Friday, June 23, 2006

The downside of reviewing

Tonight we're celebrating the return of our digital camera from a near-death experience (the CCD wasn't working, but now it's back to normal, thanks to Sony and UPS). This is me, 10pm on a typically exciting Friday night here in middle America. I'm about 75 pages into my current review book, the latest literary masterpiece by Big Unnamed Historical Novelist. Sad to say, not a damned thing has happened so far.

Were this review book something I snagged for myself for the HNR, at this point I'd be writing up an enticing description for the next review book list in my hopeful attempt to pawn it off on some unsuspecting soul. Heh. Such is not the case, however. This particular novel is mine, all mine, all 400-odd pages of it.

Oh, and the big black oil spill just behind me is our 22-lb male cat, Max, who (he doesn't want me to say this) had an "accident" all over one of my new books this afternoon. Fortunately, dust jackets are waterproof and easily cleaned.

5 comments:

  1. Max ought to hook up with our 20-plus-pounder Stripes. I haven't had the courage to get her weighed lately.

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  2. We brought Max to the vet last weekend. The only way we could get him weighed was to put him in his carrier on the scale, then the carrier alone, and subtract. He does not like the vet.

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  3. Geez, are you going to breed monster cats? A bunch of Greebos?

    75 pages and nothing has happened? Ugh, that doesn't sound promising. I can go with a slower beginning in a historical novel, but please, something should happen before page 75.

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  4. Max only weighs about 10 pounds less than my smaller dog!

    Looks like you're settled in for weekend of reading...same here.

    Hope the pace picks up on that historical novel!

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  5. This Max won't be reproducing, safe to say. He tends to loll around on cushions and sleep, which is why he's as beefy as he is. There are a few neighborhood dogs smaller than him!

    I'm up to p.140 now. Things started happening around p.100 - I finally got past all the backstory - and though things are still slow, the plot is going somewhere at least. I may have even glimpsed examples of the "exquisite prose" the endorsements are going on about.

    Margaret, hope your weekend's reading is entertaining!

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