Mistakes in books. Have you ever found one?

[Christie]

I have found some typos and even some sentences that just don't make any sense! I've even asked teachers and they agree with me!

[iamnotreal]

I just found one. In Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Traveler" in Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 1, there is a character called Uncle John. However, halfway through the story, the spelling of his name changes to Uncle Jonn. I thought I was seeing things at first, but I went back and it does indeed start with him being called John and ends with him being called Jonn.

 

It's a marvellous story, though.

[Cookie]

Yep, I found one in Seduced by Moonlight. It says wants needs in the same sentence next to one another, it's not a big thing but it dragged me out of the book if you know what I mean.

[ladymacbeth]

I don't think I ever notice spelling / punctuation errors. Am too busy reading the story.

 

I only occasionally notice a continuity error but it doesn't matter to me that much unless it makes the story completely implausible.

 

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series has so many continuity errors it's not funny but I love the books so I don't get my knickers in a twist over it.

 

Am really glad to be completely unobservant over errors as noticing them all the time would be seriously annoying.

[BookJumper]

I only occasionally notice a continuity error but it doesn't matter to me that much unless it makes the story completely implausible.

I envy you. I had to abandon Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (which I badly wanted to read) because a slight continuity error on page two left me unable to dive into the story. I know it's sad but I can't help how it affects me...!

[Kreader]

Yep, I found one in Seduced by Moonlight. It says wants needs in the same sentence next to one another, it's not a big thing but it dragged me out of the book if you know what I mean.

 

Although I like the idea for the Merry Gentry series and can get some enjoyment out of it, the whole thing has error after error, spelling, grammar, typing errors and continuity errors. It is sometimes confusing to read but fans to get to play the spot the errors game.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Kreader

[Rawr]

Just noticed one in my copy of Dan Brown's 'Digital Fortress', says 'where' instead of 'were' oh no!

[ian]

Only last night I cam across "reason" spelt "reasion" in Under the Dome. Tut tut Mr King!

[vinay87]

Dracula! Or was it because of limited medical knowledge when it was written. The character of Lucy recieves blood transfusions from 4 different people. And there's no mention of a blood group.

[BookJumper]

'Gay' includes both homosexuals and lesbians - I have lesbian friends who refer to themselves as being gay - so that's technically not a mistake .

 

As for Dracula Vinay, I do think you're right in attributing the transfusion mistake to the state of the medical field at the time as opposed to sloppiness on Stoker's part.

[Pablo]

For those of you considering an e-book reader, you might also want to buy a hat, since the amount of mistakes in translation from paper to screen is likely to have you pulling your hair out.

 

That's not to say that the reader isn't fantastic - it is, but if errors are your pet, you might find you've got an elephant on your hands!

[Chrissy]

but if errors are your pet, you might find you've got an elephant on your hands!

What a brilliant term to use Pablo!

[BookJumper]

One more reason for me not to invest, then I'm pulling my hair out as it is!

[Ooshie]

I'm about 40 pages into The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, and have noticed about half a dozen typos already. Don't buy the Faber and Faber edition!

[Wyrdskein]

Not actually in the book, but Sherlock Holmes and the Running Noose was recorded on Bromley Library catalogue as Sherlock Holmes and the Running Nose.

[mountainhiker]

There are more typos these days. Many more.

 

The cause probably lies in the mechanization of proofreading. Cheap corporate publishers want to save a buck, who cares about quality.

 

Nothing beats the live eye.

[Cookie]

In the last Merry Gentry book some one got "an jury" oviously meant to be injury plus about a hundred others grrr.

[Raven]

I've been noticing more errors in books recently (both spelling/grammar and continuity based).

 

One surprising book I've noticed several errors in is The Day of the Triffids, there are several typos in the various copies I have.

[chrysalis_stage]

Not exactly a mistake but when I see it I think it is, but it apparently isn't. The thing that puzzles me is 'an historical' Inside I'm screaming, no it doesn't begin with a vowel so it should be 'a historical' but I've been told otherwise that the H is silent (although I myself pronounce the H)....English is my first and only strong language and after nearly 24 years I still find things like that hard to come to terms with Does anyone have any other information on this?

Edited May 26, 2010 by chrysalis_stage

[Cookie]

Not exactly a mistake but when I see it I think it is but it apparently isn't...the thing that puzzles me is 'an historical' inside i'm screaming no its not a vowel it should be 'a historical' but I've been told otherwise that the H is silent (although I myself pronounce the H)....English is my first and only strong language and after nearly 24 years I still find things like that hard to come to terms with

 

I've got a cockney accent in my head. I didn't know the H was supposed to silent.

 

EDT: I've repeated 'a historical' 'an historical' so much they are now both meaningless.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Cookie

[chrysalis_stage]

I've got a cockney accent in my head. I didn't know the H was supposed to silent.

 

Yeah I didn't either, ah i'm confused. Person who originally said it probably is!

[Ooshie]

I think it's likely that the pronounciation has changed over the centuries; no one I have ever known in any walk of life has pronounced historical with a silent h. "An" would be correct with a silent h, but I think it is just silly when the h is aspirated. To me, it seems a bit of an affectation to use "an historical" at all nowadays. I found this information on AskOxford:

 

Why do such words as hour and honest have a silent h? Is it because they would be difficult to pronounce with an audible h?

 

 

 

 

H is often silent in English, for different reasons according to the derivation of the word concerned (Hebrew messiah; Greek rhapsody) or by elision (shepherd, exhaust), and so on. The words you mention are derived from French, and English took over the French pronunciation as well as the word. But in other similar words we have come to pronounce the h over the centuries: horrible, hospital, host, hotel, human, humour. And in yet other cases we have added an h where French has none: hermit, hostage.

[rykketid]

So... This is a passage from a review of Brave New World:

 

<<Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers [...]>>

 

What?! Genetic engineering?! There's just one problem: the book had been written years before Watson and Crick discovered DNA structure. Indeed in the book genetic manipulation is never mentioned. This is so disappointing... Such an important novel would deserve a better review.

[bookmonkey]

I can't remember the name of the book now but I can still remember in one book I read the main character talking about the death of her father when she was a child, then only a couple of pages later he's somehow giving her away at her wedding. I've got to try and remember what book it was now.

If a book has too many spelling mistakes it really bugs me. I always pick them up, not just in books, and noticed a big one at our local hospital the other week.

[vinay87]

I remember the first error I've every spotted was the order in which people were resurrected in the Priori Incantatem spell during Harry's tiff with Voldy in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. James came first and then Lilly but it should have been Lily and then James since it reproduced the spells in reverse order. It was corrected in later editions but there you go

I've spotted several typos in the latter Wheel of Time books, the ones by Brandon Sanderson I mean. Typos don't really matter as much though, but in part 6, the Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan himself got Saidar and Saidin mixed up