Saturday, March 28, 2009

Wishful Drinking

AUTHOR: Carrie Fisher
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster
YEAR: 2008
EDITION: third printing, first edition hardback
ISBN-13: 978-1-4391-0225-1
p. 44: There's an unnecessary comma.
Anyway, it worked because Charlie actually managed to marry twice, (probably someone with nursing ambitions), which just goes to show that there's a lid for every pot.
p. 45: An Abolene should be Albolene.
There was a certain hush, a certain smell of Abolene cream and White Shoulders perfume.
p. 84: There's an unnecessary comma.
Well, (I would answer), let's face it, George Lucas is a visionary, right?
p. 121: There's an unnecessary comma.
Without the substances, I had used to distort and mask my symptoms, it was now all too clear that I was a bona fide, wild-ride manic depressive.
p. 147: There's an unnecessary period.
... now she wants to be a comic. (which is kind of a natural progression if you think about it).

Friday, February 27, 2009

The Monsters of Templeton

AUTHOR: Lauren Groff
PUBLISHER: Voice
YEAR: 2008
EDITION: second printing, first edition hardback
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2225-0
p. 133: A colon is missing.
At 341, I thought I heard the phone ring, and ran over to it, but the dial tone only beeped, vague and impersonal, in my ear.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Book Lust

AUTHOR: Nancy Pearl
PUBLISHER: Sasquatch Books
YEAR: 2003
EDITION: sixth printing, first edition paperback
ISBN: 1-57061-381-8
p. 132: A parenthetical statement doesn't end with a parenthesis.
(in which the disappearance of his wife and cat sets Toru Okada on a search complicated by a bizarre group of people and events, all linked by the remembrance of the Soviet army massacre of Japanese troops on the Manchurian border in 1939.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Lizard King

AUTHOR: Bryan Christy
PUBLISHER: Twelve
YEAR: 2008
EDITION: first printing, first edition hardback
ISBN-13: 978-0-446-58095-3
p. 72: A damned should be dammed.
A spring flowed separately from the pond, so Chip and his father damned the water flowing from the spring, squeezing it into a series of little pools, into which Chip released a few trout.
p. 211: There's an unnecessary comma.
Mike's in, jail, Strictly is going downhill. Strictly's going out of business.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WhiteHouse.gov

Though I've limited this blog to book typos, I couldn't resist posting an error I recently found on the newly launched White House website.

whitehouse.gov/administration/eop: A the should be deleted.
To provide the President with the support the he or she needs to govern effectively, the Executive Office of the President (EOP) was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Monday, December 15, 2008

H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction

AUTHOR: H.P. Lovecraft
PUBLISHER: Barnes and Noble
YEAR: 2008
EDITION: first printing, first edition hardback
ISBN-13: 978-1-4351-0793-9
p. 6: A he should be the.
... and the falling stones of he walls, the overgrown vegetation in the parks ...
p. 11: A where should be were.
These where now fixed upon me, piercing my soul with their hatred, and rooting me to the spot whereon I stood.
p. 12: A rend should be end.
At the farther rend of the apartment was an opening leading out into one of the many wild ravines of the dark hillside forest.
p. 23: A navel should be naval.
... our vessel was made a legitimate prize, whilst we of her crew were treated with all the fairness and consideration due us as navel prisoners.
p. 26: A period is missing.
... for one of the creatures was shewn in the act of killing a whale represented as but little larger than himself I remarked, as I say, their grotesqueness and strange sizes ...
p. 26: A measures should be measured.
... the while it bowed its hideous head and gave vent to certain measures sounds.
p. 39: A period should be inside a set of quotes, which should be double instead of single.
... shrieking fiendishly that he would 'jump high in the air and burn his way through anything that stopped him'.
p. 46: A write should be writhe.
... while in and out of deep treasure-vaults write poison serpents and scaly things without a name.
p. 51: A form should be from.
Sheehan, now recovering form his astonishment, advanced and laid a heavy hand on the old waif's shoulder.
p. 53: A not should be now.
It was so old, he added, that no one could not be expected to recognise it.
p. 57: A were should be was.
To seek to describe it were useless--for it was such that no description is possible.
p. 73: An of is missing.
In ordered terraces rose the green banks, adorned here and there with bowers vines and sweet blossoms ...
p. 80: A comma is unnecessary. A could should be cloud.
Again I called down, "Warren, are you there?," and in answer heard the thing which has brought this could over my mind.
p. 81: A fold should be folk.
... but there are other things which frighten the older and more curious fold who sometimes steal up to the house to peer in through the dusty panes. These folk say ...
p. 82: An ages should be aged.
... for ages sea-captains are notably stubborn and perverse.
p. 82: A to should be two.
Still, he was very old and very feeble, and there were to visitors.
p. 82: An experiences should be experienced.
Messers. Ricci and Silva were experiences in the art of making unwilling persons voluble ...
p. 83: A wee should be were.
... for his colleagues wee not there at all ...
p. 83: A mangles should be mangled.
... horribly slashed as with many cutlasses, and horribly mangles as by the tread of many cruel boot-heels ...
p. 83: A but should be But. A he should be He.
but in this idle village gossip, the Terrible Old Man took no interest at all. he was by nature reserved ...
p. 107: A he is unnecessary.
Oral accounts of the mysterious and secluded wife he had been numerous ...
p. 114: The word uncannily is divided.
When it grew dark they traveled more softly, till soon they were flying uncan nily as if in the air.
p. 124: An ever should be never.
In such houses have dwelt generations of strange people, whose like the world has ever seen.
p. 130: A space is missing.
I followed his glance,and beheld just above us on the loose plaster of the ancient ceiling a large irregular spot ...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

New Moon

AUTHOR: Stephenie Meyer
PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company
YEAR: 2008
EDITION: 18th printing, first edition paperback
ISBN-10: 0-316-02496-1
p. 339: A the should be they (or possibly she).
... But I met Sam Uley and his fiancee, Emily. The seemed pretty nice to me.