Book openings that stop you reading

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bearilou

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Seriously:

Jo Nesbø (born 29 March 1960) is an Edgar Award nominated Norwegian author and musician. As of September 2008 more than one and a half million copies of his novels have been sold in Norway, and his work has been translated into over forty languages.

Even more astounding is the name of his main character:

Harry Hole.

I kid you not.

I was going to ask if maybe there was a problem in the translation until I got to the character name.

:Wha:
 

Faide

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Just want to say that "Hole" is a perfectly good surname here in Norway, and isn't pronounced like the English "hole". Google Translate has actually a good pronounciation on it here.

That's no excuse for Nesbø's other flaws, though.
 

Anna L.

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I don't stop reading at a book's opening. I would if it started in a super racist/sexist/judgmental manner that shocked me, but otherwise I keep going. Published books are usually good enough to insure the writing is somewhat competent.

When it comes to reading unpublished stuff, the openings that turn me off are the ones with sloppy writing. Because if the writing is bad now, it's going to be bad all the way. And if a writer hasn't yet achieved a minimum level of competence with the writing itself, then he/she must not have that much practice and is therefore likely to have issues with other aspects of writing too (plot, characters, dialogue, everything).
 
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garnerdavis

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Depends on the type of book. Fantasy without quickly getting to some action; humor without something funny anywhere in sight.
 

Victoria

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Just want to say that "Hole" is a perfectly good surname here in Norway, and isn't pronounced like the English "hole". Google Translate has actually a good pronounciation on it here.

That's no excuse for Nesbø's other flaws, though.

While that may be true, you won't be able to convince everyone he put those two names together in innocence. He had to know how it would be seen by those outside of his own country. It reminds me of the names in the Austin Powers movies, Alotta Fachina, for example. I just can't imagine that there was no ulterior motive to his name picking.
 
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