How My Job Ruins Reading

As any of you who know me know, I love to read. Books are the love of my life after my kids and husband. A good book is one of my very favorite things. Almost a year ago, I took a job with the Court of Appeal. My job, as a Judicial Assistant, is to proofread opinions. I have to look for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and citation. I love my job. But. It has made me a little more than OCD when I read.

Because I read on my nook when I can’t sleep, I read a lot of free books. Some of them are self-published. And, evidently, self-edited. And poorly, at that. I have found more errors in the last five or six books I have read than I have in a long time. Some of the errors are small-a misplaced comma or a missing comma. But some of the errors are larger, and more annoying. Like use of “plaintiff” when the author clearly meant “plaintive”. These errors annoy me because it takes me out of the story. I get suck on the error.

This has me wondering if there are book editors as a professional career any more. I know most people probably don’t think much about it. But editing is an important job. Word choice, punctuation, sentence structure…..these are things that can make or break whether a person stays with a book or stops reading.

My job has made me hyper-aware of errors and it actually annoys me so much. So, my job has ruined my ability to read without noticing errors.

The Terminal List

Watch out Scot Harvath, Mitch Rapp, and John Wells, there’s a new badass on the block. The Terminal List is a page-turner. A military/political thriller in the best sense of those words. The basic plot is this: Lt. Commander James Reece is a Navy SEAL. His unit is ambushed in Afghanistan and he and one other teammate are the only survivors. They return home under a cloud of suspicion. His teammate commits “suicide” and James’ family is murdered. He goes on the run to find those responsible and exact his revenge.

I liked this book. The characters are well developed and Jack Carr knows his stuff. His descriptions of weapons and procedures are thorough, but not overly technical or complicated. I liked James as a person. The dedication he feels towards family and friends. The intelligence. The practicality about his chosen profession and its consequences. He didn’t feel like an over-the-top hero. He didn’t feel like he was too-good-to-be-true. He felt real.

There are some excellent plot turns. And while I did figure out an important plot point, knowing that information did not make me feel like I missed out on anything. The story is tightly woven and it is an excellent book.

I won this book from Goodreads and received no other compensation in exchange for this review. The opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.