Opening Sentence of the Day: The Quotable Ronald Reagan
"This book had its beginnings in January 1993, although I did not realize it at the time."
-- The Quotable Ronald Reagan by Peter Hannaford (Ed.)Not a gripping opening sentence. I wonder if I should consider the first sentence of the actual book, or the first sentence of introductions. If someone else wrote an introduction for a book, that's easy -- do not count that as the opening sentence. But if the author wrote an introduction contemporaneously with the book (not added in a later edition), then I think that counts for the opening sentence. Which means that some, like this one, are not going to be real sizzlers.
"This book had its beginnings in January 1993, although I did not realize it at the time."
-- The Quotable Ronald Reagan by Peter Hannaford (Ed.)
Not a gripping opening sentence. I wonder if I should consider the first sentence of the actual book, or the first sentence of introductions. If someone else wrote an introduction for a book, that's easy -- do not count that as the opening sentence. But if the author wrote an introduction contemporaneously with the book (not added in a later edition), then I think that counts for the opening sentence. Which means that some, like this one, are not going to be real sizzlers.
Sounds like maybe the contrast with the writing in Water the Bamboo is not helping!
ReplyDeleteExactly! Luckily, once I got through the needless introduction, I found that the rest of the book is just quotations.
ReplyDelete