judging books based on just the opening line

main channel: / thejackexperience
Instagram: / jackbenedwards

[@sarahnoll9018]

For me it’s really hard to beat The Bell Jar with “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” It establishes character, setting and tone, and makes me feel almost nauseous but HOOKED. ~cracking~ as Jack would say

[@Shellovesmake]

100% agreed! 🤍

[@Cinia18]

The casual racism in the Bell Jar is always overlooked. Quite sad that all books from that time think it was okay to say those things, because you’ll know it’s wrong no matter what time you are in

[@sarahnoll9018]

@@Cinia18 100%! It’s really upsetting and disappointing to read

[@amelieperger1952]

@@Cinia18 It is always wrong, but it that time, it was normal for the society - I don’t think you should judge it by todays norms. You could say the same thing about a lot of classics.

[@jiminici3351]

@@amelieperger1952 but it's also okay to read critically and to point out these things without having people shutting you down because "it was normal back then" 😁

[@stutikhanna6531]

Is nobody going to even mention Percy and his iconic opening line “look, I didn’t want to a half blood.”

[@headinthecloudsbookinhand]

I did! I’m so glad I’m not the only one.

[@laurabid]

i love that series but its sort of a mediocre opening cuz u dont know anything ab him or half bloods lmao

[@mariaeov280900]

It really got me when I was 13

[@vita1489]

Siiiissss

[@ariana6762]

@@laurabid ah but wouldn't that be the point tho? You don't know what a half-blood is but it sounds super cool so wouldn't that make you want to know what it is? and it does have a tone it tells us the main character doesn't want to be whatever this thing is so he has a slight distaste for being this thing, that further begs the question w h y he hates being a half-blood (LMAO I JUST REALIZED THE BOOK RIGHT OFF THE BAT ESTABLISHES PERCY AS A HATER 💀💀 ACCURATE)

[@JuniperTaleum]

One of my favorite opening lines is from Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. “The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation”.

[@ChemicalPenguinn]

I'm currently reading that book!

[@simoneh7853]

Yes!! I just started reading it yesterday and was immediately hooked

[@ririschannelx]

the whole epilogue is just masterful

[@JuniperTaleum]

@@ChemicalPenguinn Her other book The Goldfinch is also good. If you like dark academia I’d also recommend If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio.

[@sharonprabha6369]

True!!

[@hannahdigitals]

Best opening line I’ve read recently was “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”, it sucked me in completely. (Book was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy)

[@kavya12kohli]

I've read this one. Took me a loooooong time to finish it but I read it. N gosh! Not what I was expecting. Anna's story was leading towards it but I certainly didn't think Tolstoy would take it there. I have mixed feelings about Anna.

[@lapvona]

ooo currently reading that

[@hwlsgrl]

omg true I loved that opening line so much even if I found the book to be extremely boring

[@kavya12kohli]

@@hwlsgrl The only way to finish that book is to read in installments over a long period of time. Oh n skip the parts you find boring. That's how I got through.

[@hwlsgrl]

@@kavya12kohli I actually can’t read it anymore bc I wanted my wall to be filled with book pages and anna karenina was the victim to that ordeal but thank you!!! I think that would’ve helped too

[@sushmavarsani5014]

I still love how A Tale of Two Cities starts - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…

[@sarajesus744]

Is one of my favorite open lines too

[@notjigyasa4089]

i'm sorry if this sounds offending but as a swiftie i literally thought you were about to comment the getaway car lyrics

[@ellierichardson1616]

@@notjigyasa4089 I genuinely thought the exact thing

[@hampai7137]

@@notjigyasa4089 i mean it was used in gateaway car

[@keanancupido]

Jack: "I'm predicting this could be the best opening." "I didn't know what email was until I got to college." Jack: 👁️👄👁️

[@sweetForgiveness]

I literally laughed out loud 😄😄

[@keanancupido]

@@sweetForgiveness sameee😂🤣

[@aloveoflibraries]

lmao the whole book is like that too imo 😂 not my cup of tea

[@krissiar23]

me: huh??

