For some of us, summer is the slow season, when we can catch a breath and take a break from the hectic school year. While my teaching load is light, I've been catching up on readings that have been piling up in various forms: printouts, stacks of journals, a whole shelf of "to-read" books, and folders of documents.

The other day, I ran into a colleague with a huge stack of novels in her hands. Mine were full of articles, and I was jealous that she seemed to be planning a more entertaining weekend than I was. I remember a time when summer meant getting lost in stories, not accumulating references for an article I'm hoping to add to somebody else's "to-read" pile.

Contemplating my own writing put me in the perfect mood for this post from MaggieMay.

Verbatim email from my editor this morning:

"Maggie, the marketing department thinks your subtitle is a clunker. Can we change it?"

Nobody ever likes my titles, either!

La Lecturess points out sexist language in lit crit from years past.

And here's the thing: this book was reissued by the publisher just a few years ago, in a new edition (properly speaking, the only thing new about it is the introduction--the rest of the volume looks as though it was set by simply photographing the original pages), and I'm sure it's still a good seller. Without an electronic file, going back and eliminating those titles would be expensive and time-consuming for the publisher, I know--but leaving them in dates the work in really unattractive ways.

She also made me laugh out loud in my office by asking if she's the only person to write snarky marginalia in journal articles? I know I do the same thing, and judging from the comments on the post, we're not alone.

Happy reading!