Break-time

So it's 3:45 on Saturday afternoon. I'm taking a "lunch break" from proofreading and wondering if the occasional back massage might possibly be construed as a business expense. (Why is it that my fancy good-posture kneeling stool no longer seems to be doing its job?)

As is typical, I was halfway through one proofreading job when another arrived (with a very short deadline) and another one shortly after that. What's that saying again, about raining and pouring? Funny how these flurries of proofreading always occur when I've dared to apply for a "normal" job!

The job I've just finished and the one I'm breaking from at the moment are both books that I would never normally pick up to read for my own personal pleasure. In fact, I would say that probably eighty per cent of the books I proofread fit into such a category. But I've found that in almost every case I enjoy reading these books, the ones which would not attract me if I saw them on a shop bookshelf and read their back-cover blurb. This is one of the things I love most about my job -- it widens my personal reading scope and I find myself inspired in various ways as a result of enjoying something I would not have otherwise tried.

What about you -- have you ever made yourself read a book that you instinctively thought you wouldn't like? What made you try it, and how did you get on with it?


Just finished reading: Marriage, Interrupted by Karen Templeton

Book Tag

Nell (who recently received the most gorgeous cover for her July release from Little Black Dress -- see it here) has book-tagged me, so here it is...

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you've posted your three sentences.

I feel like maybe I should give some sort of critical analysis of whatever I post, but I think it depends on what I get!

*looks around for the nearest book*

I've laid my hands on Barbara Erskine's Whispers in the Sand, which I haven't actually read yet. Hope I don't come across a spoiler. Anyway, here are the relevant sentences:

She slipped off the canvas folding stool upon which she had been sitting before her easel and sank cross-legged on the Persian rug, fluffing her skirts up around her. When she glanced up he was offering her a plate, his deep brown eyes grave as they rested for a moment on her face. There wasn't a trace of servitude in his manner as he smiled the slow serious smile she was growing to like so much.

This book is set in the present and when I read this paragraph I thought it sounded quite historical. A flip back through the pages revealed that this comes from a scene which is actually a flashback into the past. I'm most intrigued by who "he" is, and why his eyes are so grave when he looks at her and yet he smiles anyway.

I tag: Sue, Karen, Judy, Julie... and whoever else would like to do it.


Just finished reading: Loose Screws by Karen Templeton