The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for Thumbing It
Because Thumbing It was Book of the Day, some of our most trusted members have carefully looked over the cover, the description, and other aspects of this book as a part of purchase-intent focus group. We then asked each participant in the focus group if they planned to buy and read the book, and why they planned to buy and read the book or not. Their answer to that question and reasons are displayed below. We call this awesome feature The First Ten Focus Group.
Keep in mind, the responses from the members are not reviews. This is purchase-intent focus group which means the participants are people who have NOT yet bought or read your book. A purchase-intent focus group is an important and extremely useful marketing tool for any product, not just books. For other products, you might walk on the street and show people an item in a package and poll them about whether they would buy if or $X or not. These kind of focus groups are one of the ways big marketing companies find the ideal price points for products and test the effectiveness of different packaging. The focus group can help you identify your market so you how to target ads of your book, and it can (but may not) provide you new useful info about your "packaging" (e.g. your book cover, your book synopsis on Amazon, etc.). The point of the focus group comments is to give you information from people who have not bought or read your book about why they plan to buy your book which will help you in marketing the book. These are not reviews or critiques of your book because they are not from people have read the book. This is a marketing tool, not reviews. The trick of book marketing and book advertising is that you have to convince people who have not read your book yet that your book is worth buying and reading. For marketing, it doesn't matter much if people love your book after reading it if you cannot convince potential buyers before they read it that they will love it.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable. This is because we only poll about 20 or so readers, and all readers have to say "no" to almost all books. Over a million books are published each year. Even a very active reader cannot come close to even reading 1% of books out there.
This is also why publishing books is such a tough industry.
Ekta Kumari
The book documents the author's hitchhiking adventures and will be an entertaining read for people who love traveling. I wouldn't have read it based on its genre and the blurb because the theme of hitchhiking doesn't entice me, and I'm not into autobiographical books. However, I liked that the cover page matched the central subject. The book begins with the author and his friend, Chuck, sharing a conversation while they were snorkeling in a cove. The thing I liked the most was that their conversations were diverse and felt rather realistic. The narrative offers a relaxed and lighthearted vibe. However, at times, the pace seems hurried to me with back-to-back dialogues. The book reads similar to a travelogue, but the good thing is that it doesn't feel mechanical and is, in fact, intimate with the author's musings about many other aspects of his life. After sampling, I would say there's a lot of scope for improvement. The author should highlight the chapter headers, preferably with a proper title. The book should also be edited again. I was able to find a total of four errors in the portion sampled. For example, there should be a comma before "the better" in the following sentence: “Yeah but I don’t like the idea of being in debt to him. The less I have to do with him the better.” I plan to not read the whole book due to my lack of interest in its genre and the main themes. I didn't see an official OBC review, but it didn't affect my final decision.
First Ten review added on March 9, 2023, at 6:15 am by Ekta Kumari.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Manang Muyang
The blurb narrates that this story happened in the summer of 1967 and is an autobiographical novel. The sixties was a memorable era; I know that much even though I was very young at the time. The Beatles, in particular, come to mind. I love their songs, so I would have been interested to take a look into this "hippie book" even outside the program. "'We can't take them but you should take a look.' I said, surfacing near him" at 3% of the sample needed a comma after "look." Most of the dialogues were similarly erroneously punctuated. At 5%, "There's a whole bank of sea anemone's to the left" should have used "anemones." "The upholstery is a mess!." at 6% didn't need the period after the exclamation point. "Yeah I guess they do talk about the 'end of times' it a lot" at 13% shouldn't have used "it." The bad editing distracted me from enjoying the read. I didn't think I could read more of the book when every other sentence was erroneous. I did like that I knew one of the singing groups in the Monterey concert: Simon and Garfunkel. The author has to get a better editor, though. There was no OBC review for this book, but I did not need one to make my decision. It's a thumbs down.
