True lies

摘要

The deadline was approaching. It was Thursday evening, and New Scientist wanted my review by first thing Monday morning. I had an inch-thick volume to get through. No matter, I had done this many times before and can get through most popular science books in about three hours. All was going smoothly until I read this: "I write a lot of book reviews. It's a great way to do three things at once: bone up on a new area, acquire a free book, and get paid for doing the above. It's also excellent practice in speed reading (the magazine or newspaper always wants the review by yesterday) and quick-fire journalism (ditto). New Scientist had signed me up to review a book called ..."