first page or paragraph

[Otis, Chief Architect]

Sometimes when looking at a book that you might be interested in, you just want to open it up and read a few pages to get a sense of the writing and see if you can get hooked right away.

Would it be useful to add a field so librarians can populate this? To fit under fair use we probably need to limit it to the first page or first paragraph.

Let me know your thoughts!

[Mawgojzeta]

Yes. I actually do quote a paragraph or two in some of my book reviews and have been thanked for it.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

I vote for yes, with a 150 max word count (or whatever the character equivalent is -- about 650-700 characters, I think).

[Lisa]

I wouldn't object but that sort of thing is already available at Amazon and elsewhere.

[Cait]

I'd love to see this! Perhaps it could be something which could be locally hosted or a link to a preview hosted elsewhere? If an author's or publisher's website already has a preview, it seems a bit redundant to copy it over, but it would be useful to be able to link directly to it....

[Cheryl]

It's a neat idea, but I don't think I personally would use it a whole lot. (I'd much rather see other work get done. :)

[Eva Marie]

I wouldn't use it often myself but I know a lot of people that would. I think it's a great idea if it's something we can implement without too much hassle.

[mlady_rebecca]

Sounds like it would be useful to have, although hand-typing them in might be a pain. Hopefully, some of the authors will have sample chapters on their site in a format that allows for copy and paste.

[David]

Well, there is the issue of how exactly are you going to know that it is the first page? The label for this new field shouldn't have "First" in it. A lot of books actually use snippets that come from somewhere in the middle of the book, not the beginning. The beginning tends to be too vague to give the reader a feel for the book.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

I vote for no. We have enough problems getting info straightened out without having to worry about text. And would it be language specific or would everyone have to deal with whatever language happened to be entered?

[MissJessie]

No from me too. A search is difficult now; if it had to contend with additional paragraph(s) it would become even more vague in results. Even with Relevancy option selected, it's still extremely hit and miss.

Also, seems like adding a lot on the librarians.....and who would decide when there is the inevitable argument over which bits of the book should be featured?

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

Search doesn't look at a book's description, publisher, or most other fields, so I don't know why it would look at this one.

I do think the other concerns that you and Michael have brought up are good things to consider.

[MissJessie]

Another possible problem: slowing loading time. Those with slower connections might suffer a problem with that.

One other comment: given the controversy in Quotes about length (and some are incredibly long), how would sample chapters, etc. be limited.

1. An author might get carried away...
2. Or, a non-author might put in more than authors would like to see out there. Also, a potential for what some would consider spoilers.

[Lindig]

I vote no. First paragraphs are often just scene-setting and don't give a good feel for the rest of the book. And who's going to enter them? MissJessie mention loading time and I think that's a valid concern, too.

[Keith]

Probably a bit late to the game, but isn't this covered effectively already by allowing quotes tied to books, and showing "Quotes from this book" on the book page? That feature could work better, but the proposal above seems somehow redundant to current function.

[Otis, Chief Architect]

The feature would prob make use of the quotes feature.