I finally picked up my copy of The Pine Barrens off the bookshelf. I’ve read a handful of pages so far and McPhee has done a good job of reeling me in. Lately, I’ve been reading one short story collection after another and I just want to read something that has a continuous plot line from cover to cover.
I was going to read One Man’s Wilderness, which I gave to Jason a year or so ago, but when I looked up the book online I was disappointed to find out that many people felt the book was edited to heavily (no offense to my dear friend, Jen!!!) and thus, the book didn’t quite capture Richard Poenneke’s spirit. Later, the National Park Service published this book of Poenneke’s journals preserved in their original form. However, I just can’t seem to convince myself to buy it due to its large price tag and also since we have the other title, albeit edited with a much heavier hand. Perhaps someday I will try to read One Man’s Wilderness, but for now I can’t. I’m biased knowing that they is a better version out there.
Filed under: Books
No need to apologize over the editing remark–when a book is “too heavily edited,” that usually means that the editor who acquired the title changed the book too much before it ever went into production (which is where my brand of editing comes in). Publishing lore has it that the published version of Catch-22 bears no resemblance to Heller’s original manuscript; it was pretty much rewritten by the editor who signed the contract.
Also, yay McPhee! Is this the first of his books you’ve read? I really recommend The Crofter and the Laird next.
Yes this is my first McPhee book. I think I bought it last August!
Speaking of publishing lore, Nabokov’s Butterfly by Rick Gekoski has a good bit in it. That was a great book on books.