Friday 19 November 2010

I Never Learn

Once again, I trusted the reviews and bought a novel - The Legacy, by Kirsten Tranter. It is the most badly edited book I have ever read. I have chosen two examples to support this contention; they appear only a couple of paragraphs from each other. Excuse the white-out, which I used to cover my handwritten expletives:

I suppose it could be argued that there is no lack of logic there really. After all, in the first example it is not the character's own hair, but the hair of her eyes that is gathered at the back. Therefore, there is no reason at all that only a few lines later her thick blonde hair shouldn't be drawn over to one side of her neck. That's different hair, presumably, the stuff that's growing on her head, rather than the stuff sprouting from her eyeballs. All the same, there's no getting away from the fact that she's an unusually hairy girl.

2 comments:

  1. I foind one in the smh this morning. I've thrown my paper away, but it's in the online version at this address: http://www.smh.com.au/world/minister-resigns-in-row-over-bottled-water-20101118-17zcz.html Third-to-last para:

    "The Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, is reported to have ordered Mr Roth be deported Mr Roth. His work permit had been extended for three years in January. Ratu Ganilau told the Fijilive website yesterday that he had resigned rather than carry this out."

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  2. All those tricky foreign names made their minds weak, I suppose. Thank you for that. I rarely buy a Friday paper, as it always seems to me that they're saving everything up for the Saturday bumper edition and they just give you a thin little thing to keep you going.

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