When reading another topic regarding a book with slow start some users noted that they plowed through it because of the author. Now I started thinking how common it is actually for people to call off a book if the first chapter(s) aren’t full of action and excitement, presuming the whole book is potentially as blatant? In agenting and publishing this apparently is a major factor and if the first paragraphs or a chapter do not appear lucrative, the whole story gets ditched.
However at least I seldom judge a book by it’s beginning. If the premise is interesting or the blurb is promising, the author is known to be good, or most often in my case, searching it online and reading synopsis and reviews that come out as positive, I will most definitely take the first chapters as potentially boring establishment to a story.
I read the first page and it’s generally enough for me to get the ‘DNA’ of the book, whether the author’s voice grabs me and resonates with me. Most of the time it doesn’t grade how good the book is, but it’s pretty consistent in gauging whether I personally will like it.
I’ve actually stopped reading reviews as i find them unrealiable these days and I dont do much research on the author. I rely mostly on the premise and the blurb. When I do have the time or if I’m unsure, I get the sample on kindle or google to read 10% of the book to see if I like the writing style.
‘Samples’ are one of the cool things about ebooks. I don’t have to stand in the bookstore reading, but can preview it from the comfort of my home!
I seen reviews/recommendations of books that sounded like something I would enjoy - only to get into it and …“blah, this is not catching my interest!”
I don’t really read reviews. I mainly rely on recommendations from people I trust. And I look at the blurb to see if I like the premise. If I do then I’ll give the book a chance. I have a problem though because once I start a book I have to finish it, no matter how I feel about it. I just can’t dnf a book, I never have. This is an unfortunate quirk of mine, because it means I’ve read lots of books I really didn’t enjoy. It’s a good thing I exclusively read library books. So the only thing wasted is my time.
Many of you will disagree, but James Patterson used to write incredible first chapters. If you read the first chapter, you would at least start on the second one. However, this is what introduced me to writers who pour everything into the first chapter, then let tension, excitement, forward movement, etc. go out the window in the second chapter. As such, nowadays, I’ve often found it’s the second chapter where I want to be amazed but don’t really expect to be …
I like to go in as blind as possible. This way, expectations are not a factor, and I can judge it based on what I think, not what others have said.
One of the things I’ve found is that first chapters, by their very need to hook a reader, are often not representative of the overall quality of a novel (barring classics, of course). The opening usually gets much more authorial and editorial attention than the sagging middle. So I open a book to the middle somewhere. Is the prose badly written? Is the dialogue ridiculous? That’s often a deciding factor for me.
I’ve only ever given up on a book in the first few chapters a few times. Every time it’s been because of writing style or just out and out bad writing.
I don’t start reading a book unless I find the blurb/synopsis interesting or it has been recommended by someone whose book choices I trust.