Books are not broccoli — and neither is this

Books ≠ Broccoli
— Bloglily

I love fresh vegetables. Broccoli isn’t my favorite cultivar of the Brassica Oleracea family — that would be Brussels Sprouts. Seriously. The award for most exotic I would give to Romamesco broccoli because its form is a fractal, which is way cool (and coolcool, and coolcoolcool, and self-similarly coolcoolcoolcoolcool…) and looks like it may have jumped off the page of a Dr. Suess book. Broccollini is less bitter, and bok choy has a delicate, sweet flavor. But, if you diss the humble broccoli, I will bristle. Why pick on broccoli? It’s good for you. And it doesn’t taste as bad as some people let on.

But, I didn’t bristle — sorry, broccoli — when I saw “Books ≠ Broccoli” on the nifty little booklet that arrived in the mail for BL’s Summer Reading program.

From the Lovely Bloglily, for her summer reading program.

There are no rules in her summer reading program. It may be good for you (like broccoli), but nobody is going to force you to do it. You don’t even have to fill out her booklet. Or read in the suggested categories.

Choose a category. Or not. Enjoy the fanfold paper.

You wouldn’t even have to, I suppose, use the bookmark, but why wouldn’t you?

No rules. Just right.

You can just use the sticky notes (mine were bright pink!) to mark you favorite places and pretend that someday, maybe when it’s raining and you’ve been taken away from your summering, you might blog about how wonderful a particular passage was. Or, you can just admire the pages, and the Asian motif.

It's good for you. And more fun than broccoli.

The whole point is to have fun. So in the spirit of fun-ness, I’m going to have a little summer writing program. Prizes to the best (as determined by the judge; all decisions are final) first sentence for a book that has this cover art.

What is the opening sentence for a book with this cover art?

No rules. No length requirement. No stylistic constraints. It can even be from a book that already exists — just be sure to give credit to the author whose work may win you a prize — and I won’t even argue that that would be a summer copying contest. (ohh! maybe there can be categories of prizes!). Leave your entry in the comments no later than July 20. And, remember: have fun!