[@Financiallyfreeauthor]

I didn’t *use* email until college… tech changes so fast.

[@kellinwayne3535]

"The Silence of the Girls" definitely takes the first place for me, that opening line is absolutely stunning

[@camille_la_chenille]

Same! Now I need to find this book and read it, even if my TBR pile is already huge

[@themythofizziphus6561]

Same here. It’s such concise use of irony and juxtaposition!

[@caerrie]

I've yet to find something that beats Slaughterhouse-Five's "All this happened, more or less." It's so intriguing, and it works on at least two levels, and it sets the tone so well. I'll never forget this one.

[@Alex-wi7xh]

I like it. It's underwhelming at first glance but the more I think about it, the more I'm curious about the book

[@charlieowen3929]

For me, 1984's "It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13" is ingenious.

[@francesaprilrheavillanueva765]

yes!

[@hannahrees9401]

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" is a classic opening line from I capture the castle

[@RachelDacusAuthor]

One of my favorite books I'd never have discovered without a book club

[@veraliana]

Yes, that really hooked me in. Made the main character so relatable haha. Also you know it's a good line when you immediately recognize what book it's from even though you haven't read it in over 10 years!

[@camilas_tbr]

why do I love the excitement Jack feels over the kitchen paper trick 😭

[@samsherwood8332]

Ariel Bissett has actually done a couple of similar videos where she tier ranked classic books based on their opening lines!

[@yustaanna5009]

The audacity of him not knowing that... Lol

[@jack_in_the_books]

​@@yustaanna5009 hey! i did know that (and i love those videos) but i feel like it's a different challenge to pull 10 books from your bookshelf and then rate them! ariel is queen of booktube

[@felsiao]

Leena Norms too :) Covers, blurbs, and first lines for the longlists. But this would be a great channel staple! Maybe for longlists/nominees for prizes. Not so much for short story collections.

[@NovelNanny]

Hmm Jack that is like exactly what Ariel does.

[@yustaanna5009]

It's literally exactly the same idea 😅 "copy my homework but change it a little" vibes

[@InvisibleLovatic]

“I would be lying if I say my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure,” Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

[@gracexcon]

I literally bought this book in the shop for the opening line, I knew nothing about it

[@lizadarkness]

The favorite opening part of a book I read recently was in Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn: “I have almonds inside me. So do you. So do those you love and those you hate. No one can feel them. You just know they are there. This story is in short, a bout a monster meeting another monster. One of the monsters is me.”

[@ibtimdn1381]

I was confused at first but the end of it like the "one of the monsters is me" part, is so captivating in a way, it's genius!

[@crystall8632]

This is a fantastic book! I so agree, the opening line is captivating

[@LuckyPide]

Yes!

[@notjigyasa4089]

omg that has been on my tbr for so long this just convince me to finally read it

[@rashichoudhary2006]

First the colours. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try. The Book Thief is my current favourite.

[@shraddhanipurte639]

Absolutely agreed. I read it 5 years ago, and i still vividly remember the 1st line. 🤎

[@kaitlin7044]

YES

[@lpsvideot2427]

Here is a simple fact. You are going to die.

[@mariet647]

My favorite for sure is "I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice-not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he was the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.” - A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. One of my fav books of all time!

[@circleofleaves2676]

I really like Ariel Bissett's videos where she tier-ranks the first lines of books. I also like "guess the book by the first line" - Emma from Emmie, and Carolyn Marie Reads recently did a collab of reading each other first lines.

[@MegaCOOLBUG]

First few lines of the first chapter of the secret history are absolutely cracking!: “ does such a thing as the fatal flaw, that surely dark crack running down the middle of life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.

