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This week's First Impressions, the competition in which you have to identify a book from its opening line, comes from a Cincinnati kid who thought that sudden changes of mind were a good thing:

"History, if viewed as a repository for more than anecdote or chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science by which we are now possessed."

Entries should be submitted to First Impressions, The THES, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY, faxed to 0171 782 3300 or emailed to theschat@thes.co.uk.

The winner receives a Pounds 20 book token and the closing date is July 2.

The winner of last week's competition, who identified Graham Greene's The Third Man, is Alan Stanton of Richmond, Surrey.