, or have drifted to obscurity over time. In these postings, I'll give you the title, opening sentence, link to that book on Amazon for more information, and a short (with no spoilers) review, hoping to peak your interest to read the book for yourself.

Check back tomorrow for the first book of this blog. After that, there will be 1-2 weekly posts (I hope!). I've have lots of titles to tempt you. Maybe you will be willing to share your favorites as well. And I promise future posts will not be so long as this one!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com (Other recommendations) 

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First Line Quiz Answers

1.  Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)

2.  Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (1877)

3.  1984, George Orwell  (1949)

4.   Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (1952)

5.  The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford  (1915)
6.  The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald  (1925)

7.  The Color Purple, Alice Walker  (1982)

8.  I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith (1948)
9.  Middle Passage, Charles Johnson  (1990)
10. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie  (1911)
11. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka  (1915) 

12. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury  (1953)

13. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell  (1936)

14. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins  (1860)

15. Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathaniel West,  (1933)

Examples above were culled from personal readings and also: 

Novel First Sentences 

100 Best First Lines of Novels 

Books (First Lines)