Reading Tai-Bo
Today for Reading Tai-Bo I want to encourage you to notice the first line of the next book that you read. When I open a new novel I turn to the first page and just read the first line. Then I stop and think about if I’m interested and how the author managed to accomplish that. Here are a few examples from books that happen to by strewn about our house.
“About ten years ago, losing all rationality, I decided to take up golf.”
“I’m perched on a floating broom, my arms squeezing the life out of my little sister’s waist.”
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
“Stephen pulled up the collar of his coat as he walked briskly along the platform.”
“I’m pretty sure my camp knapsack is not supposed to be levitating off the sidewalk of Fifth Avenue.”
Now this certainly is not an exact science, because the most bland first line in the bunch belongs to one of the best mysteries I’ve read lately. But it is interesting and useful. If you are curious, the books mentioned are below, but I mixed the order up just to keep things untidy.
Spells and Sleeping Bags
Pride and Prejudice
Revising and Self-Editing
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Frogs and French Kisses