[@valentinarueda6293]

The opening line in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is my favorite. It’s great in both Spanish and the translation in English. It says: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

[@valentinahuidobro8398]

Literally my literature teacher in highschool had us listen for an entire class about how much she loved that first line haha

[@liviavieira3414]

i love this one so much too. gabo always has some killer first lines, even on his short stories

[@themythofizziphus6561]

I love this one too!

[@arieslofi]

Nothing will beat "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte." from L'étranger for me, it just grips you immediately. It establishes the character's relationship with his mother and, as the paragraph goes on, his indifferent nature.

[@annamoore3161]

I actually found the first line of The Idiot super intriguing! It makes me remember showing up for college not knowing anything, didn't have a laptop even though everyone else did. Then I had to ask for directions to the computer lab lol. The line conjures up for me how much of going to college was scary and unfamiliar, and I didn't know what I didn't know until my first day.

[@snhreader7765]

Same! Right away, I was like, "Psshh, main character must've gone to college during the 90's or something. Need to find out more."

[@Doridantoni]

Same. You immediately start to wonder when they went to college and weather it was something unusual that they did not now about email then.

[@trayvixk4642]

One of the greatest opening line in literature, to me, is "People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day." from True Grit. It shows you the story, Mattie's no-nonsense personality, and that she isn't a typical 14-year-old girl. All told in a very lyrical way.

[@patramirez5825]

My favorite novel

[@trayvixk4642]

@@patramirez5825 Mine too, my only regret was that I wish I read it earlier

[@frederiquebraakman2934]

My favourite will always be: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon, when his father took him to discover ice.”

[@hani4561]

what book is this !

[@frederiquebraakman2934]

@@hani4561 It’s One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

[@Kiwiii69]

Me excited to start a new book The book: " My first name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." Me: 👁️👄👁️ ... well hello to you too. (The name of the book is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, in case anyone is interested)

[@shraddhanipurte639]

Damn.

[@hadisaafzaly9029]

This book true made me sleepless and scared and terrified like shit

[@HeyItsBonnieBee]

YES.

[@lauravsthepage]

The story of the author who wrote this book is a insane tragic one in its own right.

[@michellevincent2841]

Incredible book. The movie? Horrible. Don't even bother. I think I'll read this one again.

[@themythofizziphus6561]

Personally, one of the opening lines that always stuck with me was from Fahrenheit 451, “It was a pleasure to burn.” So simple, yet it really just sticks with the reader. I love punchy first lines like that, especially when there is something juxtaposing it! People usually see ‘burning’ as unpleasant-so reading that sounds really twisted and strange. It just makes you so curious for more.

[@StoicTheGeek]

I agree and I disagree. For many, playing with fire is fun, poking a campfire or throwing logs on a bonfire. So it’s very relatable, and we immediately identify with the speaker. But there is a sinister undercurrent to it - burning is dangerous, destructive. So there is a tension in the line that is compelling

[@N_IRL]

I think the issue with this line is that everyone and their mom already knows what Fahrenheit 451 is about, so unfortunately that line doesn't get to pack the punch that it deserves to

[@Sabondemont]

‘It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men’. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

[@xJentaa]

It would be so interesting seeing you rate the book based on the first line before reading it, making predictions on the plot etc and then doing the same after you read it!! Love this concept btw x

[@The_Firevenus]

I'm not sure mine count cuz it's fanfic but my all time fav opening line or opening sentences actually came from an old kpop fanfic and it goes like this; "There are stories as old as the earth itself. There are stories even older. They say that all stories have a bit of embellishment and that all legends hold a grain of truth." When I tell you this fic actually what made me want to be close to literature again cuz the writing so good, I yearn the day I found a book that gave me the same euphoria as reading this

[@bharvishah]

Maybe I invented it...says Jack about a booktube classic😂 Also, I'd love a follow up video about whether the books lived up to the first sentence ranking!

