A note from my chaise
And yes, I actually have a velveteen cheetah-print chaise longue in my living room in lieu of a couch. It's fabulous and glamorous and (best of all) the perfect spot for reading, as long as nobody's down in the family room with the TV blaring.
I've spent much of the day on the chaise, reading stuff. Mostly, I was reading and commenting on a manuscript for a friend, but I took a brief break to read emails and (for a half an hour) part of a novel I'm reading (a Lisa Kleypas romance, in case you were wondering - turns out I loved the Wallflowers as well as the Hathaway series, and now I'm reading Again the Magic, which is somewhat related to the Wallflowers, which are somewhat related to the Hathaways - I'm working my way backwards in time).
Turns out that I can rip through four to five chapters of a completed novel in that time, but I can't manage to get through a single chapter of the piece I'm critiquing in under an hour - and some chapters have needed upwards of two hours. It's a different sort of reading/thinking that applies, as it turns out, including the need to flip back seven chapters and re-read something to be sure that my recollection is correct (or to find out that it is, in fact, NOT correct, and that therefore no note is needed).
I love both kinds of reading, but reading in order to critique sure requires a lot more active brainpower. Still, it's a complete pleasure to read this particular YA fantasy. And yes, the irony in the fact that I'm taking a break from reading by reading has not escaped me.
I've spent much of the day on the chaise, reading stuff. Mostly, I was reading and commenting on a manuscript for a friend, but I took a brief break to read emails and (for a half an hour) part of a novel I'm reading (a Lisa Kleypas romance, in case you were wondering - turns out I loved the Wallflowers as well as the Hathaway series, and now I'm reading Again the Magic, which is somewhat related to the Wallflowers, which are somewhat related to the Hathaways - I'm working my way backwards in time).
Turns out that I can rip through four to five chapters of a completed novel in that time, but I can't manage to get through a single chapter of the piece I'm critiquing in under an hour - and some chapters have needed upwards of two hours. It's a different sort of reading/thinking that applies, as it turns out, including the need to flip back seven chapters and re-read something to be sure that my recollection is correct (or to find out that it is, in fact, NOT correct, and that therefore no note is needed).
I love both kinds of reading, but reading in order to critique sure requires a lot more active brainpower. Still, it's a complete pleasure to read this particular YA fantasy. And yes, the irony in the fact that I'm taking a break from reading by reading has not escaped me.