First Ten review added on March 9, 2023, at 4:57 am by Manang Muyang.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Gabriella H
I wouldn't have sampled this book based on its cover and book title without this program. I felt it would be about hitchhiking, and I'm not interested in reading about that. Its Amazon description confirmed it's about hitchhiking. While sampling the book, I noticed the use of both present and past tense, which I found a bit distracting. Nothing in the first ten pages captured my interest. So I won't be buying/completing this book. My decision was influenced by the first ten pages, its cover, title, and its Amazon description. I didn't see any OBC official review, OBC blurb, and customer and editorial reviews. This didn't influence my decision. I like memoirs and autobiographies, but the book's subject matter doesn't interest me. I would suggest more proofreading because I noticed a few errors. These are two examples: 1. "I am thinking about getting them fixed in Tijuana. Do you wanna go? I ask," (nineteenth paragraph of chapter one). The comma after "ask" should be a full stop. 2. "Yeah I guess they do talk about "the end of times" it a lot." (thirty-fourth paragraph of chapter one). It should be, "Yeah, I guess they do talk about "the end of times" a lot." Or, "Yeah, I guess they do talk about it a lot."
First Ten review added on March 9, 2023, at 4:54 am by Gabriella H.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Ntokozo Joy Ndlovu
I would not have read or sampled this book if it was not part of the first Ten Program. Neither the cover nor the title was appealing to me. I had no idea what to expect from the book since it had no blurb, no editorial reviews and no customer reviews. The Amazon description and the bookshelves page did not seem to agree since one called the book an autobiography while the other listed it as fiction. In the sample, two friends are on vacation at Laguna Beach, snorkelling. One thing that stood out immediately for was the inconsistent tense in which the story is being told. It threw me off and made reading and understanding a struggle. I found nothing to like within the sample and what seems like a plethora of tense errors. For example, on page 1, the sentence that reads,' "I wish I could stay down as long as you do," Chuck says while treading water next to me.' should have read '...Chuck said while treading water next to me.' The OBC review described the book as a story of a cross-country trip back in 1967. This did not sound like an interesting storyline to me. As a result, I will not be reading the rest of this book.
First Ten review added on March 9, 2023, at 4:18 am by Ntokozo Joy Ndlovu.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kaitlyn Canedy
If Thumbing It hadn't been the OnlineBookClub's book of the day, I would have checked it out based on the cover art. I liked the cover a lot, which is what made me read the description. I don't know a lot about the 60s, but I have heard much about it from my grandparents. There are no customer reviews at the time of this writing, but I did not need them to read the sample. The sample told readers the story about driving in Tijuana, Mexico; I was entertained that the driving there is so chaotic. While I did not dislike anything or found anything that needed improvement, the 12% section of the sample has a grammatical error. There is an extra "it" in this sentence- "Yeah I guess they do talk about the "end of times" it a lot." At this time, there is no OnlineBookClub review for this title, but the lack of a review did not affect my decision to skip this book. I am not sure if I would enjoy a book about hitchhiking; this is why I decided to skip it.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 11:58 pm by Kaitlyn Canedy.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Damian Keyes
Based on the book title and cover, I would have downloaded a sample of this book because I'm fascinated by those who have hitchhiked before. Unfortunately, I did not find an official review on the OBC website that could give me a premise of what to expect in this book. In my reading, the book starts out with the author (David) and his friend, Chuck, snorkeling. The conversation turns to David asking Chuck if he wants to go to Tijuana with him to get his car seats fixed. My faith is important to me, so I was taken aback by Chuck's dismissal of the Bible's account of the world's creation; I didn't like that part of the book. In chapter one (location 29 of 520 of the Amazon sample), I found an error that needs to be fixed. The sentence says, "Yeah, it runs good and looks good but the upholstery is a mess!." The author should get rid of either the exclamation mark or period at the end of this sentence because both should not be there. Since there was no OBC official review that could guide me on where this story was going to take me, I am going to pass on buying and reading this book.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 11:32 pm by Damian Keyes.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Heidi M Simone
Without this program, I would not have sampled this book. A book about hitchhiking, whether real or not, is not a topic that I am interested in reading. Therefore, the title, cover, and blurb would not have piqued my interest. I would have preferred if there was an OBC review, and it would be nice to see some customer reviews.
Based on what I read, the book could use another round of editing. For instance, in the first chapter, the line, "Yeah, it runs good and looks good but the upholstery is a mess!.", has an exclamation point and period at the end. There should only be one punctuation mark at the end of every sentence, not two.
