What the Psychic told the Pilgrim & A Golden Age

Angelique aka Lotus Reads

What is the one thing that might make you spend some time browsing through a particular book at a book store? For some it's an interesting cover or the blurb, for others it's the title, but for me, it's usually the first line of the book. I'm such a sucker for good first liners that I decided to collect a few that really stood out for me.
I guess no post on first liners could ever be complete without Tolstoy's line from Anna Karenina:
"All happy families are alike. All unhappy families are unhappy in their own way". Another great first line often quoted and more often the subject of a joke is from Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael". I really didn't think much about this particular first line until I saw some graffiti in Toronto the other day which read "Call me, Ishmael" !
And from Tahmima Anam's "A Golden Age": "Dear Husband, I lost our children today". I will confess when I first saw those lines they were so powerful that I knew then and there I was going to be by the book. Although it was an impulsive buy I will never regret it because the book turned out to be an absolutely golden read. The book I am reading currently not only has a great opening line - "Impulse is intuition on crack"- but a great title as well "What The Psychic Told the Pilgrim" is Jane Christmas' true adventure story of traveling on foot to Spain's Camino de Santiago de Compostetla to celebrate a milestone - her 50th birthday . This decision to make the pilgrimage that most people take years pondering over was made on a short plane ride that Christmas took. What made Ms. Christmas want to undertake such a challenge?
read rest here

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

Mehrene Shah. Lahore. Pakistan.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. Why? Love the way he writes...loved Amsterdam...even Atonement...However was disappointed by CB. Little too
subtle and pointless for me...was left with an ok so...

The Cover Rules

Amulya Malladi. Denmark

I believe that book covers make one hell of a difference; unless the author is JK Rowling or Dan Brown and as long as the cover has their name, it doesn’t really matter what imagery is used.

I believe this because this is how I buy books. If I know an author and love the author

(and really, how many of those are there for each one of us? And how often do they write books?), I will buy the book regardless of the quality of the cover. But if I’m just browsing, it’s the cover that speaks to me.

And that is the reason why publishers follow a theme with book covers. Take Khaled Hosseini’s new book, its cover almost similar and evokes the same imagery as his first, very successful book. This is done to give the reader a feeling of familiarty and welcome them to buy the second book—not that that’s all the book has going for it in this case (according to the reviews, the book is da bomb, I’m just reluctant to read it—I don’t do abuse very well, makes me queasy).

Take romance book covers; they have been go through lots of changes. No one wants to be seen reading a bodice ripper on a flight—but something like the one below, doesn’t say the book is a romance but a regular, mainstream thriller and no one is embarrassed caught reading it. Romance novels are now being wrapped to look like women’s lit at times with breezy covers. The reason is quite simple; books with non-Fabio-type covers sell better than those with Fabio-type covers.


Book covers are not always indicative of what’s in the book; but are a tool for enticement. They romance you, excite you, and promise you goodies— you pick up the book flip through its pages and see if you’re going to take this one home with you; but it always starts with the book cover.

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Denton Taylor. New York.

I think the title seldom has any influence on me in a work of fiction, whether good or bad. Non-fiction, sometimes a title will remind me I wanted to learn more on that subject.
I confess that I am more influences by dust wrappers than titles in a bookstore-- I will sometimes pick up a book and look at it if it has an really really interesting dust jacket. I'm sure people will find this strikingly anti-intellectual and obtuse, but in part I am a visual person who appreciates design. In my piles of new books to be processed, it is the debut novel by Saudi Arabian Rajaa Alsanea called 'Girls of Riyadh' that caught my eye. It has a gorgeously-designed dust wrapper, so I picked it up. In seeing that the blurb claims it was a 'sensation all over the Arab world', I figured it would be worth a shot.
I saw the book at a Manhattan Barnes & Nobel, 5th Ave and 46th Street.

Also I will always buy any new novel of an author I like, even if it is poorly reviewed. This is how, in the same stack, I find new novels by Cheryl Mendelson, Rupert Thomson, J. M. Coetzee (his new work of literary crit), and Helen Oyeyemi. There is a work of non-fiction that I bought from a review; 'Indian Summer', by Alex von Tunzelmann. And two novels, also bought from reviews; 'Septembers of Shiraz' by Dalia Sofer, and 'Before', by Irini Spanidou.
I tend to look carefully at books nominated for a prize; Booker, Nobel, Pulitzer, etc. I'll usually buy some of them.