Books and beginnings
I once heard John Irving say, “A writer has exactly 47 seconds to hook a reader.” He was on a publicity tour for The World According to Garp. Its first line: “Garp's mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater.” That sentence made a lot of people keep reading. We wanted to find out why Jenny Fields had wounded a man, and how, and what happened after she got arrested. (Make the reader curious, then make them wait, says the writer Bret Anthony Johnston.)
About First Words
The first words of a book set the tone for what’s to come. The writer aims to draw you in immediately–to care about their characters, fall in love with their voice, and be curious about what will happen next. The First Words newsletter will offer recommendations we hope you’ll love–some new titles but also a lot of our favorites from recent years (and sometimes from long ago).
For many of our recommendations, we’ll pull out the first line and consider why the writer started here. What can we learn about what kind of book this is from its very first words? What expectations are set up? What keeps us reading? We hope this will give you a deeper sense of the book than a quick plot summary or teaser would, helping connect you to the right book at the right time.