As I was perusing the bulletin from my parents' church recently, I noticed that they have a book club. I glanced at their book list, looking to see if there was anything interesting, and I found, "Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader." It's basically the ramblings of a woman who is in love with reading. Naturally I had to read it. It was good; not spectacular, but a fun, light read, and one in which I saw some shades of myself. (Although there were some points on which she and I differ considerably, such as taking care of books. Fadiman's all for dog-earing the pages, lying it open and face-down on a table, and other such things. She says that shows that they're loved. I say you use bookmarks, don't break the spine, and other such things. This shows they're cared for.)
One of my favorite parts was her chapter on how much she loves to proofread (to the point where it's almost an affliction). “Alas, there is no twelve-step program for [chronic proofreaders]. We must learn to live with our affliction. Perhaps we could even attempt to extract some social benefit from it by offering our faultfinding services on a pro-bono basis…had we been present last year at the Tattoo Shoppe in Carlstadt, New Jersey, we could have saved Dan O’Connor, a twenty-two-year-old Notre Dame fan, from having Fighing Irish tattooed on his right arm. He has sued the employer of the tattooist who omitted the t for $250,000 in damages. I hope O’Connor wins. I can imagine few worse fates than walking around for the rest of one’s life wearing a typo.” I must agree.
Overall, I would say this is a decent book for those of us who love reading. It's not one I would rush out to get, but if you happen upon it at the library, it's worth reading.
3 comments:
There should be a support group for obsessive proofreaders.
Better yet, poor spellers and punctuators should be banished.
I could so be in that support group, and I often think of the pro bono thing, but I think there are too many of us or something. Or that I wouldn't get paid enough. Or something. Not really a market, I guess, although it sure seems like there should be!
I'm not sure I like your idea though, Celeste. I sometimes don't use punctuation when chatting or blogging, which means I'd be banished. I suppose it would depend on where I was banished to, whether I would be OK with it or not.
i don't think chatting and blogging count as places where you have to be proper all the time. we all know that we're all smart and can use proper spelling and punctuation when we need to.
i like that you're worried about not getting paid enough for your pro-bono work. :)
Post a Comment