This IS an uncorrected proof copy, but even so!

page 50 "Turning on a CD of Handle Arias"
page 104 "Taking dry a mug from the draining board"

The first of the Flaxborough novels, originally published in 1958.

Upon the slab farther from the door, a coffin rested. It's lid had been removed and now stood upright, propped against the cupboard.

My copy published 1991; surely long enough for someone to have read it through once again. How much ink has been wasted by that stray apostrophe, I wonder?

ISBN 0747246327 - p440
"For the next ten minutes he rode steadily". Strange, he's in a rowing boat and has been handed an oar by the ferryman. ROWED, please!

Edward Cullen (and his siblings) are all 4.0 students who've taken English umpteen times and yet, he still makes the me/myself mistake when he offers Bella a ride to Seattle and she asks "Who with?" and he replies "Myself"

Anyone who's been through that many high-school English classes should have said "Me"

ISBN 074725575X

p47 - "because the street lighting was inreliable."

ISBN 9780345492234 page 250
"Someday, St. Dennis will be in a position to hire it's first detective, and I want it to be me."

"Sarah made no pretense at small task". "Small talk" would be more coherent.

There's another howler I can't find, where a fork is dropped and a dog licks the "lines" rather than "tines" of the fork.

"... the robe that met his hand was made of black velvet lined with silk. A closer look showed that it was sewn together in one piece without either stitch or needlework." Hmm - sewing without stitching - is that like welding?

Also, for the first three books, the main character is described as 'a sturdy black-haired youth.' On page 1 of book 4, he's become 'a tall, sturdily built youth in his middle teens, with untrimmed brown hair..' Wizarding depletes hair color?

The paperback copy of this had a fantastic printing error.

I picked up a copy of the book in Borders as part of a 'buy two get one free' offer and it ended up being my free book, mainly because it caught my eye as it's illustrated by Brett Helquist (who illustrated the Series of Unfortunate Events books).

There are sections of the story which are about things the children have written themselves and about a third of the way through the book I came across a page which went along the lines of:

"Calder wrote *blank space* then he wrote
*half a page of blank space*"

Not wanting to spoil the mystery of the story, I skimmed ahead and noticed a couple of other similar pages where, for whatever reason, the font chosen as Calder's handwriting hadn't printed.

So I took my book back to Borders to see if they could swap it for one which did have Calder's handwriting. The guy there looked at my book, looked at the other books they had in stock, and then told me that he thought it was supposed to be like that because they were all the same. He did offer me a refund, but I was intrigued and opted to keep the book.

Out of curiosity I wrote to the publisher asking if it was a printing error and if they knew where I could get a copy of the book that included Calder's bits.

Less than a week later I received a packet with a letter explaining that it was a problem with the paperback print run and to thank me for bringing it to their attention/apologise for any disappointment I'd had with my copy (which I hadn't been annoyed at all, more sort of interested in the whole thing) they sent me a copy of Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord and a hardback copy of Chasing Vermeer signed by both the author and illustrator.

^_^

"... was always tan as if the San Diego sun had been permanently etched into her skin."
Why isn't this "tanned"?

I haven't read this book, but the title leapt off the screen and screamed at me:

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/0380800829/ref=pe_39711_24636301_pe_epc_t3

What would have been wrong with "The Duke and me"?

the gardens were "beautiful now in mid-summer, all the roses blooming
wildly, hyacinth with their bell-shaped flowers scenting the
air..".


Where do hyacinths and roses bloom at the same time?

Caption above a picture of the Hoover Dam:

"... With it's art deco intake towers..."

Why didn't someone find that apostrophe before I did?

I've created this forum with the purpose of providing some light relief.
This is where we can air our annoyance at the errors that find their way into books. Some of them are straightforward printing errors, some grammatical. Worse, however, are errors in plot, characterisation, and general background knowledge.
The solution is, of course, to e-mail the publisher with the ISBN, asking for the error to be corrected in a future reprint. But you know they'll not bother. So let's tell the world about these errors! Create a new message per book title, please.