Still in my coat and hat, I sank onto the stair to read the letter. (I never read without making sure I am in a secure position. I have been like this ever since the age of seven when, sitting on a high wall and reading The Water Babies, I was so seduced by the descriptions of underwater life that I unconsciously relaxed my muscles. Instead of being held buoyant by the water that so vividly surrounded me in my mind, I plummeted to the ground and knocked myself out. I can still feel the scar under my fringe now. Reading can be dangerous.) . Diane Setterfield
About This Quote

J.K. Rowling wrote a letter to her publishers in which she regrets the use of the word "stair" in the first line of the first chapter of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. She states that she had been using it as a simile for a staircase, but found it to be confusing. In an interview for Time magazine, she explains: "When I wrote that I really meant that to say 'the stairs.' I was very careful about that, and went back to re-read it and change the wording."

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

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