Page 1

I recently started a new book. It’s been a reoccurring theme over the last few months, and so I can’t help observe the location of page 1. By all logic, I would think a book should start it’s first white page with 1 and carry on until the last page finishes the consecutive numbering pattern. But I have yet to find a book that begins its numbering on that page.

A book begins on a variety of pages. If the preface and prologue are included, they often use informal Roman numerals: ix, x, xi. I say informal because they are small, lower case, and seemingly shy as if they know their presence not only confuses people, but irks them as they think of all the practice pages they had to read before biting into the real story. Sometimes books compensate/commiserate with readers and rewards them by starting chapter 1 on page 15. Other books leave you to endure xxii pages of preface and begin chapter 1 on page 1 as if they were 2 separate books.

I make the preface out to be a complete waste of time and unbearable. In some instances, this is true, but often times, the preface is the most revealing part that gives the readers a clear idea of what they should expect. Not to mention the background- this helps set the story so the readers CAN enter the middle of the conversation and still know what they’ve missed. The book I’m reading right now had me in stitches all the way through the Roman numeral-ed pages, a sure sign of good things to come.

This page-numbering observation is not without meaning for the grander scheme of life. Just as I ponder the reason behind the seemingly arbitrary beginning and numbering of books, I wonder about the beginning and numbering of life. When is life suppose to start? What is page 1? This thought could take us to the very hot political topic of life, conception, etc. but I’m considering life more in the sense of “adulthood” when people have the choice to live out their days as they see fit. Some say life begins with graduation from high school or college or grad school. Elders often state marriage is the beginning of it all. Life starts when people have kids, the kids are in school, when they’re in college, when retirement starts, when people become grandparents… If Roman numerals were used to account for that lapse of time, a lot more letters would be needed.

It’s easy to think the first page will be very distinct, obvious, and a perfect start for a book, but without the title page, table of contents, acknowledgments, and preface, the story couldn’t start properly. Or should I say instead, couldn’t keep going? Life has many pages that could have a page 1, but all the extra stuff is best thought of as just another part of the book regardless of the numbering. The baby teeth, the first break-up, lunch on the Thursday of the third week in March, the first job offer, a baptism, the first vacation are merely chapters. The preface was written long ago and gives me a memory of who I am and a promise of where I’m going. Page 1 has, is and will start NOW- keep reading, keep living.