It is clear how the narrator of the story and Chuck are close friends. Only a close friend can discuss about God and the end of the world. Unfortunately, the conversation between Chuck and the narrator seems a bit stiff as they converse while snorkeling and as they drive to Mexico. I also am not a fan of when books contain profanity, which this one does. Due to the writing style and the profanity, I do not plan on buying and reading today's book.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 9:52 pm by Heidi M Simone.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Annelore Trujillo
I would not have sampled this book based on the genre, cover, title, and synopsis on Amazon. I was a little confused on what type of book it’s supposed to be. The synopsis mentions that it’s an autobiographic novel of things that happened and things that should’ve happened. I’m assuming it’s a fiction story with some inspiration from life, but I thought this description could’ve used clarification. There also wasn’t a blurb on the bookshelf page or an OBC review, which would have turned me away from the book. After reading the first ten pages, I won’t be finishing this book. There was a lot of dialogue. It was too much for my taste. During the entire conversation with Chuck, there was very little description. This could use improvement. The editing could also use improvement as I noticed errors that told me it wasn’t professionally edited. For example, “But what you said is total nonsense” needs punctuation at the end. I don’t like to purchase books that aren’t edited. There wasn’t anything I liked so far.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 7:58 pm by Annelore Trujillo.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Jennifer Garcia 555
Although I like the cover of this book, I am not a fan of the genre, the title, or the description. I did not see any OnlineBookClub reviews. For these reasons I would not pick this book to read. I read the sample pages and saw a couple of punctuation errors. The first is at the beginning of page three there is double punctuation after the word mess. There is an exclamation point and a period. I like that the author and his friend Chuck decide to go on a road trip. I can relate since I do that often with my family. This book could be improved with another round of editing. I was not entertained enough by the sample pages to continue reading so I will not buy or finish reading this book.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 7:19 pm by Jennifer Garcia 555.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Sanju Lali
I could not find any editorial or customer reviews of this book. I would not have read the sample of this book if I was not a part of The First Ten program because the title meant many things to me, and the genre and cover barely influenced me. I sampled this book only because I was motivated by the OBC official review. The conversation between Luke and Chuck caught my attention, and I liked the fun part of the conversation. I understood from the sample that Chuck got accepted at U.C Santa Cruz. I am quoting an example of a sentence with a grammatical mistake. "The bottoms are clear and you can see crab and starfish dotting the bottom." This sentence could have been as follows. "The bottoms are clear, and you can see crabs and starfish dotting the bottom." This book needs a round of professional editing because I found several grammatical mistakes in the sample. From the description of the scenes given in the narrative, I could not clearly visualize the scenes. My suggestion to the author is to provide me with adequate details of scenes along with a brief introduction. I will not buy and read this book today until the author addresses my suggestions.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 12:27 pm by Sanju Lali.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Christine Palmer
The first ten pages of this novel were interesting and well-written. I did not find any errors. The cover with a male hitchhiker would not normally be a book I would read. I prefer female-led stories. I will not be purchasing or finishing the book. I did not relate to the friendship dynamic between the two young men as a married woman with children. I am not old enough to be nostalgic about the 1960s either.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 11:01 am by Christine Palmer.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Diana Lowery
I like the title and the cover. I would not have picked up the hitchhiker based on his appearance, but I did like his sign. I liked this phrase in the blurb, " . . . stories are true, or should have been." I was disappointed that there were no OBC reviews for this book. Also, there were no Amazon reviews either. I did read the reviews for some of the author's other books, but they did not convince me to read this one. I liked the author's writing style. Since I lived in San Diego as a teenager, I could relate well to the trip to Tijuana. I liked the character of Chuck. I did not see any errors. I am not going to finish reading the book right away, but I will keep it on my "To Read" list. I do not have any suggestions.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 10:29 am by Diana Lowery.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Tara D Morgan
The book cover would have drawn me to check this book out, as I would have wondered why the young man looked unhappy and wanted to be anywhere but where he was. Having read the Amazon blurb, the cover art only half covers it, as the hitchhiking trip sounds like a joyful experience. There is clearly no OBC review for this book if anyone wants to check it out. Having read the first ten pages, I don't like the way the book is written with sentences, not paragraphs. It is like it is aimed at young children learning to read! There were also a lot of grammar errors on the first ten pages: page 1 - Thumbing It(needs a space)- 1967, page 1 - you can see crab(crabs), page 2 - A half(-) hour later, page 3 - wondered why he was talking about God? (remove ? and add .), page 4 - in an off(-) handed, page 4 - I realized he was bull(-)shitting me again, page 5 - they were rent(-)free, page 5 - riff(-)raff surfers, page 5 - talk (about) religion and politics., page 6 - I decided I need(needed) to avoid calling Chuck, the Half(-)Wit, page 7 - squat dark(-)skinned man, page 7 - coming at me non(-)stop, page 7 - a head(-)on collision, page 7 - near(-)death experience, page 9 -If (remove extra space)crossing the street, page 9 - slow(-)moving vehicle. There is profanity, but this is appropriate to the way young men talk to one another. My parents were teenagers in the 60s, and I was looking forward to reading about the era, but I was disappointed as the first ten pages could be about any era. I found out that Luke and Chuck head off to Mexico in a beaten-up old car, and along the way, a friend of Chuck's, Bud, meets up with them. However, Luke doesn't like Bud. Having read the first ten pages, I won't be reading the rest of this book, the grammar mistakes are annoying, and Chuck, Bud, and Luke start off mildly irritating and get progressively worse!
