Midnite at the Library

The only thing that irks me more than seeing midnite spelled the way it is spelled on the sign in the picture is that it is spelled this way on a sign in a library parking lot. I feel strongly that the library should have the sign corrected, effective immediately.

We live in a world where so many things save us time. Instead of hunting and gathering, we can microwave pre-made meals, if we so choose. We can go to a big box store and get clothes, food, other miscellaneous supplies, and electronics all in one trip. We can send instant messages instead of writing a letter and sending it by post. With all this time saved, please just write words out the way they should be spelled. Luv should be love. Guac should be guacamole. Never send me a text that only includes the letter K. If it you feel compelled to confirm something, at least have the decency to write okay. Is it really worth spelling midnight as midnite to save one measly letter? I think not.

The Time I Met The Subversive Copy Editor

I have a long relationship with style guides. For most of my academic career, I was loyal to MLA. We were close, and I loved the laissez-faire attitude it had—almost anything went in the relationship so long as you were consistent. But at a certain point, I just wanted more from a style guide. It wasn’t MLA; it was me. APA and I got to know each other well because of some freelance work, but we never got serious. I admire its brevity and attention to social scientific concerns, but we are just friends. CMOS, however, is the style guide love of my life. Its big, comprehensive index; its bright, colorful jacket; its sturdy, thick binding; its detail-oriented rules and abundant examples—what’s not to love about The Chicago Manual of Style? 

So, imagine my excitement when I got to meet the editor of the CMOS online Q & A forum, Carol Fisher Saller (@SubvCopyEd), who just happened to pay a visit to the University of Illinois Press last week, which just happens to be my place of employment. Carol Saller is a manuscript editor at the University of Chicago Press, and many know her as The Subversive Copy Editor. Her book by the same name is a delight to read, and the cover is pretty darn amazing, too.

 

She signed my book!

In all the excitement of meeting her, I apparently referred to University of Chicago Press as University Press of Chicago—how embarrassing! I had a zillion questions for her: As a manuscript editor, how was the process of having your own manuscript edited and put through production? Or was it perfect already? Do you have any other books in the works? What is the process of updating the new editions of the CMOS like? How do you come up with rule changes? Is it like 12 Angry Men with everyone seriously debating in a room? Do you have a running list between editions? What’s on the list right now? Will you sign my book? 

 I didn’t get to ask all my questions—I had to hold back on my crazy vibe—but that didn’t matter. Hearing her speak was wonderful. We even found out that she got her start as a freelancer in the Chicago office of our very press! She is a great storyteller, and she was a charming guest. She shared many stories of the various types of submission the Q&A receives, and she discussed the large, dedicated following of the style guide and the Q&A. One thing is certain: I’m not alone in my appreciation of CMOS.

Saller, Carol Fisher. The Subversive Copyeditor. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009.

"Used Battery's Only"

This is clearly an apostrophe disaster of epic proportions. In a mere 12 words, the person who wrote this sign managed to use an apostrophe twice where no apostrophe belongs! What is truly special to me is that the apostrophe is not only used incorrectly twice, but it is used incorrectly in two different ways. As you can see, the first apostrophe is used instead of adding an "ies" to properly pluralize the noun battery. The second apostrophe is added to the verb creating some sort of mutant contraction.

Upon seeing this sign, my first impulse was run through the store, find a red Sharpie, and add some edits. Then, on second thought, I decided to take a picture and blog about it instead.

Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall

One of the things I value highly is thriftiness. Thrift is the reason I read a lot of non-mainstream books: they are the ones on sale. Thrift is also the reason I tend to be a little behind the times on contemporary novels. I certainly know about the books, but I typically wait until a book comes out in paperback. Wolf Hall was a book a desperately wanted to read, and excitedly waited for the paperback edition. When it came out, I used a coupon for a discount at Changing Hands, and I bought it and started reading it. It is always a bad sign when your friends hope you finish a book quickly so that you will stop complaining about it.

Mantel has a way with words: many, many, many words. Perhaps she should have borrowed some of my thrift and put it towards an economy of expression. The wordiness itself was not the only problem, though (keep in mind I am a Dickens girl, and his wordiness has only made me love him more). The wordiness seemed only to be alleviated through the use of pronouns, which actually became problematic. For instance, in a passage with three male characters, it does not help to use the pronoun he consistently throughout the page. I consider myself a savvy reader, and I also consider myself a descriptivist when it comes to language and grammar; however, I struggled so much through certain passages in this book that I spent a great deal of time contemplating and championing the fact that grammar rules exist for a reason. A pronoun is useless if it has an unclear antecedent, and a pronoun is useless if it can possibly refer to three different things in a given context. The he pronoun was such a consistent problem throughout the text that it made the read less enjoyable, and, in case you are doubting me, yes, the issue indeed warranted a discussion of this length. Overall, the book was too dense: too dense with words, pronouns, characters, locations, politics, and loosely explained historical references.

I would not say this is a bad novel, though. After all, Mantel had a lot working against her with a book of this nature: weaving history with imagination, dealing with the preconceptions people bring to the historical figures, and dealing with the excessive amount of people with a role in the historical situations. The character list of this tale would rival even [SPOILER ALERT: another Dickens reference] that of Bleak House. I cannot say I learned much history from this work of historical fiction, but I can say I learned something timeless: sometimes things are not worth the wait, and the less you pay for something often directly equates to less disappointment when something is not what you expect. Thriftiness saved the day here, because if I had shelled out for the hard cover, this review may have had a lot more complaining and a little more snark.

Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009.

Blog the First

Well, friends, today is the day. Today is the day I give the world my first blog entry. As a longtime resident of the Twittersphere, I have decided it is time to delve into the blogosphere. I have already exceeded 140 characters, and I feel like a rebel!

I am a simple creature, with simple tastes. I like my books (well-edited, of course) and I like the people in my life, who indulge my bookish ways. But, you may ask, why am I starting this blog now? I admit, it has taken me awhile to get on the blogwagon. This is mostly due to the last three years of my life spent juggling an English master's program, a Scholarly Publishing Certificate program, tutoring a fourteen-year-old in English and writing, freelance editorial work, working at various jobs and internships, volunteering at an organization that records books for the blind and dyslexic (RFBandD), presenting papers at academic conferences, and, in any remaining free time, reading for pleasure and sleeping. Why all the free time now? Well, despite what I consider being extremely qualified, I have had little luck in getting a job. More precisely, I have had no luck getting publishers to hire me as an editorial assistant so I can work towards the real goal: being an acquisitions editor. More on that later, because I suspect jobless woes may contribute content to this blog to some degree.

Besides being a highly qualified, vivacious, young lass not being able to secure a publishing job, what else do I anticipate this blog to bring? Well, it will have a lot about books. The books I am reading, the books I have read, and the books I want to read. I find it difficult to read as anything but a critical thinker, so I will likely defy the popular opinion on books. I have two English degrees under my belt, so, to put it simply: I read a lot and expect a lot. I will also regale you with the calamities and adventures freelance editing brings. I am an avid traveler, so await tales of foreign lands! My next trip is in July, when I find myself traveling to Israel and Egypt. And, due to semi-popular demand, I will, from time to time, harness my inner snarkiness to ruthlessly judge and possibly mock egregious errors of the typographical, grammatical, and spelling variety.