Books with mistakes

[KanoasDestiny]

The book I am currently reading is really (REALLY) good, but it has quite a few mistakes in it. The author was originally self-published, but then she was approached by a publishing company. I don't think they proofread her story, or if they did, they did a horrible job at it. Regardless though, I don't find that the errors ruin the story. If anything, I just reread the sentence to make sure it isn't me. Lol.

Do mistakes upset you, or ruin the story for you, or make you stray from buying that author again? Or can you overlook the errors easily?

 

[susanne]

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Lack of editing drives me insane, and while it may not completely destroy a book for me, it makes me stop and grumble, ruining the flow. I'm enough of a grammar snob to argue with some good editors, but that's splitting hairs; with so many self-published books, the mistakes are often bonehead errors.

My current pet peeve is the frequent incorrect usage of [name] and me vs. [name] and I. So many reasonably well-spoken individuals *think* they are doing what Mom said by always using [name] and I. As in, "George gave a present to Joe and I." This is incorrect; it should be "George gave a present to Joe and me." It's a matter of subject vs. object. Remove "Joe and" and the correct usage becomes obvious. You would never say "George gave a present to I."

Okay...I'll get off my soapbox now.

(And no, I don't claim to always be correct, but I always try, even in casual forum-speak.)

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[KanoasDestiny]

It's funny you mention this! I am teaching this very thing to my third graders right now.

'Mom gave the pretzel to Mark and me' (correct) vs 'Mom gave the pretzel to Mark and I' (incorrect).

' Mark and I gave the pretzel to mom' (correct) vs 'Mark and me gave the pretzel to mom' (incorrect).

I try to tell them exactly what you said (the way that I was taught), take 'Mark and' out and you can see the right way. But the way the book says to explain it to them is confusing and of course that is what we are supposed to go by.

 

[Jill]

Probably there could be many factual or historical mistakes in the books I read that I would not recognize as being mistakes.

I do remember in one of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books, there is a word she used a couple-few times that is NOT a word. I googled it and saw other people were also a little "miffed" at the usage, though now I cannot recall what the word was. I know she likes to use the word "ironical", where i never, ever hear anyone use that word in daily life, even though it is a word.

What will distract me in books is a word I don't find typical, and it can be so silly, like I said before when Dean Koontz nearly always has the word "fronds" in a book but I never hear / read the word unless it's one of his books (maybe I live a from fronds sheltered life),or a narrator mispronouncing a word or pronouncing it properly but not the way we say it 'round here

That kind of thing will send me off contemplating and I'll have to re-wind the book to hear again what I missed while I was thinking about nothing that really matters as far as the story is concerned.

Another thing, maybe related (?) isn't mistakes but things I wonder "is that really true" or "does that kind of thing really happen", and I have to do an internet search to learn more! So far, the authors have been correct so I guess even in my light weight book endindulgence have learned a thing or two

When I happen to recognize a grammatical error, it only "bothers" me if it's through the narrator, vs. a character speaking (as they could use improper grammar and it not really be a mistake -- lots of real life people do so, even some of us, including me no doubt!... as I wonder if I should have typed "... including myself no doubt").

 

[susanne]

Jill brings up a great point regarding narrative vs. dialog. I love a writer with an ear for dialog and detest when characters sound stilted or otherwise speak in a manner never heard in real life. Casual dialog that rings true-to-live is rather rare, even amongst otherwise talented writers.

Equally annoying is the clumsy writer who uses dialog to present facts or move the plot at the expense of natural speech patterns. They seem to forget (or ignore) the fact that most people speak almost in shorthand, skipping over many names and that which would be assumed (such as names of mutual friends or family members).