According to the liner notes, this is the author's first novel, though she has published several memoirs and short stories (and one of the parts of Secret Life won a short story award.)

It was wildly successful - the liner notes say over 3 million copies sold, first published in 2002, spent more than 80 weeks on the NYT bestseller list.

So - let's have a look, shall we? If anyone is game, I'll post first 13s of other books I've picked up, and have a short story anthology of Asimov's that includes some sci-fi authors' first or early short stories. I'd love to have some discussion about them. I'll post a fragment when I get the chance, maybe a few times a week. If I'm the only one discussing, I'll stop.

So here goes, Secret Life of Bees:

(chapters open with a quote from books about bees, I'm skipping those parts though I'm sure they're relevant to the chapter, we're just looking at openings here.)

At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high=pitched zzzz that hummed along my skin. I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam.

During the day, I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to static in the next room, and I imagined them in there turning the walls into honey-combs, with honey seeping out for me to taste.

The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned fourteen... (end of fragment)

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At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high=pitched zzzz that hummed along my skin. (I don't think I've ever seen bees out at night... but then, maybe that's because they weren't living in the walls of my room...) I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam.

During the day, I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to static in the next room, and I imagined them in there turning the walls into honey-combs, with honey seeping out for me to taste.

The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned fourteen

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The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam.

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My parents were beekeeper when I was a kid, so the apparent inaccuracies in the first 13 lines alone rather turned me off. I seriously doubt bees ever fly purely for the sake of 'feeling the wind." However, I, too, and curious about why there are bees in her walls and so might read on a bit to find out.

I get the feeling from these 13 and from a very very light skim of the book (too many other things I really want to read keeping me from actually reading this novel) that the first 13 aren't what the rest of the book is about. They don't really introduce the conflict, they do start to introduce the main character, but you don't get much about her other than she's not COMPLETELY GROSSED OUT BY BEES, you know, the way many of us would be if we slept in a room buzzing with bees.

At any rate, I find myself wondering with this book in particular, was it word of mouth that made it popular? The writing is clear, easy to read, not too flowery. I don't know much about the storyline, other than I'm not particularly interested in it. But 3 million people WERE. Is it because it features topics of interest to women? I've read recently that women buy something like 60% of all fiction? Maybe more? I can't recall where I heard the stat, probably here.

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So was this just a word of mouth success or is there something intrinsic here? (Not expecting to find the answer to that question, really, but just throwing it out for consideration.)

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I think that a lot of books rely on word of mouth. I don't know how the NYT list determines which books appear there, but I do know that many casual readers (and I think that there are more casual readers in North America than avid ones) will pick up a book only if its "worth" has been proven by recognition from the NYT, and/or some manner of award.

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I finally read the DaVince Code and couldn't believe that was what all the fuss was about.

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I agree. I will admit that it was a page-turner, but it wasn't a book I'd ever bother to read again.

I think that with so many other forms of entertainment - TV, Internet, film - many modern readers are just looking for a little bit of escapism they can take with them to beaches and waiting rooms. I think that by the time they purchase a book, they've already been hooked by word-of-mouth, clever covers, and other marketing tools. And many people aren't aware of the "first 13" principle, so they won't be looking at the first few lines with a microscope like we might. They'll probably give it about a chapter or two to get them interested.

Timing and or "pushing" a book may get it on the road to popularity. The mention of the title of a book (that might otherwise go nowhere) by no less an "authority" than Oprah will send book sales into the stratosphere. Some she recommends might even be well written, though it doesn't seem to be a requirement.

Maybe I'm sceptical, but I don't believe a book has to be well written, or even have to say anything of consequence, in order to be popular. If only it appeals to needs/emotions of the reader that is often enough.