Submitted by xxkatie_mayxx t3_zva1tp in books
TL;DR at bottom. oh my god this is stressing me out.
went to the book store and found some books on sale. Liked the description of “beautiful world, where are you” and lay down in bed to read tonight.
IM AT PAGE 8 AND I PHYSICALLY CANNOT CONTINUE.
it is impossible to read. it is impossible to differentiate between speech and writing. it is taking me twice as long to read this book because i read the sentence once, figure out where the speech marks should be, then read it again trying to slow the pace down and pause after each quote.
can someone please tell me if this story is worth genuinely stressing over or if there’s a version somewhere that someone has published with quote marks added?
Example 1: And what are you going to do now you’re here? Look for work of something? She paused. He smiled and sat back in his seat, still looking at her. Sorry for all the questions, he said. I don't think I get the full story yet. No, I don't mind. But I'm not very good at giving answers, as you can see. What do you work as, then? That's my last question. She smiled back at him, tightly now. I'm a writer, she said. Why don't you tell me what you do? Ah, it's not as unusual as that. I wonder what you write about, but I won't ask. I work in a warehouse, outside town. Doing what? Well, doing what, he repeated philosophically. Collecting orders off the shelves and putting them in a trolley and then bringing them up to be packed. Nothing too exciting. Don't you like it, then? Jesus no, he said. I fucking hate the place. But they wouldn't be paying me to do something I liked, would they? That's the thing about work, if it was any good you'd do it for free.
Example 2: She smiled and said that was true. Outside the window the sky had grown darker, and the lights down at the caravan, park were coming on: the cool salt glow of the ourdoor lamps, and the warmer yellow lights in the windows. The waitress from behind the bar had come out to mop down the empty tables with a cloth. The woman named Alice watched her for a few seconds and then looked at the man again. So what do people do for fun around here? she asked. It's the same as any place. Few pubs around. Nightclub down in Ballina, that's about twenty minutes in the car. And we have the amusements, obviously, but that's more for the kids. I suppose you don't really have friends around here yet, do you? I think you're the first person I've had a conversation with since I moved in. He raised his eyebrows. Are you shy? he said. You tell me. They looked at one another. She no longer looked nervous now, but somehow remote, while his eyes moved around her face, as if trying to put something together. He did not seem in the end, after a second or two, to conclude that he had succeeded. I think you might be, he said. She asked where he was living and he said he was renting a house with friends, nearby. Looking out the window, he added that the estate was almost visible from where they were sitting, just past the caravan park. He leaned over the table to show her, but then said it was too dark after all. Anyway, just the other side there, he said. As he leaned close to her their eyes met. She dropped her gaze into her lap, and taking his seat again he seemed to suppress a smile. She asked if his parents were still living locally. He said his mother had passed away the year before and that his father was ‘God knows where’. I mean, to be fair, he’s probably somewhere like Galway, he added.
TL;DR USE QUOTATION MARKS. JUST PLEASE HELP ME.