Some people will hate me for saying this… But J.K. Rowling seems to be slightly controlling with her writing. The job of a proof reader is to make sure that things are easy to read and make sense. Take this following example from the beginning of Chapter 2 of the new Harry Potter book.

‘An immense chimney, relic of a disused mill, reared up, shadowy and ominous’

The problem is that there is a word missing here, that makes this sound a LOT better.

‘An immense chimney, a relic of a disused mill, reared up, shadowy and ominous’

That single letter and the space makes the whole thing a whole lot more readable. And this is the type of thing that a competent proof reader should have picked up. I know that they do not pick up everything, but from what I have heard I would guess that very little proof reading was done.

Right now I am up to page 69, a little over 10% of the way though. I do not know how much I will read today. I will have to see, but I certainly have some other things to do. I did read a chapter last night before going to bed, and then I woke up early so I am a bit tired today – maybe to the point of needing an afternoon nap.

Update: 4:30…

I how now read just over 1/3rd of the book… 207 pages…