I recently volunteered to beta read a writing colleagues manuscript. While I have read many books over the years, and proofed many academic papers of my own, family, friends, etc. I had never done a beta read before. Recently, I had been feeling compelled to get more involved in the writing community. For some time now, I’ve been wanting to join a writing group but for some reason or another have been unable hereto-for.

When I saw this colleague on social media ask if someone would be interested, I jumped at the chance. What came next was surprising; I might enjoy beta reading more than regular leisure reading. I suspect that may be the result of my mental engagement of the material, that is, since I’m reading in order to give notes/feedback, the amount of bandwidth I’m allocating feels more substantial than when ai simply leisure read. This, of course, makes me question whether I’ve been reading poorly in my life prior to this point. Ugh.

Making this process even more fun has been the technology I have used for my beta reading. I’m tempted to talk about it now, but feel that if I do, this post is going to end up five times as long as it is now, so I’ll opt to make a near-future post devoted to the subject matter. Until then,