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Original poster

Mistakes in books

229 replies

VictoryLap · 16/12/2021 19:21

Almost every book I've read over the past few years has mistakes in it and it really annoys me! Anyone else?
I could understand if it was someone self publishing an ebook or something but these are Sunday Times Bestsellers etc. And not just one error, but multiple ones throughout.
I don't remember this happening so much several years ago or perhaps I am just more tuned in to it.

OP posts:
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PlanktonsComputerWife · 18/12/2021 08:59

I know for a fact that some authors dislike having errors detected, get angry and defensive, and eventually pretend they knew and were using creative licence (often after angrily insisting that they had been right).😁 Anyway- STET!!!

So sometimes errors get through despite the very best effort of the copyeditors.

PlanktonsComputerWife · 18/12/2021 08:52

The Russians had trenches in WW2 and there was also trenches in the Korean War as my dad spent time in more than one.

Thanks, @Rhannion, yes, they were used in many very famous battles, including the Battle of Kursk- it was an altogether impressive feat, both the digging and the summer victory over the Nazis.

Mistakes in books
Mistakes in books
Mistakes in books
Kanaloa · 18/12/2021 07:48

Maybe that was like

Kanaloa · 18/12/2021 07:48

I wish Lidl did home delivery. Maybe they was like a utopia Britain where Lidl delivers.

Can’t be doing with the shopping experience there, it’s like the grocery scanning olympics.

LiveintheNow · 18/12/2021 07:44

@HilaryThorpe

I am enjoying The Thursday Murder Club, but am unreasonaby annoyed that it starts in Waitrose in Tunbridge Wells. It doesn't have one. I am disgusted.
I was annoyed that someone got a home shopping delivery from Lidl!
stayathomer · 18/12/2021 07:33

I could understand if it was someone self publishing an ebook
I self publish ebooks, read about 30 times throughout the process, have 5 readers and I pay an editor and proof reader. Please please don't make comments like this (am sorry if I sound cranky but this attitude is so prevalent. Just because our books aren't in print and aren't literarily commended doesn't mean they're not quality products). And the reason for mistakes now (it's generally thought) is that the publishers have cordoned on that the only way to make money now is quantity so while they try to keep quality, they're also working with almost impossible turnaround times so they have in some cases a year to promote and get into awards etc

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 18/12/2021 07:26

Came across “Dr Martins” recently.

ohfook · 18/12/2021 07:05

@Dontgetyerknicksinatwist

Could this be a sign of standards slipping in schools?
No people have always made mistakes. I'd say it's a sign of the commodification of print literature. Books don't make as much money as they used to so publishers have to put more and more out. It stands to reason that there just isn't the same amount of time to spend editing as there used to be.
HilaryThorpe · 18/12/2021 06:59

I am enjoying The Thursday Murder Club, but am unreasonaby annoyed that it starts in Waitrose in Tunbridge Wells. It doesn't have one. I am disgusted.

InMySpareTime · 18/12/2021 06:53

Not quite the same thing as clearly a printing error, but my copy of Lucy Mangan's "Bookworm" repeated the first 38 pages. I have no idea how the printers didn't notice the obvious thickness change of the book.

Soubriquet · 18/12/2021 06:40

There’s a book I’ve got that had a character called Ysandre in it. Later on, in the same book, she’s referred to as Ygritte Confused

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 18/12/2021 06:24

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

A book set in Stalin’s USSR had a plot line involving someone paying school fees. Mind boggling.
Shock
LadyCampanulaTottington · 18/12/2021 04:41

I recently read a book which quotes “British Author Oscar Wilde”.

It made me really angry so I emailed the publisher explaining how insulting it is for Irish people to be put under the British umbrella.

It may have been a genuine mistake but its such a sensitive mistake to make.

Herewearestar · 18/12/2021 04:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mathanxiety · 18/12/2021 04:25

Punctuation errors too.

mathanxiety · 18/12/2021 04:24

I see mistakes everywhere, and not just in recently published books. I have a good few used books of varying age, all featuring annoying typos, inaccuracies, repetition of words, and misspellings.

MsAmerica · 18/12/2021 03:15

@VictoryLap

Almost every book I've read over the past few years has mistakes in it and it really annoys me! Anyone else? I could understand if it was someone self publishing an ebook or something but these are Sunday Times Bestsellers etc. And not just one error, but multiple ones throughout. I don't remember this happening so much several years ago or perhaps I am just more tuned in to it.
I wish you would have clarified whether you're speaking of factual errors, vocabulary errors, or proofreading errors.
Rhannion · 18/12/2021 01:32

Yes, the mistake was corrected in the AM McC book, I made a point of checking 😄

Rhannion · 18/12/2021 01:31

The French and Germans also had trenches.,

ArblemarzipanTFruitcake · 18/12/2021 01:28

The amount of rainbows in children's books that include pink or colours in the wrong order is incredible.

Richard of York gave battle in vain ...

Rhannion · 18/12/2021 01:27

@elegy

I downloaded the sample chapter of The Flatshare, and was enjoying it well enough until I got to a bit about the hero (who works in a care home) helping one of the elderly residents trace someone he knew in the war. Apparently they had served in the trenches together, which came as a shock to me and made me wonder if I'd missed the book being set in the 1980s or something, as no one in a care home these days would have been old enough to serve in WW1...

Nope, apparently she meant WW2. A fast moving war in multiple theatres with no trenches. How did no one pick that up?

(I didn't buy the whole book.)

The Russians had trenches in WW2 and there was also trenches in the Korean War as my dad spent time in more than one.
ArblemarzipanTFruitcake · 18/12/2021 01:27

@Rhannion

There was a big mistake in one of books by Alexander McColl Smith. He credited Joesph Lister with the discovery of chloroform as an anesthetic, when it was James Young Simpson. I sent an email to his publishers and got a nice polite response saying thank you , & Mr Smith was horrified by the mistake, that he was embarrassed and that it would be corrected in the reprint.
Was it corrected in the reprint?
Mysterian · 18/12/2021 01:26

The amount of rainbows in children's books that include pink or colours in the wrong order is incredible.

There's also a book in my nursery with shapes: A picture of a square with "Square" written underneath. Then a triangle with "Triangle" under it. Next is a page with a circle with the word "Round". Angry

ArblemarzipanTFruitcake · 18/12/2021 01:20

I wonder why more of it isn’t caught in word processors for the more obvious spelling/typo mistakes though? Is that a bit of a stupid question? I would just think Microsoft etc would catch the majority.

A spellchecker won't pick up mistakes that are valid words and/or not grammatically incongruous - such as the 'sewing wild oats' that was mentioned upthread.

Rhannion · 18/12/2021 01:19

There was a big mistake in one of books by Alexander McColl Smith.
He credited Joesph Lister with the discovery of chloroform as an anesthetic, when it was James Young Simpson.
I sent an email to his publishers and got a nice polite response saying thank you , & Mr Smith was horrified by the mistake, that he was embarrassed and that it would be corrected in the reprint.