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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.

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RubyDarke · 15/02/2022 12:59

I used to know someone who is a successful writer of upbeat romance. In one of her early novels she made one of the main characters the same profession as me, and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon helping her with terminology so that casual dialogue etc sounded convincing. What appeared in the final book was dreadful - and I know it wouldn't have been her as she was so careful to get it right. What is worse, I appear in the acknowledgements so people are probably wondering how on earth I knew so little about my own job!

Halsall · 20/02/2022 17:12

There was an amusing one on Twitter the other day - a classic find & replace error. They’d evidently de-Americanised the text to replace 'pants' with 'trousers', hence…….'particitrousers' Grin

IntermittentParps · 20/02/2022 17:49

@Halsall

There was an amusing one on Twitter the other day - a classic find & replace error. They’d evidently de-Americanised the text to replace 'pants' with 'trousers', hence…….'particitrousers' Grin
Grin
hagsrus0 · 25/02/2022 21:32

A few memories:

From The Outlander series: primroses with thorns and a spinning wheel being blown round by the breeze. (And Terry Pratchett used spinning wheels where spindles would have been appropriate.)

Blackout: never mind the Jubilee Line, just don't try making a call from a pillar box!

An audiobook (a Doreen Tovey) where the cat Andromache's name is pronounced "Andro-mash"

Pants for trousers: actually this is ok in some regional dialects. Not sure what the corresponding underwear is called. It's such a fraught issue that I always use "underpants" in fanfiction to avoid regional and transatlantic confusion!

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