Please turn to page 69
By Marjorie Kehe | 07.29.08
OK, here’s a theory that every book lover will want to put to an immediate test.
In the Guardian last week, blogger Charlotte Stretch wrote about Marshall McLuhan’s notion that to determine whether or not you will like a book, turn to page 69. If what you read there strikes your fancy, you will probably enjoy it. If not, you shouldn’t bother.
(This is akin to a theory held by some musicians. They insist that you can discover the worth of an album – dated term I know but nonetheless – by listening to track 7. That, they say, will give you your answer.)
Anyway I immediately put McLuhan to the test with three of the books we reviewed in the Monitor this week. The results were mixed at best. On pages 69 of both “The Last Island” and “Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love” there was very little text. And what I read of “Broccoli” (a book I quite enjoyed) on that page signally failed to grab me.
Of course it’s also true that these books are, respectively, a volume of poetry and a short story collection – perhaps not the kind of books that McLuhan had in mind. So I tried again with “For the Love of Animals” and found that, yes, page 69 grabbed me and would have decided me in favor of the book.
However, I’m not a convert. At least for now I’m sticking with my own more labor-intensive theory. If a book looks good to me, I give it 50 pages. (This, of course, applies to pleasure reading – not reviews. On those I have no choice!)
If I’m not hooked by page 51, I quit. I may have missed some good ones this way, but on the balance, I suspect my system has served me well.
Comments
2. Sweatpantsninja | 08.27.08
I don’t know if it’s accurate or not, but this is at least an interesting idea. I once read in a book on screenwriting that a writer should put the first major conflict on page 27. Since one page of screenplay text very often translates into one minute of screen time, minute 27 of many movies is where the plot takes a major turn. Every time I watch a dvd, I take care to notice that; I’ve found it generally to be true.
3. E. Night | 08.27.08
I usually test the first paragraph of a chapter, the final paragraph of a different chapter, a random page of mostly dialogue, and a random page that appears at a glance to contain long paragraphs. That’s all assuming that the jacket blurb and review snippets didn’t chase me off (”whimsical” shouldn’t appear within an arm’s length of the volume in question).
4. M. Night | 08.28.08
I find it hilarious that someone got the CSM to forward a theory about the quality of literature based on the number 69. Did you at any time think you were being leveled? Anyone home?
6. Louis II | 08.29.08
Response #4 suits my thinking.
A side from that, I go by a combination of the posted ideas… reading up to pages 25-75 (depending on book length), random sample set and avoiding the ones with book jackets all seem to work well. Periodically I test the marketed books (jackets, reviews, quotes, etc..) and find that I have yet to be enthralled with a book (of any genre… fiction or not) by what the book jackets or back cover reviews say.
Beware misleading back covers, though… some times the review snippets on there are horribly inaccurate and a disgrace to the book in question.
7. Doug | 08.31.08
I’m with M. Night. But….
I always open to a random, not quite the middle, not quite the front, about one third of the way through page and if it catches me then the book just might come home.
Funny how many fail this test.
9. Vivian Darkbloom | 10.06.08
There is a website dedicated to the Page 69 test (http://page69test.blogspot.com/) and the Page 99 test (http://page99test.blogspot.com/).
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1. zeptimius | 08.27.08
My dad, himself a published author, swears by page 34. He says it’s the place where most authors have squeezed the most out of their dashing beginning of the book and must now actually work the hardest to keep the reader’s attention. So if page 34 grabs you, you’ve got a winner on your hands.
Me, I just read the Amazon reviews.