Book Beginnings on Fridays...

Hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader

Book Beginnings on Fridays as stated by the host was started:

 "to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires."

You can share on Google + and social media , please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings

and there's also a Mr Linky on the host's blog.

Book Beginning : Perfect by Rachel Joyce

The Addition of Time

.......In 1972, Two seconds were added to time. Britain ‘agreed’ to join the Common market, and 'Beg, Steal or Borrow' by the New Seekers was the entry for Eurovision. The seconds were added because it was a leap year and time was out of joint with the movement of the earth. The New Seekers did not win the Eurovision Song Contest but that had nothing to do with the Earth’s movement and nothing to do with the two seconds either......

A bit of book blurb

In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures.

Then Byron's mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron's perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?

 I remember 1972 very well - but don't recall the addition of two extra seconds to the clock - so obviously this had no effect on my teenage self. However,  the book shows that Byron is very bothered by this addition and the story proves why ........

What do you think?