Remember when we were in high school and we had assigned reading? How many of those books did you enjoy? Some were unexpected gems, others were painful slogs.
When I left my job, one of my friends asked if this was a new era for me, if I was going to put my skills to use to make my own money rather than off the back of industry. My response was a firm no. I had a certain skill set which I was happy to provide to my employer, but I was done with "required reading." On the plus side, on the job, most of the required reading was boilerplate, cut and paste and customize to apply to your client. Applying that to a private editor position - well, most people don't write boilerplate. Add to that the fact that at least with the boilerplate, I was looking for errors rather than content most of the time. Not that content wasn't most important, but the subject matter was mostly written "as expected."
Last year, I had an author approach me with an editing project. Did I want to dip my toes back in the water? Not really, but it felt like an opportunity, the world reaching out to me to "use my gifts." I agreed to "look" at her work (not to DO the work) to see if I could help. One chapter in and I backed out. Despite her promise to pay me market rates AFTER other editors had already gone through it. That was probably one of the deciding factors - her comment was "an editor told me to do this, but I don't want to." Well, if you're paying someone for professional advice and then you choose to ignore it, why am I wasting my time telling you what you don't want to hear? But I digress...
I just got my editor comments back and am busily addressing what needs to be fixed, smoothed over, corrected. While she had my work, I took the "down time" to catch up on my reading. I have a long TBR list which I have been ignoring. Granted, sometimes I skip over the TBRs in favor of personal recommendations or books I WANT to read first. (For instance, it's Christmas time. Shouldn't I be reading Christmas books? Spoiler alert - for me, the answer is yes.) The problem is I can't get to the books I WANT to read because there are books I PROMISED to read and haven't yet. Required reading. It's like reading Huckleberry Finn when you want to read Harry Potter.
As I mentioned at the start of this post, sometimes you encounter unexpected gems in your required reading stack. When I was in high school, I picked a book from the "discretionary" list because I had to read something. WHEN THE LEGENDS DIE turned into an unexpected gem for me. The title appealed to me, but I had no idea what to expect. It's a story about an indigenous boy who is taken from his heritage and forced to live in a white man's world. He has a talent with horses and makes his way on the rodeo circuit. It's about personal struggle, about trying to conform who you are to who the world expects you to be. In the end, he goes back to his heritage.
Reading is considered a leisure activity. I've discovered many new voices and stories picking up books here and there, and I admit to still rebelling against the "required reading," books I read for research or books I promised someone I'd read. This is where I remind you that reading is subjective. When I read OUTLANDER, I recommended it to my mother because I was so blown away by it. My mother hated it. One person's treasure is another person's garbage. We don't all connect with things the same way. As one of my critique partners likes to say, "not in target audience."
I've knocked out my winter quota of required reading, so once I've attacked these edits to my own work, it will be back to my TBR list (and probably a few Christmas books). What books are you choosing to read this December?
