"More Haste Less Speed," or The Disadvantages of Hurrying

I have frequently had occasion to remind myself of a maxim uttered by Gollum, the often despicable but always pitiable character who played a crucial role in J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings. Gollum was a kind of hobbit, though he retained little obvious resemblance to hobbit-kind, and this maxim showed the pithy common sense one could expect from hobbits.

"More haste less speed."

I don't know how many times I've been hurrying through some task, driven by anxiety and/or an imminent deadline, and only belatedly remembered Gollum's bit of wisdom. And I can't even guess at how many times I'd have benefited from remembering it. An instance of the latter involved the hardcover edition of A Boy Who Made Music. The book contained a misspelling of "diphtheria," which I made haste to fix once I was informed of it. And in my haste, I failed to look through the replacement file in detail.

Through some bizarre, inexplicable foul-up, that file included most of the book twice. The same error occurred when I fixed the paperback file, but I caught it there. And my memory of catching it kept me from realizing that I'd missed it, first, with the hardcover file. But if I'd been careful and methodical, instead of scrambling in a panic because the release date was (then) only a week and a half away, I'd have made and uploaded a correct hardcover file as well.

So all you anxiety-ridden or impatient people out there, heed my warning and learn from my mistake. 

I'm now waiting for the doubled-up version to get through the proofing process so I can nix it and upload a corrected corrected file. Sigh.

Meanwhile, here's the spread introducing the consequences of Joaquin's illness. 

And lest you think the book is relentlessly downbeat, here's a fanciful depiction of how much he loved listening to music.

Tomorrow, I'll post the gorgeous final illustration in celebration of Release Day -- though I think I'll keep the text as a surprise/reward for those who actually hunt down or buy the book. In the meantime, the paperback is already available for purchase, one day early (go figure!) -- as is the hardcover, if you want that shall-we-say-simplified spelling of diphtheria.