The Reading Room

What the room is reading this week. Long-form work by people who write for a living and people who write to stay sane.

The Glossary Is an Admission of Defeat

A publisher sent a six page, thirty one term glossary for approval. Twenty six of the terms were already explained by the sentences around them. The glossary was not informing readers, it was confessing which sentences had failed.

YBYusuf Belkacem editing language revision translation 5 min · marked 0

Bilingual Revision as a Diagnostic

A dead brother's name changed in chapter four and reappeared unchanged in chapter nineteen, invisible across a dozen French rereadings. It surfaced in a single afternoon once I read the same page in English.

YBYusuf Belkacem drafting editing language revision 5 min · marked 0