Why, oh why did I have to write so much?

As today's blog entry title hints, I'm wondering what on earth rode me to write that much for my thesis. And from this, you can guess what I'm working on now... no, not a second thesis (thankfully), not even a second book (though I'm tempted to start all that craziness again, I really am), but plain, ol'-fashioned proofreading.

Now, proofreading one's own writing is, as anybody will probably tell you, not easy - because usually you know your own text so well that you just don't see the mistakes anymore. When I try to proof a fresh text of mine, I have an even worse symptom: My brain just switches off after the first words (if the text is really fresh) or sentences (if it has already hung for a while). So I have now discovered one big advantage of the fact that publishing processes are looong processes - I can actually read my thesis again without the brain-shutdown!

On the flip side, though, that also means that I can now read my thesis again and find all those nasty mistakes, unpolished sentences and slightly unconnected paragraphs. And there's lots and lots of text in that book - but I can only read for a finite time before my attention does slag somehow.

And that in turn means that I'm currently getting a lot of knitting done - because I read some, then have a short relaxing break knitting a bit, then I read some more, then I knit a little again, then I read some more... you get the picture. You will get a picture of the knitting one of the next days, too - but for now please excuse me. I have some reading (and knitting) to do.