Mar 7, 2008
I think I’m being generous, because what else are the first words for?
Like this post?
With few exceptions, I give authors one page to draw me in and motivate me to continue.
I give blogs one sentence.
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
And-1-word-for-comments.
Agreed.
I teach my daughters to give a book 50 pages … not one.
If you aren’t impressed by the first page of The Brother’s Karamazov do you give up?
… I’m WELL over 50 pages into Brothers Karamazov and still waiting for it to heat up. Of course, last night Dmitri kicked his father in the head, so I think I’m sensing some movement in that direction.
You lost me after “with few exceptions…”
Just kidding.
22 Words is the blog that I look forward to reading most. Excellent.
You had me at hello.
I agree, Mark. Example: In H.S. I barely made it past the beginning of “A Tale of Two Cities”.. it got better.
I didn’t make it through A Tale of Two Cities in H.S. I think it had to do more with a bad attitude. But I likely will not try the book again to find out.
i agree.
books: one page
blogs: one sentence
movies: 10 seconds after the opening titles
10 seconds after the opening titles! That seems extreme. Traditionally, if from a script, one page equals 10 minutes. So with a play or film, I give it 10 minutes (or one page if reading).
generous is not the word i’d choose. efficient?
Are you speaking about unknown authors, or works you are not familiar with? If you are recommended a book, you read the first page, are not drawn in, then would you tell the person who recommended it, “I couldn’t get past the first page?” Curious.
Part of me doesn’t want to cut any slack for old books. Another part of me knows that if I’m going to read any old books I have to treat them a little differently.
In the case of “The Brothers Karamazov,” I didn’t give up until page 146. But I still gave up, so I guess I might as well have just given it up after one page and saved myself the time.
I know that sounds stark and uncultured, but there simply isn’t time to give books 50 pages before judging them–even ones that have been recommended. (Although, of course, some recommendations carry more weight than others.)
So I think I’m going to stick with saying I’m being “generous,” not just efficient, to give a book one page to win me over.
Almost 200,000 books are published a year in just the U.S. For me to even pick one up or look at it on Amazon is a huge benefit to that author and publisher. That I would read any of it is going above and beyond.
What I want to discover on that first page is that I’m not actually doing the author a favor because the content is valuable to me. If he’s offering value, then reading that book will be beneficial to both me and the author, and it becomes an even trade–not me doing him a favor anymore.
But if he is not interested enough in me as his potential audience to show me what he’s got to offer right up front, then I just put the book back down. If he does show me, and it’s intriguing, I will happily read 400 pages.
(I hope this is evidence to everyone that comments can be longer than 22 words. Thanks for reading!)
i didn’t read your whole comment because the first sentence sucked.
i’m kidding.
jenna, that was brilliant
Dude. I do the same thing. Don’t have time for lousy books or poorly-written blogs.
Oh…and another thing. Brevity and brilliance are why Emily Dickinson is the greatest poet in history!
Love this site. Have forwarded it to my brother who is a wise man of few words as well.
Stanley Fish gives mystery novels one sentence: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/28/opinion/edfish.php
crap…..
must.work.HARDER!
Thank you for the insight. I think it lines up with the fact that most people take one second to look at a book’s cover before deciding if they want to purchase it.
Is this for fiction and non-fiction? What about theology?
Good thing the Bible doesn’t start with Chronicles.
My method has to been to read three paragraphs from any given book on a random page. If I don’t read anything engaging, I figure the odds are good I won’t be interested in much of anything it says.
Has been to*, sorry.
Spotted: Abraham Piper writing more than twenty-two words in a comment.
By the way, in regards to writing, do you prefer brevity because of the precision or simply you’re afraid you might open your self to criticism?
[I'm straying away from the point of the post, so feel free to ignore me, but I only ask b/c I once thought brevity would protect me from criticism...who am I kidding? I still believe that.]
For what it’s worth: 50 pages is generous if you in fact are reading. If I’m truly skeptical of a book, I prefer scanning. Bottom line though, abandoning a book is a good great idea. No matter how ruthless you are.
I must be co-dependent – I give a book 50 pages. Then I’ll scan another 25 or so. Then, if nothing, I’ll close it for good.