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 9:33 am by Tara D Morgan.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Rodel Barnachea
Following my reading of the title’s Amazon page, I opted not to acquire the novel. I am not fascinated by the hitchhiking trip the author took that "covers both coasts." I am not intrigued by the autobiographical nature of the novel. I am not interested in learning and differentiating fact from fiction while I read the story. The presence (or absence) of an OnlineBookClub review is not a factor that I considered in my decision. Perusing its sample did not change my mind. I would not purchase it because nothing in the text convinced me I would enjoy poring over the rest of the title. The first ten pages contain Chapter One and a few pages of Chapter Two. My favorite part is when the protagonist said that he decided not to like Bud after he realized that Bud smuggles birds from Central America into Mexico. I noted several errors in the text:
1 — "There's a whole bank of sea anemone's off to the left." — The word “anemone’s” should have been “anemones”.
2 — "Yeah, it runs good and looks good but the upholstery is a mess!." — The ending punctuation mark is an exclamation mark, so there is no need for the period at the end of the sentence.
3 — "Yeah the seats are falling apart." — There should be a comma after the word “Yeah”.
I also observed other errors excluding the ones I already noted above. Hence, I believe the book is NOT professionally edited. I advise the author to hire an editor and have the book undergo a round of editing.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 5:09 am by Rodel Barnachea.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Emy Katherine
The story follows the adventures and misadventures of two friends, Luke and Chuck, as they take a hitchhiking trip across America during the summer of 1967. I found neither editorial reviews nor customer reviews, but the blurb was informative. Nevertheless, I would not have read the book based on the title, cover, and genre. I am not interested in reading autobiographical novels, so I did not change my mind after sampling the book. Of course, the lack of an OBC review did not influence my decision. The story was told from Luke's first-person perspective. I enjoyed the fast-paced writing style and humorous tone, but I disliked that the book had formatting and editing issues. For example, it should be written "'Yeah, I guess they do talk about the 'end of times' a lot'" instead of "'Yeah I guess they do talk about the 'end of times' it a lot."' (page 3) There should not be a period after "unknowns" in the following sentence: "By 'unknowns'. I meant not one that has been on my radio dial." (page 12) I would highly recommend another round of editing.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 4:19 am by Emy Katherine.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Pauline Parnell
Even if I hadn't been a part of this program, I wouldn't have read the sample pages of this book.
The title is not particularly intriguing, despite the fact that the events are real. After reading the first ten pages, I won't purchase or finish reading the entire book.
I don't find the adventures portrayed to be entertaining. There were no obvious errors.
I appreciate the author's writing style since it accurately conveys his thoughts. However, more detailed information is needed to get a more favorable response from me.
The absence of an OBC review clearly impacted my evaluation.
