First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday is hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea – it’s is a weekly meme where you share the first paragraph (or two) from a book you are considering reading.
I picked out The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon on the basis of the creative writing (and reading this great review). It’s about a girl who is largely illiterate. As a result, there is little punctuation used. Will that make my eyes bleed? See how you go with the first paragraph –
“this is my book and i am writing it by my own hand. in this year of lord eighteen hundred and thirty one i am reached the age of fifteen and i am sitting by my window and i can see many things. i can see birds and they fill the sky with their cries. i can see the trees and i can see the leaves. and each leaf has veins which run down it. and the bark of each tree has cracks. i am not very tall and my hair is the colour of milk. my name is mary and i have learned to spell it. m. a. r. y. that is how you letter it.”
Could I hack a whole book written in this style? I don’t know. Buy it or bin it?
Once you started reading it, you’d probably get used to it. But…it would drive me crazy, I don’t think I could hack it.
And no TTT book boyfriend list? I made mine…
No, sorry! I have too much work on at the moment- no time for top tens… But Gilbert Blythe (Anne of Green Gables) & George Emerson (Room with a View) would have been there.
Only kidding, I found this week’s top ten list to be a little silly (and mildly disconcerting, as many of the characters on the lists are teenagers…). George Emerson made my list (and Mr. Rochester, naturally).
Good that we agree on George!
I figured most of the top tens this week would be full of boys from the same old YA books… But of course I’ll check out your list which I’m sure will be filled with suitable MEN 🙂
Every one of them is legal!
Ha! I might have to reconsider Gilbert… 😉
I definitely would read this one. Sounds like one I would enjoy. Thanks for joining us this week:)
It sounds like a good book…and the writing style is so different that I would give it a try. Here’s my Tuesday Intro/Teaser: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2013/04/first-chapter-first-paragraph-7-and.html
This is intriguing although the lack of punctuation would be annoying. Here’s Mine
I’ve heard this book was good. I’d probably keep reading. kelley—the road goes ever ever on
Oh I don’t know. That punctuation would drive me up a wall and I can’t help but question why Leyshon would put the novel in her voice. On the other hand I’m kinda loving her own description of her hair as the color of milk so I might carry on!.
I actually like the opening, but not sure whether I could handle a whole book. Then again, I might get used to it very quickly and not even notice after the first chapter…