Beginning a new book, is personally my favorite part of reading a story. I especially loved the beginning of the book
"Confessions of A Shopaholic" By:Sophie Kinnsella.
I originally picked up the book,
"The Notebook" Written By: Nicholas Sparks.
I was expecting to immediately fall in love with the first sentence of this book, because of all of the good things I had been told about it. Surprisingly though, I did not. I was disappointed to not love this book as much as all of my friends had. I was honestly a little bit bored while reading it. I know, I'm crazy, how could I not like this book? I'm honestly not sure. Confused, I put this book down, and searched through the tons of books I had bought and never even took the time to look at; and just stuffed them on my in with all of the other books on my bookshelf. I pulled out book that I stared at and wondered, "Where did this come from?" Eventually, I came to
"Confessions of A Shopaholic" By:Sophie Kinnsella.
And for once, I actually knew where this book had come from. I remembered this, like it was written on my heart.
My older cousin had been cleaning her room. Getting rid of; shoes, tops, bottoms, movies, old games, and MANY other things. She came to a her desk, opened up the bottom (which was quite large) draw and pulled out pencils, papers, a notebook, and then, stumbled upon this book. She took it out, stared at it for a while, and then tossed it onto her desk with the many other things I knew she was planning to get rid of it. I quickly grabbed the book of her desk, waiting for her to say something to me like "What are you doing?" or "Aren't you going to ask?"
Yet, she didn't and instead, she smiled. A small smile, but a smile.
"You don't want this book, do you?" I asked her.
"No, I read that book a while ago. I think you'll like it," She said looking at me and then at the book. "Keep it." She turned around and continued what she was doing.
That's all I can honestly remember. It was her smile. I remember it SO clearly. I think it's probably because it's one of the last moments I shared with her, before she moved away to Florida.
I picked up the book, and walked to my bed. The beginning was great. It held my attention span, and I wasn't bored or lost.
The beginning is always the most exciting because, 1) you are introduced to the story/plot, characters & setting. 2) You are (hopefully) on the edge of your seat, wanting more by the time your done with at least the second chapter.
Kinsella, started off her story with what I like to call, "An open beginning". This means, that
I'm wondering what is going on. Some of the questions that go through my mind are
a)"Who is this character?"
b) "What is going on?"
c) "Where is the character, what is the setting like?"
Most often, when books have "An open beginning" it's because they start off with a thought or
dialog. In this story, the main character; Rebecca starts off thinking. She is thinking about how
much money she owes to her credit card company. She really WANTS a low number/amount of
money. But, even though she doesn't say so, i think Kinsella, wanted you to think that she knew
that she was wrong. I know I did! I also like how some of the bills she received are included in the
book. I also like how Kinsella builds up TENSION, and then allows it to CRASH. Meaning what you
would expect to happen, doesn't.Whereas,in other books, a lot of the time tension is built up, and then,
the character gets what they want. I found this interesting, and I thought it was a good change!
I would love to include some of this type of writing in my next piece. It would be a change, but
think it would be a good change. It would give me a little push. And a little push is always good! I
think that doing this would increase how strong my story is. I can't wait to read on and and hopefully
pick up even more skills from Sophie Kinsella!
