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Tyler on the Move: Pick a Page

Tyler OaksBy Tyler Oaks

Tyler Oaks in Carmel, CA.

Two gray-haired ladies walked up to my table at a recent book signing. They stopped and stood side by side in front of me, each picking up a copy of Ruby Rest. After the usual scrutinizing of the title and compulsory scan of the back cover, one announced she would read page forty-five to see if she liked the book. Her friend explained that she was born in 1945 and always read page forty-five to decide if a book was worth purchasing. The sixty-three-year-old opened Ruby Rest and started to read.

I immediately realized that not only did the page have to be good, but it needed to sound good too. Page forty-five was put to the test aloud, with others listening in. It is a strange thing to have your words suddenly read back to you in an unfamiliar place by a person you don’t know. I sat there wondering what it was about writers that made them willing to open up their minds for anyone to gaze in. Taking off layers physically isn’t nearly as intimate as inviting people into worlds you’ve created from the inside out.

The woman only got through the first sentence of page forty-five. When she read, “My eyes wandering over the surfers” she stopped and smiled. Her friend said, “Well now you have to buy it.” They both did. Surfers win again.

I haven’t experimented in a bookstore yet but I did try the technique at home. First I chose all my best-loved books, took them off the shelf and turned to page seventy-eight in each one. I was disappointed. Not once did I discover a favorite passage. Next I tried again with my stack of books to read. I wasn’t intrigued by page seventy-eight in any of them. While this method of book buying still fascinates me, it must not work if you’re thirty. Maybe other birth years will have better luck than 1978.

Since in the end I couldn’t accept that seventy-eight was a total waste of a book page, I had to find an exception. Lisa See’s Peony in Love saved me. As I read about a lovesick maiden taking several trips carrying the best books from her father’s library back to her bedroom, I wondered what those books entailed. Although I’m sure there was nothing about surfers in them, I still couldn’t help imagine that one of those books in her arms held the 17th century Chinese equivalent.

Tyler Oaks earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Stanislaus and her Master of Arts in Spanish from California State University, Sacramento. Tyler lives in California's Napa Valley with her husband and twin daughters. Tyler is presently at work on her next novel.