#BookBeginnings One Day by David Nicholls

Today we’re highlighting a novel originally published in 2010, One Day by David Nicholls, for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you’re done, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

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One Day* by David Nicholls

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

Summary:  Starting on July 15, 1988 and running through July 15, 2006, the story unfolds by revealing how Dexter and Emma’s relationship progresses on one day each year, July 15.

Of course they made it into a movie.

Note:  We’re reading this book next for The Bestseller Code 100 challenge.

First Sentence:

‘I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference,’ she said. ‘You know, actually change something.’

Discussion:

Does anyone know why the author uses single quotation marks for the dialogue? I looked and it seems to be carried throughout the book.

Seems like an interesting premise for a book.

What do you think?

9 Comments

  1. Karen

    I think it’s a British thing. The author is from England. I didn’t Google, but I suspect that’s it.

  2. Clare

    I’m British and we don’t generally do that – I found it a bit weird too! I haven’t seen the film, but I remember enjoying the book!

  3. Karen

    Pretty much any UK published book I read has single quote marks. That being said, I’m rather dismayed with myself for not having heard of this one before. Now I want to read the book AND see the movie!

  4. Laurel-Rain Snow

    I have noticed the single quotation marks with some British authors…

    I haven’t read this book, but saw the movie. Sometimes if I see the movie first, I don’t bother to read the book. But…I might make an exception with this one.

    Thanks for sharing…and for visiting my blog.

    • Roberta

      I just realized that using single quotations would mean a lot less shifting on the keyboard. During the course of a novel with a lot of dialogue, that would be significantly less movements. Maybe we should adopt it. 🙂

  5. I’ve seen the movie so I’ll probably skip the book but I do love the premise!

  6. Shan

    It’s funny how the little things catch your attention. I have a couple of old Inspector Maigret mysteries somewhere around the house that have long dashes instead of quote marks. I assume it’s a French thing. It’s hard to get used to.

    • Roberta

      Long dashes? I haven’t ever seen that before. It does seem like it would be difficult.

      That reminds me, local Author C.B. McKenzie’s first novel Bad Country had no quotations at all. It was so confusing I quit reading it.

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