81–90 of 126 posts
Great idea. No HTTPS?
I feel ignorant about this. Why would this site need HTTPS?
And, first thing I can think of is affiliate links. The site is all affiliate links, but I can just MITM it and just sub in my own number and get credit.
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In fairness, wasn't this also true for radio? I recall quite a number of songs where the full version (from a CD or similar) had an intro that I'd never hear on the radio.
TIL "radio edit" will not only edit the profanity, runtime/structure, but also the lyrics. I heard this song today, and was surprised to hear my local state included in one of the verses: e.g. One Republic - Good Life To my friends in New York, I say hello To my friends in Utah "they don't know"
I would follow Marshall MacLuhan's advice. Open a book on page 69, read it. If you like what you read, buy it. Also: "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." -- Ford Madox Ford
Pretty nifty, but I would like it to actually recommend based on my tastes. Like combine this and Goodreads.
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I think this might already happen. This is just anecdata but I often get turned off from books by overwrought first page(s). Eventually someone convines me to go back and the rest of the novel is good. I'd love to hear an author's perspective on this, if any of them notice it. My guess is that they stew on opening passages for years before writing, causing them to get a little neurotic about them, then eventually the…
In pretty much any writing medium (novels, screenplays, short stories, etc), standard advice involves hooking the reader within the first paragraph or so. This is partly why "in medias res" tends to be such a popular opening technique - it drops the reader straight into the action, which is theoretically more interesting than "She woke up, got dressed, and went downstairs for her daily breakfast of toast and juice...…
It's been a long time since last time I read it, but isn't this essentially the opening of the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?
It's interesting to think what might happen if something like this became really popular. I'd imagine many novels might start adding super oddball stuff in the first page, just to stand out from the crowd and pique peoples' curiosity. Kind of the literary equivalent to clickbait headlines.
Don't authors already put a lot of effort into the first line/paragraph/page?
I'm not even a very attentive reader, but I guess some of these really great opening lines will stick with you forever.
Two of my favorites:
* "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
* “I’ve been cordially invited to join the visceral realists. I accepted, of course. There was no initiation ceremony. It was better that way.”It's interesting to think what might happen if something like this became really popular. I'd imagine many novels might start adding super oddball stuff in the first page, just to stand out from the crowd and pique peoples' curiosity. Kind of the literary equivalent to clickbait headlines.
Morgan's Steel Remains: "When a man you know to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased mother has just tried to climb in his bedroom window and eat him, you only have two basic questions."
Stephenson's Seveneves: "The Moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."
Lawrence's Prince of Thorns: "Ravens! Always the ravens. They settled on the gables of the church even before the injured became the dead."
Stover's Caine's Law: "And in this My Dream, Beloved, you know Me. Through your eyes I watch your blunt and broken hands scrabble upon the marble stair: spiders maimed and bleeding on frosted glass."
Scalzi's Old Man's War: "I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army."
Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief: "As always, before the warmind and I shoot each other, I try to make small talk."
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Don't authors already put a lot of effort into the first line/paragraph/page?
The smart ones do. The same goes for emails, advertising copy, blogs, abstracts, elevator pitches, etc. Movies do it, too.
"The primroses were over" does nothing for me, but Watership Down is great!