First Ten review added on March 8, 2023, at 2:59 am by Pauline Parnell.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Anna_Hernandez
If I hadn't been part of this group, I likely wouldn't have sampled this book based on the title and cover. As a young female, the imagery and the idea of reading about hitchhikers didn't appeal to me. My assumptions proved correct after reading the first ten pages - the book's content would appeal more to a male audience - so I won't be finishing it. Despite some great detail in the first few pages, I found numerous punctuation errors and believe the book would benefit from another edit. For example, 1) “Yeah, it runs good and looks good(,) but the upholstery is a mess! (delete period)” 2) “It’s fated(.)” There was no official featured review of ‘Thumbing It’ by David Done on OBC, but the lack of review didn't influence my decision to not read the book; rather, it's the subject matter that doesn't appeal to me.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 10:35 pm by Anna_Hernandez.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Ari Martinez
If it wasn't for the First Ten program, I wouldn't sample this book based on its title, cover, genre, or blurb because reading about a "hitch hiking trip" didn't seem intriguing to me (probably because it's something I wouldn't do). I wish this book had an OnlineBookClub review because I would have liked to know more about the protagonist's trip, and if there was anything noteworthy about the characters and their growth throughout the book. My favorite part of what I read was when the protagonist mentioned the "geological fact" that there's never been a flood that covered the whole world. I found their conversation interesting because my nerdy self couldn't help but remember that there has been a flood that covered the entire world – the Carnian Pluvial Episode (in which it rained for 2 million years throughout all of Pangaea). After reading the first ten pages, I will not continue reading the book because I found several editing mistakes, and I felt like I didn't know anything about the plot that would entice me to read it. Besides another round of editing, I don't think the book needs to be improved. In Location 36, the comma after "ask" should be a period mark (“I am thinking about getting them fixed in Tijuana. Do you wanna go?” I ask,).
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 10:04 pm by Ari Martinez.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kelsey Roy
I was initially intrigued by the cover and title of “Thumbing It.” These details refer to hitchhiking, and I’m interested to see the storyline develop. The blurb identifies the genre as fiction, which I enjoy. There is no OBC review for this book. The blurb discusses following the main character across 10,000 miles of hitchhiking in the late 1960s. I am not interested in this theme, but I enjoy the historical aspect of the story.
I found a couple of minor errors in the sample pages. For example, this errant comma at the end of a sentence instead of the needed period, ‘“I am thinking about getting them fixed in Tijuana. Do you wanna go?” I ask,’ The diction and setting of this story transport me to California and Mexico in 1967. Although I didn’t enjoy the storyline, and I found multiple errors, I think this story may appeal to many readers. My recommendation for the author is a further round of editing. I will not finish this book because I did not find it appealing.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 9:15 pm by Kelsey Roy.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Hazel Arnaiz
I like the cover art of the book. Together with the title and blurb, they consistently suggest what the book is about. However, because the topic is not of interest to me, I will skip it outside of the program. Customer feedback is unavailable. After trying it, I like how it inspires people to get out of their comfort zones, explore the unknown, and be spontaneous. But it did not change my mind. The storyline is not for me. I prefer it if there is some mystery and suspense to make it more intriguing and keep my attention. Other than that, I have no suggestions for improvement. Similarly, I didn't notice any editing flaws. The official OnlineBookClub review is unavailable. It would have been helpful to find out more about the book.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 8:53 pm by Hazel Arnaiz.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Shanesha Sammerson
After reading the Amazon summary, it sounded interesting enough to make me want to read it. The genre sounds interesting, and I would buy it after reading the first 10 pages. I love reading books about friendship and sharing life experiences. I did not find any errors. The only part I would change is their talk about Christians not believing in the flood, as this may be offensive to some Christians. I did enjoy their snorkeling adventure together, though, and I look forward to reading about their other encounters.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 8:22 pm by Shanesha Sammerson.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Stephanie Runyon
Looking at the title, I felt this would be a memoir; therefore, I would not have sampled it. It was interesting that Chuck didn't experience the blue light and out-of-body experience like Luke did. I think the smoke the girl blew in his face caused the feeling. I found some errors in the book. Beyond editing, I have no suggestions for improvement. There was no OBC review available, but it did not affect my decision to pass on the BOTD. I did not read anything online to alter my choice. I am passing because I am not a fan of memoirs.
Error: It took three three hours but we arrived like flotsam on the famous landmark corner.
Correction: It took three hours, but we arrived like flotsam on the famous landmark corner.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 7:42 pm by Stephanie Runyon.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Mary WhiteFace
I don't care much for memoirs. Without the First Ten program I would not have been interested in reading this one. My decision was based upon the synopsis. There was no OnlineBookClub review. Nor were there any Amazon customer reviews. Reading the first ten pages did not change my mind.
