# Book Errors That Pull You Out of the Story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2017, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686 "2017-05-02T01:04:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/141 "2017-05-15T19:22:25Z")
**Everybody’s Fool** , Richard Russo’s sequel to **Nobody’s Fool** , has several serious errors in continuity between them. The two that most bothered me concern Sully’s father, and Sully’s wife-- aspects of their stories in the second book directly contradict those in the first. I really like Russo and both of these books, but the mistakes really yanked me out of the second one. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/142 "2017-05-17T11:51:49Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > (as Gyrate already pointed out) Yes, that is undoubtably what was meant, but the fact that this was alleged to be a work of research and they made such a boneheaded mistake just made me lose what little respect I had for them. All the same – re the correspondence over this: War of 1812, June '12 – Feb. '15: I too, was pretty much the fool over that. Memo to self: Matthew 7, 3 - 5… ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/143 "2017-05-18T04:58:36Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > I seem to recall something about Saint Columba, a millennium or more earlier, having a set-to with the LNM… back-up no doubt findable if desired… Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_ > [@](#): > > How an Aquatic Monster was driven off by virtue of the blessed man’s prayer. > > ON another occasion also, when the blessed man was living for some days in the province of > the Picts, he was obliged to cross the river Nesa (the Ness); and when he reached the bank of > the river, he saw some of the inhabitants\*\* burying an unfortunate man, who, according to the > account of those who were burying him, was a short time before seized, as he was swimming, > and bitten most severely by a monster that lived in the water;\*\* his wretched body was, though > too late, taken out with a hook, by those who came to his assistance in a boat. The blessed > man, on hearing this, was so far from being dismayed, that he directed one of his companions > to swim over and row across the coble that was moored at the farther bank. And Lugne > Mocumin hearing the command of the excellent man, obeyed without the least delay, taking > off all his clothes, except his tunic, and leaping into the water. But the monster, which, so far > from being satiated, was only roused for more prey, was lying at the bottom of the stream, > and when it felt the water disturbed above by the man swimming, suddenly rushed out, and, > giving an awful roar, darted after him, with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the > middle of the stream. Then the blessed man observing this, raised his holy hand, while all the > rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, > formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, > “Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed.” Then at the voice of > the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with > ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the > length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. Then the brethren seeing that the > monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and > sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the > barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which > they themselves had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians. [http://www.seil.org.uk/Life%20of%20St%20Columba%20Adamnan.pdf](http://www.seil.org.uk/Life%20of%20St%20Columba%20Adamnan.pdf) Very obedient sort of monster, it seems. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/144 "2017-05-18T05:07:28Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > An SF novel, I don’t remember which one, said the moon was 40 miles away from the earth. I didn’t keep reading. Not a book but an anime - it had an enemy force appear from behind the moon and approach the forces protecting the Earth, which were on orbit around Earth. They gave the velocity of the enemy and scrambled to meet them in great haste … except if you did the math, it would have taken over a month for the enemy to reach Earth orbit. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/145 "2017-05-18T09:29:09Z")
I was just beginning _The Sheep Look Up_ (1972) by John Brunner—and found that for ecological reasons, no less, cars in the near future will be powered by freon. :eek::smack: Damn, John, nobody can top you for accurate predictions of technology—but when you lay an egg, it’s a beaut. Freon! ::gag:: No wonder everybody in that book was choking on the polluted air. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/146 "2017-05-18T12:25:57Z")
> [@Annoying\_Buzz](#): > > I’d enjoyed Angels and Demons, after which the Da Vinci Code seemed kind of flaccid (Digital Fortress was my 3rd and final Dan Brown book). What made me roll my eyes the most was the supposed expert on Da Vinci being baffled at what was obviously a mirror-written piece of text. I can’t decide if my favorite part of _Angels and Demons_ was the claim that Louis Armstrong was a Mason, or the part where the reporter from the BBC was sure that the story he was covering was going to win him a Pulitzer… In a _Star Trek:TNG_ novel whose name escapes me, Picard and his away team, exploring a mysterious space station of unknown provenance, come across the surviving members of a starship crew that had vanished some thirty or so years ago. They were quite the Benetton ad; the author described them as: a Northern European, an East Indian, an Asian, and an _African-American_. The same book mentioned a holodeck program that Cdr. Riker used for his Martial Arts workout routine. Set up as a 20th century dojo, with the traditional American and Korean flags hanging on the walls. Why, Will? _WHY???_ :smack: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/147 "2017-05-18T14:03:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Set up as a 20th century dojo, with the traditional American and \*\*Korean \*\*flags hanging on the walls. North or South Korean? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/148 "2017-05-18T14:43:11Z")