[@stroopwaffel101]

One of my favorite opening lines, from Olivie Blake’s Alone With You In the Ether “There would be times, particularly at first, when Regan would attempt to identify the moment things had set themselves on a path to inevitable collision.” I love the whole first chapter, really. I can’t even describe the feeling this book gave me.

[@emmadumais2337]

Opening lines are great, but for me the last five pages are what makes or breaks a book. The ending of Notes from the Underground made me LOVE the whole story, just when before I didn't get it.

[@juliarosetwamley]

Would love another one! Could make it a series? First lines of non-fiction books, first lines of celebrity books, first lines of romances / thrillers / comedy / children’s books etc etc

[@ruthiebaxter5902]

The opening line that comes to mind for me is “I was not sorry when my brother died” from Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Kind of like the title of Jeannette McCurdy’s memoir where at first you’re like Woah and then it very quickly makes sense

[@belgarion1777]

By far my favourite opening line of any book, "Ever since my mum died, I cry in H Mart." Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, love love love

[@rogerlie4176]

It's hard to beat “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” when it comes to opening lines.

[@khushi-rs3js]

❝ In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” ❞ - Opening line of 'The Great Gatsby'

[@GraceC]

my favourite opening line is definitely from IT by Stephen King - 'The terror that would not end for another 28 years, if it ever did, began so far as I can know or tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain'

[@N_IRL]

I laughed aloud at this, which is ironic since it begins with talking about endless terror. I am certainly intrigued!

[@katharina4821]

i think emma from drinking by my shelf has done this too i love it

[@kjohnsto1]

I agree with your ranking, I'd just swap one and two personally. I want to read Silence of the Girls most now 🙂

[@sarahs4292]

me too!

[@sarahwallace2585]

'Silence of the Girls' is a good read, go for it. Also, 'The Song of Achilles' (Madeline Miller) and 'The Children of Jocasta' (Natalie Haynes), if you haven't read them already. Both are brilliant books and also Achilles related.

[@kjohnsto1]

@@sarahwallace2585 Thanks for the recs 🙂

[@tarasalvi6873]

Love when I learn what people from other countries call things! Like how British people call paper towels "kitchen rolls".

[@azu_rikka]

"When I was a young lad twenty or thirty or forty years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs Nugent." From The butcher boy by Patrick McCabe. It sets the tone, gets your interest, yet one has to read the whole (brilliant) book to actually find out what 'he done on Mrs Nugent'.

[@amelviss]

you have convinced me to rank my current fall tbr and then read them in the order i rank them. love you jack!

[@qwr742]

I love this!!

[@hadisaafzaly9029]

That’s what I was thinking as my tbr is getting longer lol. It’s a great idea

[@anjah8249]

This was fun! You should do it with last sentences, too.

[@valryered]

So happy to see a new upload from you!

[@BookLoop4]

People say don't judge a book by its cover. But I feel that a beautiful cover is a cherry on top!🥰🥰 And I really love this cherry even if only for pleasure of eyes and heart.❤️

[@henryorhank]

Personal favorite is "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." This is the opening line of the Dark tower series by Stephen King and it's so mysterious and enticing to me

[@nubooooo]

love that everyone here is commenting their fav opening lines! not me frantically jotting them down 🤭 also personally I'd just switch the silence of the girls and acts of service but other than that I think your ranking was pretty spot on!

[@katrinamorhart1850]

Yessss, I’m so glad you did this, I saw paperbackdreams do this to rate her TBR and I was hoping you’d do something similar, glad you continued the trend!

[@sophiaisabelle01]

If the book’s opening line captivates you the moment you’ve read it, then that means the writing is great. There are some books with bad writing and typically they are the ones getting the most attention.

[@SCSimmer24]

Please don’t let The Idiot’s first line deter you! It’s a wonderful wonderful book and that line does it no justice

[@Amaz0nica]

One hundred years of solitude: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice". One of the best!

[@Thelaughingpreacher]

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

[@honeya5726]

Watched this one as I am currently reading a book I bought because of the first line. "Helga had always - unreasonably - expected more from life than it could deliver."

