Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Safe Reading

This made me giggle. Safe reading positions for reading a very, very, very heavy book: Hunger’s Bride, by Paul Anderson. Via Tinglealley. Caaf gives the book’s weight in weird USian measurements. I’m guessing a couple of kilos. Whatever it is, looks tough on the old wristies.

Now I want to write a really, really heavy book. Wonder how my editors will feel if I turn in the ms. of Magic or Madness iii and it’s, say, 200,000 words long? The first two were around 65,000, so clearly it’s time for a wristbreaker . . .

Posted by Justine at 12:25, 23 August 2005 under Bloggery/Internetty Stuff, Frippery, Ironical (This is Writ), Reading | 8 Comments »

Comments

  1. Celia Says:

    I’ve been looking at hardbacks an awful lot lately, and that one pretty much takes two hands to pull off the shelf. I think somewhere (possibly even the back of the book) it’s compared to “A Suitable Boy” by Seth solely on the basis of its weight. (ooh. For *all* your conversion needs, and then some: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/weight –I’ve not even heard of most of these) I hurt my wrist the other day, and the most annoying part of it is that it’s harder to read books on my walk to work now. Saddness! Woe!

    August 23rd, 2005 at 1:24 PM

  2. 2. Justine Says:

    You can read while walking! That feat will never cease to impress me. I can barely reading sitting down without coming a cropper.

    To be honest, I plan to remain in willful ignorance of USian measurements. I’m a one-woman movement pressuring them into switching to metric. It’s a tough fight, but someone has to do it.

    Sorry about your wrist! I busted mine ten years back (many broken itty bitty bones) and it still buggers around with me. Treat it nice.

    August 23rd, 2005 at 1:36 PM

  3. marrije Says:

    Oooh yes, please do write the 200.000 worder! though i’d much prefer it if you didn’t make the book a space opera, i can’t stomach those, even the excellent mr scalzi’s attempt didn’t make me happy.

    do you have any idea by the way whether hunger’s bride is any good? or is it a danbrowndisaster?

    August 23rd, 2005 at 2:43 PM

  4. betsy Says:

    4.75 pounds = 2.15456376 kilograms per google.

    i live to serve. ;)

    August 23rd, 2005 at 3:12 PM

  5. Celia Says:

    See, in my own continuing mission to ignore the existance of metric-ness, I always forget if it’s two pounds to the kilo or vice versa. I do know that 5 pounds is nearly half a stone. :) (that’s how I know I’ve been reading too much brit lit).

    Reading while walking is fun, mostly, until I get home and can’t remember if I stopped at all the intersections. :)

    August 23rd, 2005 at 5:21 PM

  6. razorbilly Says:

    The first draft of my followup to TEACH ME is 143,000 words long. I’ve trimmed it by 20,000 words so far. Livin’ large!

    August 23rd, 2005 at 10:07 PM

  7. Mike G. Says:

    Hey, I just finished MorM 1 yesterday, and I’m too
    out of shape to lug around a 200k word volume 3.
    So I’ll vote for you sticking to the 60k range :)

    (great book, by the way!)

    Right now, the poor site’s exceeded its bandwidth limit :( Guess I’ll have to read that article later.

    August 24th, 2005 at 8:21 AM

  8. 8. Justine Says:

    Marrije: I promise a really long (not space opera) book by me will be in print before too long. But it won’t be the final MorM book.

    Betsy: Thank you for confirming that my guess was spot on. Yay me!

    Celia: It’s not a mission when your whole country is dedicated to similar ignorance.

    I guess if you make it all the way home then it doesn’t matter if you stopped at intersections or not . . . Those who can walk and read a book at the same time are just naturally blessed.

    Razorbilly: 143 thou words! Gulp! That’s awfully long for a YA book . . . Congrats on finishing the draft.

    Mike G.: Glad you liked MorM. You need not worry the third book may be a bit longer than the other two but it will certainly not be 200 thou or even half that long. I promise.

    The reading positions site is back up so you can have a squiz now.

    August 25th, 2005 at 12:45 PM

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