Tuesday, August 13, 2013

First Chapter -- First Paragraph


I discovered a real neat blog-meme over at Diane's excellent book blog, Bibliophile By The Sea.
She calls it First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros.
I guess the idea is to show the beginning of the book you are reading, or are about to read next in line. By the way, you know you are a true "Bibliophile" [whether you are "By The Sea" or not] if you are already thinking ahead to your next book! This is my theory. And I am always doing this. I'll be reading a book, and already scanning my shelves, to see what I will be tearing into next.
Since I am right now reading a book about a pivotal year in the life of Shakespeare, I thought it might be the perfect occasion to go a bit further back in time, re-visit Tudor England, and finally dig into Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize-Winning book, Wolf Hall.


Here is the first paragraph of the book: 
'So now get up.'
Felled, dazed, silent, he has fallen; knocked full length on the cobbles of the yard. His head turns sideways; his eyes are turned towards the gate, as if someone might arrive to help him out. One blow, properly placed, could kill him now.

Have you read this one? What do you think? Would you keep reading, based on that first paragraph?
Visit Diane's blog-meme [and join in] by clicking on the image at the top of my blog. 

By the way, that's her image, and I hope she doesn't mind that I purloined it!
Purloined!
See how reading about Shakespeare will affect your vocabulary?

*****

3 comments:

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I like the intro and actually have wanted to read this one for several years. I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. I appreciate it.

Mystica said...

I've read this one. I found it a bit heavy going and maybe in the minority here.

Isabella K said...

I have not read this, but I might someday.

Thank you, Cip -- I've spent the last 48 hours reading the first paragraphs of all the books I have stacked up read, trying to decide what to read next and what would be best saved for October. Instead of actually making progress through the gazillion-page tome I've sworn to finish before summer's out. And now I have to wait till next Tuesday before I can post on any of them.