I was told by a Professor in college that he knew the man who edited "Brave New World". He claims that he was told that it was tightly written that it could not be edited, that for the most part that changing a word would ruin a transition or some other part of the flow. The only editing that was done in the end was proofreading for typos and misspellings of which there were almost none. I don't know whether this was myth or truth, and it has been so long since I read "Brave New World" that I can't judge based on internal evidence of the work either.

I will note that I have never heard this even about many writers that are acknowledged greats. Also the one other writer I heard it about was an LA Times columnist I found boring - Jack Smith. (I doubt Jack Smith is still alive; he wrote column that basically just narrated his life as it happened, along with not very profound musings. )

I remember years ago reading a biography of Lucius Beebe who wrote for ... Gourmet, I believe, among other publications. One comment that stuck in my mind was that he wrote "prose so rococco you could carve grottos out of it." There was also an instance when he turned in a column that was one long sentence; when his editor told him he had to break it up, Beebe told him to do it ... and the editor couldn't find anyplace to break it.

Free audiobook of Code Name Verity: [link]

Whoa, nice, thanks!! Guess I know what I'm listening to after Every Day. Though there's a sequel out, too. Is it a trilogy/series or are there only two books?

It's more like a companion book, P-C. And there's only one, Rose Under Fire.

Cool, thanks!

Has anyone read CNV and also listened to it? I'm seeing a variance wrt books I rec, especially when they're listening to a the audio. Some books work just fine, or better. Curious about other people's experience.

In case anyone else is wondering - the GRRM story in Rogues is not a Dunk & Egg. I was hoping it would be.

Not so much "literary," but I just read the last Sookie Stackhouse book (the real last novel, not the "coda"), and the terrible reviews on Amazon are HILARIOUS.

Tep, not sure if you missed it, but can you e-mail me your address so I can send you your signed copy of Shades ? If I can find packing materials. Sorry it's taken so long!