They could be decorative antiques. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/149 "2017-05-18T16:50:31Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > In a _Star Trek:TNG_ novel whose name escapes me, Picard and his away team, exploring a mysterious space station of unknown provenance, come across the surviving members of a starship crew that had vanished some thirty or so years ago. They were quite the Benetton ad; the author described them as: a Northern European, an East Indian, an Asian, and an _African-American_. 😕😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/150 "2017-05-18T16:53:54Z")
Lack of an editor. It shows. One ot two errors, I’ll forgive. But example after example of poor grammar, inappropriate word choice, punctuation… Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/151 "2017-05-18T16:59:48Z")
> [@Tranquilis](#): > > Lack of an editor. It shows. One ot two errors, I’ll forgive. Hee. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/152 "2017-05-18T17:11:29Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I can’t decide if my favorite part of _Angels and Demons_ was the claim that Louis Armstrong was a Mason, or the part where the reporter from the BBC was sure that the story he was covering was going to win him a Pulitzer… I must have missed those; [I had other favorite parts](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4465455&postcount=44). ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/153 "2017-05-18T17:23:39Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Hee. _:: bows ::_ My point, proven. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/154 "2017-05-18T19:32:11Z")
I once read a book that had an entire chapter repeated nearly perfectly (just the character names replaced) from an earlier book in the series…by Stacheff, IIRC. > [@Melbourne](#): > > All girls. Just a few blokes each generation… Unless twins (etc.) are still a thing and fairly common, the population would still collapse, just more slowly. For a quick example: If generation N has 100 persons, 10% of which are male, then generation N+1 could only have 90 persons, with 9 expected males, leading to generation N+2 with only 81 persons… > [@Celyn](#): > > Adamnan’s _Life of St. Columba_ > [http://www.seil.org.uk/Life%20of%20St%20Columba%20Adamnan.pdf](http://www.seil.org.uk/Life%20of%20St%20Columba%20Adamnan.pdf) > > Very obedient sort of monster, it seems. > 😃 French dragons were similarly wimpy. See the [gargoyle](https://www.thegoodlifefrance.com/the-origin-of-french-gargoyles/) and the [tarasque](http://folklore-society.com/index.php/miscellany/tarasque) (D&D fans, I shit you not) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/155 "2017-05-18T20:11:02Z")
I’m just re-reading one of the books in Harry Turtledove’s “Great War” series, “American Front”. The premise of the books is that the South won the Civil War. In the “Great War” books, the United States and the Confederacy are fighting each other in World War I. The territory of Oklahoma, known as Sequoyah in these books, is Confederate territory, and there are battles taking place around the oil fields of Beggs, Sequoyah. As is my wont, I sometimes hop on Wikipedia to check out things, and I looked up Beggs, Oklahoma, and it’s a real town, except that it wasn’t founded until the 1890s, so after the timeline difference in these books. And it was named for the President of the Union Pacific Railroad. Which would be highly unlikely, in this scenario, as the Union Pacific would not have run through Confederate territory. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/156 "2017-05-18T20:12:57Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > In a _Star Trek:TNG_ novel whose name escapes me, Picard and his away team, exploring a mysterious space station of unknown provenance, come across the surviving members of a starship crew that had vanished some thirty or so years ago. They were quite the Benetton ad; the author described them as: a Northern European, an East Indian, an Asian, and an _African-American_. what was the issue here? 😕😕 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/157 "2017-05-18T23:11:58Z")
How could they tell that the black guy was American? > [@](#): > > Quoth **Unpronounceable** : > > French dragons were similarly wimpy. See the gargoyle and the tarasque (D&D fans, I shit you not) Of course. If you did shit us, that’d be a [bonnacon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnacon). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/158 "2017-05-19T00:40:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How could they tell that the black guy was American? Had they heard these guys speak? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/159 "2017-05-19T04:39:13Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Had they heard these guys speak? Not at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686/160 "2017-05-19T16:35:06Z")
There was a news reporter who described Nelson Mandela as “African-American.” re mistakes, there was a comic book treatment of the French and Indian War, and the map on the opening page showed West Virginia. Oops. In another comic book, when Green Arrow went to visit South Africa, the text describes a herd of buffalo…and the artist drew a herd of American Bison. The letters column, next issue, was a joy and delight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-errors-that-pull-you-out-of-the-story/785686.md?page=9)