The only errors I noticed were a few missing commas. For instance, the following sentence from location 154 should have a comma between the word good and the quotation mark: ""Sounds good" Chuck jumped enthusiastically on board." (Chuck was the one speaking.)
There was no part that I actually liked better than another. The first part of the sample was about David and Chuck snorkeling. Then they drove to Mexico to find a deal on car seat upholstery. They went to a race track while waiting for the car. At the end of the sample they were discussing an upcoming concert.
The part I liked least was the seemingly random mention of how Chuck would pop a pimple. It was a little gross. It's possible that the book may get more interesting further on, but I wasn't interested enough to continue reading. I will not be reading the whole book.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 7:06 pm by Mary WhiteFace.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Amy Luman
There was no OBC review of this, and I have come to rely on them. Therefore, I will not be finishing this novel. I did read somewhere that this is fiction based on things that happened. That statement makes it sound too much like a memoir for me. The title would only explain the contents to people who are older; younger people have never even considered hitchhiking, so they wouldn’t know what "thumbing it" means. The cover does, though, explain it. There are no reviews of this, editorial or customer. That is another reason not to finish it. In the first chapter, where the two guys are snorkeling, Chuck asks Luke to show him where the abalone are. There is not a question mark in the dialogue. This may just be the author's style of writing, but I consider it an error. I did not like that the chapter titles were in the same font as the rest of the test. I would change that. There really wasn’t anything to like in what I read.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 5:42 pm by Amy Luman.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
MsH2k
I liked the simple cover and that the title reinforced what this book was about. I recognized the author from another book about this time period, Tales of the Seventies. The genre did not influence me, but I would not have sampled this book after reading the blurb because it didn’t sound like a story that would keep me engaged. The first ten pages introduced the reader to Chuck and the protagonist and their close and easygoing friendship. They seem naïve, and the journey across the country will no doubt be entertaining, but I will not buy this book today because I am not invested enough in the storyline. It did not appear professionally edited. I noticed several grammatical errors in the first ten pages, primarily around punctuation. An example was at loc 34, where one of the end punctuation marks is unnecessary: “Yeah, it runs good and looks good but the upholstery is a mess!.”
A suggestion for improvement would be to have the book professionally edited. Besides fixing the grammatical errors, making the dialog less stagnant would help since the story appears dialog driven. I did not notice any published OnlineBookClub or Amazon reviews, but their absence had no bearing on my decision.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 5:16 pm by MsH2k.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Nemanja Jankovic
The book's cover and title are both very appealing; they effectively summarize the essence of the book, and I would choose to read it based on them. I read the blurb, but it did not affect my decision. I couldn't find an official OnlineBookClub review, let alone a customer or editor review. I'll read the book because I'm interested in books about the summer of 1967 and hitchhiking. I discovered several typos (I ask, - I ask. ; total nonsense" - total nonsense." ; " I think - "I think"), so the book does not appear to have been professionally edited. I like how the Tijuana cab ride is described because it sounds like a very authentic experience. I don't think anything in the book needs to be improved.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 3:38 pm by Nemanja Jankovic.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Timothy Rucinski
I didn't think much of this cover. The graphics and drawings are fairly uninspiring. There was no Official OBC Review to consider before sampling the book, nor could I find any reviews on Amazon. So, there was nothing to influence me one way or the other as to whether or not to read this book. Reading the first ten pages gave me the impression that this was a poorly written book by a novice writer. I won't read it. The story did not engage me, and I found the characters poorly defined. There wasn't anything about it that I liked. What I disliked most was the prospect that Bud could follow these two guys into Mexico, driving a car well-known to them that they never saw following them. The book was not professionally edited, as it was filled with punctuation errors. The author repeatedly, in writing dialogue, incorrectly uses periods rather than commas after quotes, as in the following sentence at the beginning of chapter one: "'I wish I could stay down as long as you do.' Chuck says..." Similarly, on the same page: "'Like I said, it's harder than it looks.' He responds." The author routinely changes where he places the punctuation mark, before and after the quotation marks, as in the following sentence on page 9 "'It's fated'." I recommend that the author secure the services of a professional editor to at least try and make the book readable.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 3:07 pm by Timothy Rucinski.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Nisha DSouza
I didn’t find the cover or the book’s title very interesting. There wasn’t enough in the blurb to gauge the book’s content. There were no Amazon reviews either. I didn’t find an official OBC review, so I continued to read the sample. I wasn’t too impressed with the content on the ten pages. There might be some readers who could take offense to the jokes about their religion. I found many errors in the ten pages I read, two of which are given below. I would not be interested in buying this book because the whole plot is about a guy’s coming of age and hitchhiking trip.