[@hazyreading2240]

This is such a great idea! I try to include the first line of the book in wrap-ups because it can be such an influential factor in deciding if you want to read it or not so I loved this (picking up Acts of Service as we speak)

[@danimiller6391]

your channel has such a comforting and welcoming energy, i binge ur videos whenever i need something wholesome to watch :) u also helped get me out of my reading slump! thank u for everything u do!

[@bodinelouise]

I am interested in a video where you explain how/when/why you actually use the things you underline and annotate from the books you read :) Are there situations where you think: "Oh, what was that quote again from this book I read 3 years ago because I need it now for...." or something like that or a completely different scenario. I understand it helps to better digest/process a book but am just wondering if there's an actual practical application for it to use it in the future or if it's something more for the present moment and that's it.

[@ash-pb9du]

„Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don‘t know.“ iconic opening line. the stranger by albert camus

[@juliemartin6101]

yes

[@anasofiabracamonte]

The best first lines are that one hundred years of solitude and of love in the time of cholera, from Gabriel García Marquez. Unforgettable

[@choocli]

I actually like the opening line of The Idiot. It's so strange and absurd in a blunt and dry way, it's piqued my interest. It's definitely not the best one from the stack though. My one favorite is Acts of Service. I read that book a while ago when I saw a bookstagram account post the first page, and I thought the first paragraph was so good I got the book and read it immediately afterwards. The book itself is not as strong as its opening lines imo but it was entertaining nonetheless haha

[@angelajones129]

I'd love to see you do this with the classics!

[@dianamarcu8939]

ariel bissett did classics tier ranked by their first line and theyre rly fun videos :)

[@freddie.spaghetti]

some opening lines i love: I'd hate to be that kid who died in PE class. - the taking of jake livingston (it's a kinda funny opening line, but when you examine it a little further, it really also rings of jake's distress i think) In the myriadic year of our Lord - the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death! - Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth. - gideon the ninth (this one definitely isn't for everyone, but that line hooked me, and it sets the tone very well) They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died. - the death of vivek oji (i haven't even read this book yet, but man. especially the fact that this is the only line in the first chapter... wow)

[@abbynolan9581]

The opening line to My Policeman is fantastic.

[@angela_0165]

For me the best openning line is The Bell Jar, but recently I was surprised by Taylor Jenkins Reid and the openning lines in Malibu Rising ¨Malibu catches fire.It is symply what Malibue does from time to time. Tornadoes take the flatlands of the Midwest, Floods rise in the American South. Hurracanes rage against the Gullof Mexico. And California burns¨ (that first paragraph explains perfectly what the book is about, specially when she then says ¨Because it is in Malibu´s nature to burn¨)

[@tinaconn3989]

Emma from Drinking By My Shelf does this type of video. She reads the opening lines then ranks them by how much she thinks she is going to enjoy the book and then she reads them all and then ranks them again. I would love you to do it this way in the future.

[@hcoffeegirl]

i loved notes on an execution's 1st line. it is simple, short and yet powerful; "You are a fingerprint" also the secret history has an iconic 1st line; "The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation." from the video giovanni's room was my favoruite and it made me want to read it even more

[@melissab9991]

The Night Circus has an opening line I’ll never forget: “the circus arrives without warning.”

[@anamarta7539]

Ariel Bissett was the one that came out with this concept tho

[@Kokechii]

So. I took my Kindle and opened up the books I have yet to read and my winning first line is from "The Heart Forger" by Rin Chupeco: She wore the corpses for show. Damn. That pulls me right in.

[@j7055]

Jack getting excited over his kitchen paper stand 😭😭

[@sharayukorade4290]

And now i have to add Acts of Service to my never ending tbr...

[@tylerparadis501]

I think we can all conclude that a good book can save a bad opening line but a good opening line cannot save a bad book.

