It’s exciting to snag those advance reader copies, isn’t it? There’s a thrill in knowing you’re one of the first to read an upcoming book, and then being able to talk it up and help it become a hit. However, those advance copies are nearly always marked as “uncorrected proofs,” and as such, they may contain typos, grammatical errors, and factual mistakes. And as hard as I try not to let those things distract me, sometimes they really do. Therefore, I find the actual experience of reading an advance edition just a bit problematic.
There have been times, when reading an ARC, that I’ve come across things that make me think “I hope this got fixed in the finished copy,” and in my review, I’ve sometimes mentioned the things that needed fixing. I don’t think these things are always addressed in the final, “corrected” version, though; reading experience has shown me that some of these errors slip all the way through the process, and I always feel a pang of disappointment that the end-product wasn’t as clean as it should have been. I’m even more disappointed when these final-copy glitches affect my overall opinion of the book, and honestly, there are times when they do. It’s a quality-control issue.
I know that my own writing is not immune to any of these “distractions.” However, I have to be my own copy editor, and I admit that sometimes I miss things – things that I’m less likely to miss when I’m asked to edit someone else’s writing. But I’m not being asked to do that when I accept a galley; books that make it to the publication stage have had editors already. Still, as much as I try to turn her off, my inner copy editor tends to be on alert when I’m reading an uncorrected proof. If I really get pulled into the story, she tends to quiet down, but there have been times she’s convinced me I might have liked a book better if I hadn’t read it in the “advance” stage and been able to focus more on the content.
How much do you actually enjoy reading galleys and ARC’s?
Did you participate in the Read-Along of Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow back in April – or did the Read-Along inspire you to read it on your own? Either way, if you’ve read The Sparrow, you’re invited to join this month’s Read-Along of its sequel, Children of God. I’m excited to be co-hosting (again) with Heather J. of Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books.
This will be another re-read for me, but I don’t remember as much about it as I did from The Sparrow, and I’m looking forward to getting back into it. I think we could definitely get some interesting discussions out of it, including the inevitable compare-and-contrast to the first book.
Heather will officially introduce the Read-Along on her blog tomorrow, and will post interim discussion questions on Monday, August 16. I’ll host the wrap-up and links to participants’ reviews on Monday, August 30.
I hope you’ll join us as we return to Rakhat this month!
Two perspectives on “book hoarding:” the buildup, and the attempted recovery (I definitely follow connections to build up my library, and I don’t think I’ll ever recover from it)
Two new series to watch: Marie of Boston Bibliophile begins examining the building of home libraries (collections, not buildings!), and Jessica at The Bluestocking Society is kicking off a ten-week “Literature 101” course, examing literary concepts every reader should know.
An upcoming event: From 9 AM Friday, August 13 till 9 AM Friday, August 16 – as much or as little of that weekend as you can spare – it’s the Read Your Own Books Read-a-thon!
Meanwhile, moving on to some books that are not by Suzanne Collins…
BOOKKEEPING: The Reading Status Report
Recent reviews:
31 Bond Street, by Ellen Horan (TLC Book Tour)
This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness, by Laura Munson
Bird in Hand, by Christina Baker Kline (TLC Book Tour)
Every Last One, by Anna Quindlen
(Seriously…between traveling, the original recuperation period from my shoulder injury, and my continuing physical-therapy appointments, I am getting more reading done this summer than I have in ages!)
New additions to the LibraryThing “To Read” Collection:
(All for me!)
- The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors: A Novel by Michele Young-Stone
- An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell
I also picked up a few books – some purchased, some given to me – last weekend at Comic-Con in San Diego, but I’ll tell you more about those this Wednesday in my “Comic-Con Show and Tell” post.