Location 2 of 260
Error: There’s a whole bank of sea anemone’s off to the left.
Explanation: It should be (anemones) instead of (anemone’s).
Location 2 of 260
Error: I looked at the blue of the ocean gliding by and wondered why he was talking about God?
Explanation: The sentence should end with a period and not a question.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 12:01 pm by Nisha DSouza.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Bertha Jackson
Although I enjoy reading fiction books, I would have skipped over this book because of the cover and title because I do not enjoy reading about hitchhikers. The blurb did not influence my decision not to read this book. There were no ratings, customer reviews, or editorial reviews to influence my decision. There was nothing I liked about the first ten pages. The pace was too slow, and the writing too simple. It seemed foolish to drive to Mexico to get your car upholstery work done without an appointment, and I thought he was rude when he called his friend, Chuck, a HalfWit. The first ten pages did not appear professionally edited, as I found an error on Page: 2: Do you wanna go?” I ask, (comma should be a period). I may have read this book if an OnlineBookClub review provided some positive aspects, but there was no review to read. I will not finish reading the free book because the first ten pages did not impress me.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 11:59 am by Bertha Jackson.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Olga Markova
But for the First Ten, I would not have sampled or read this book because its cover and title are unclear about what this book is about, a hitchhiker on the cover looked like a threat, and the genre, blurb, and editorial and customer reviews suggest that it is a book about travels of two teenagers. Sampling the first ten pages, I liked the author’s writing style and the main characters - Chuck and Luke. I did not find errors and I have no suggestions for improvement. After reading the first ten pages, I will not buy and read the whole book because I do not like books about teenage travel. There was no OBC review but the lack of it did not affect my decision whether to read this book.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 11:58 am by Olga Markova.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda
I like the hand-drawn style of the cover. I also like the blurb because I enjoy reading about life in the 60s and 70s. The book has no ratings, but I still would have bought it based on my first impressions.
I liked the first ten pages. Opening with dialogue is a great idea. Most books open with descriptions, and it can be boring. I found the idea of "fighting banana slugs" pretty funny. I didn't like my country being portrayed as the land of gambling, cheap car parts, and easy booze. But I get that's how many Americans see it. There are some editing mistakes. For example, the wrong punctuation in the following sentence on page 2: "Yeah, it runs good and looks good but the upholstery is a mess!."
An official OBC review could've helped me feel more sure about how this book will go. I still decided to buy the book based on the first ten pages.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 10:16 am by María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Sushan Ekanayake
"Thumbing It" by David Done belongs to the Other Fiction genre, which I usually do not read. The title and cover page are self-explanatory. The blurb reveals that this is an autobiographical novel about a hitchhiking journey during the summer of 1967. I did not see any editorial or customer reviews. Based on the above facts, I would not have sampled this book if I had not been part of this program.
However, I read the first few pages, which described how the protagonist and his friend went snorkeling and suddenly decided to go to Mexico. I liked the author's writing style, which used a lot of dialogue. Nevertheless, since I do not usually prefer this genre, I decided not to read the rest of the book after reading the first ten pages.
I did not see any errors or areas for improvement in the first few pages. There was no official OBC review for this book. However, the lack of a review was not an issue since I had already decided not to read the rest of the book.
First Ten review added on March 7, 2023, at 10:04 am by Sushan Ekanayake.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Total ~ 13%
Thumbing It earned a score of 13%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 13% plan to read the whole book.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable.
Over a million books are published each year. Any given person could not even read .0001% of the books out there. This means readers have to be very selective. Even taking the time to look over reviews and blurbs, let alone read samples, is more time than most readers can afford for most books. The First Ten is a powerful focus group that addresses those issues. It creates a helpful tool for authors, publishers, and other readers.
Go to main Bookshelves page for Thumbing It