[@keala_808]

It might be fun to do this with a bunch of books you haven’t read. Then, after reading them, seeing how they size up to your initial review of the first sentence.

[@jennbr0wny]

Richard Brautigan’s So The Wind Wind Won’t Blow It All Away has a cracking opening line: ‘I didn’t know that afternoon that the ground was waiting to become another grave in just a few short days.’ Great use of prolepsis!

[@erinmariecece]

Laughing out loud over the immediate disappointment on your face after some of these.

[@savannah4439]

This concept is almost like a combination of the 1st line challenge from years ago + tier ranking

[@aurora_skies_]

I love this challenge idea, and I now am going to get a copy of The silence of the girls because my jaw DROPPED when you read that first sentence.

[@candidature858]

French student here ,I actually had to translate the first sentence of Giovanni's Room like a WEEK ago, I didn't know at all it was the first line but I actually found it so cool ! Kinda surprised to hear about that book on a channel I never visited before 😂

[@henryallsebrook]

Pride and Prejudice would win this for me. The most important quote in the whole book

[@annesophiiie8340]

"Is today a good day to die?" The first line of *All the Bright Places*

[@josephine2847]

One of my favorite recently read first lines was; “I lift the gold goblet to my lips as I watch the show of naked flesh through the space between my bars.” -Gild, Raven Kennedy. My feelings are mixed about the book/series as a whole, but the opening line really grabbed me

[@Emily-27]

I found the first line of verity so intriguing, “I hear the crack of his skull,before the splattering of blood reaches me”

[@beckymorgan812]

if only you could see me pointing to your kitchen roll tower of books to guess where the next one was going. that would be a pretty cool opening line.

[@ebrarkaraoglu8378]

Can we please get a tour of all of your books when you can, even if they’re a mess. In all honesty I think the bigger the mess the more relatable and better. You’re close to having your own library which is SO EXCITING!! We’d love to get a glimpse 🤩

[@trianenopenottrian9108]

WHY DID I NOT KNOW THERE WAS A SECOND CHANNEL? The algorithm brought me home. Perfect suggestion and love this challenge.

[@patrickpinion245]

One of my favorites: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it."

[@Em_ly204]

One of my favourite opening lines will always be "It was the day my grandmother exploded" - The Crow Road, Iain Banks

[@lunadarkbloom53]

Mo Dao Zu Shi's "Great news! Wei Wuxian has died!" will always be my favorite opening line, iconic.

[@alexandrapoliakova8017]

The best first line I'm ready to fight for is from One hundred years of solitude. "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

[@fmt0htm]

that kitchen roll did a great job😂

[@izziedias]

i love this concept. saw it for the first time couple months ago in paperbackdreams channel. and been seeing being incorporate in other booktube channels lately. so, maybe you didn't invented, but, genius minds think alike.

[@madu557]

The best one I've ever read in my life: "To the worm who first gnawed on the cold flesh of my corpse, I dedicate with fond remembrance these posthumous memoirs" (The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas - Machado de Assis)

[@Cloud-yd6yp]

All The Bright Places opening line is beautiful: ‘is today a good day to die?’ I found the book alright, nothing special

[@BlairBoggletrot]

Acts of desperation is such an amazing read. I thought it a triumph of a debut.

[@tejalkashyap7207]

I considered starting with these words: I no longer want to kill you - because I really don’t - but then decided you would think this far too melodramatic. My policemen ❤❤

[@genellabresmoya2585]

jack, a book podcast please😭

[@fsharon6717]

The possibility of Jack not opening The Idiot ever again 🤣🤣

[@naomigittus]

Emma from drinking by myself ranking/choosing books from their first lines

[@sophief.7475]

I just sat down with dinner and thought „ugh I‘d love to watch a video of jack rn but he probably hasn‘t posted“, opened yt and saw THIS

[@SyMpHOny893]

giovanni’s room literally gave me chills. buying immediately