# Errors in Books That Make You Shake Your Head
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 10, 2014, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830 "2014-12-10T07:42:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/21 "2014-12-10T19:31:08Z")
This one is an oldie- when I first started reading SHerlock Homes stories, I was in 4th grade… and even then, I knew that “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” was bogus. Snakes can’t hear, so you can’t summon them by whistling! And you couldn’t entice them with a saucer of milk!
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/22 "2014-12-10T19:35:53Z")
> [@astorian](#):
>
> This one is an oldie- when I first started reading SHerlock Homes stories, I was in 4th grade… and even then, I knew that “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” was bogus. Snakes can’t hear, so you can’t summon them by whistling! And you couldn’t entice them with a saucer of milk!
Another good one in Sherlock Holmes is in the very first appearance – in **a Study in Scarlet** , in the beginning of the second part (“The Country of the Saints”) he has a couple of people crossing The Great Alkali Plain (the Salt Flats) and encountering Brigham Young and the Mormons on their way to found Salt Lake City.
Only the Salt Flats are to the _West_ of where Salt Lake City would be founded. To the east are the Wasatch Mountains and lots of trees and water. The mountains were an obstacle to Young and the pioneers, who attached logs to their wagons as brakes to keep them from running away downhill. Salt deserts were not a problem at that point.
But it wouldn’t have been as dramatic a scene, then.
This was the start of a grand tradition of Mystery Writers Getting Utah Geography Wrong, which I have commented on here before.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/23 "2014-12-10T19:57:29Z")
I bought this book:
[Santa fe Super Chief](http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Super-Chief-Capitan-1936-1971/dp/0976620197/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418240460&sr=8-3&keywords=santa+fe+chiefs#customerReviews)
because I love the subject, but the book is neigh-unreadable. Endless typos, contradictions, places where paragraphs were spliced into themselves. There’s even one spot where a paragraph on the left page is contradicted by one on the right page! Forget professional copywriters-the _author_ should have caught these errors! Didn’t he even proofread his own material?
I read a relatively short book on the SR-71 (can’t remember which one - we own a ton) that had a few glaring errors. I’m thinking, if I can spot these errors, how many others are in here I don’t know about?
I also have this book:[Loach!](http://www.amazon.com/Loach-Helicopter-Schiffer-Military-History/dp/0764323431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418241058&sr=8-1&keywords=loach) that is pretty good, but one chapter has several glaring errors. For all the research the author did, it was surprising to see such basic ones.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/24 "2014-12-10T20:07:53Z")
I recently read an excellent book about anti-Mexican mob violence in the United States in the period 1848-1928. The publisher is Oxford University Press.
At one point, the book says that the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, signed at the end of the US-Mexican War in 1848, “transferred to the United States a half million acres of land.” Actually, it was about a half-million square miles, which is 640 times as large as a half-million acres.
In the conclusion of the book, the authors note that lynchings of Mexicans in the United States dropped from 1,333 in the 1890s to 321 in the 1920s. They call this “a decline of four hundred percent.”
No, it’s a decline of about 75 percent. You can’t reduce something by 400 percent, because once you reduce something by 100 percent, you have nothing left.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/25 "2014-12-10T20:08:03Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> I bought this book:
> [Santa fe Super Chief](http://www.amazon.com/Santa-Super-Chief-Capitan-1936-1971/dp/0976620197/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418240460&sr=8-3&keywords=santa+fe+chiefs#customerReviews)
> because I love the subject, but the book is neigh-unreadable. Endless typos, contradictions, places where paragraphs were spliced into themselves. There’s even one spot where a paragraph on the left page is contradicted by one on the right page! Forget professional copywriters-the _author_ should have caught these errors! Didn’t he even proofread his own material?
>
> I read a relatively short book on the SR-71 (can’t remember which one - we own a ton) that had a few glaring errors. I’m thinking, if I can spot these errors, how many others are in here I don’t know about?
These books tend to be written by fan/hobbyist/amateur authority writers and either self-published, published through a service house like iLibris or published by a small specialty house in that area. They are rarely touched by a professional in between writing and shrink-wrapping, and it often shows.
Even knowledgeable amateurs writing on a hobby topic should get a competent editor to review the work before print - even just a fellow fan who has a stronger English background than hobby knowledge.
The authors tend to shrug off such errors since “everyone knows the SR-71’s minimum takeoff speed was such and so, not the typo amount.” Sigh.
ETA, re\*\* mhendo\*\*'s post: University presses have increasingly become “bound manuscript” publishers, maybe even moreso since the authors are presumed expert and qualified.
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### Author:  [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/26 "2014-12-10T20:09:13Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> The problem is that publishers skimp on the copyediting these days.
>
> Back in the pre-word-processor era, every publisher had copy editors, who would go through the manuscript line by line. Primarily, they were looking for typos, but a good copy editor would double check for consistency…
>
> But that’s expensive, and publishers are cutting corners. Since spell check eliminates the need to worry about spelling (but not grammar or just using the wrong word), there’s a thought that it’s not necessary. Thus, more errors creep in because no one is checking properly.
The first book I remember for being terribly edited was _Total Recall_ by Piers Anthony. It was just after word processors came on the scene and I think the publisher thought they could save big money by firing the human copy editors and going with the machines.
I’d heard that Piers Anthony was a great science fiction writer and, unfortunately, I chose that book to give him a try. There were so many errors (Every single blasted page!) that I could only get a couple of chapters in before giving up on it. Though I know most of the errors probably weren’t his fault and he was probably rushed to get the book out in time for the movie, as well, it’s rather put me off reading anything by him since.
For a while, in that era, it seemed a lot of publishers were trying to get around paying for human input but they eventually got wise. While the level of standards still isn’t up to what were before that time, they have gotten a lot better.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/27 "2014-12-10T20:33:56Z")
> [@Hopeful\_Crow](#):
>
> The first book I remember for being terribly edited was _Total Recall_ by Piers Anthony. […]Though I know most of the errors probably weren’t his fault and he was probably rushed to get the book out in time for the movie…
Piers Anthony novelized a PKD-based movie? Or have you confused titles here?
Because that’s just… awful.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/28 "2014-12-10T20:42:53Z")
Yes, Anthony did novelize **[Total Recall](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1234149706l/15512.jpg),** though I suspect he worked from the movie script and not from the short story.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/29 "2014-12-10T20:52:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Yes, Anthony did novelize **[Total Recall](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1234149706l/15512.jpg),** though I suspect he worked from the movie script and not from the short story.
Well, yeah, I’d assume so.
(Re-)novelizations of movies from existing stories/books have always bothered me. This one seems particularly egregious in its choices.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/30 "2014-12-10T20:53:05Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Piers Anthony novelized a PKD-based movie? Or have you confused titles here?
>
> Because that’s just… awful.
There’s a lot of that out there. When the 1976 version of **The Island of Dr. Moreau** came out there was a novelization of it released, instead of the H.G. Wells book.
Also, Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization of **The Thing** in 1982, instead of a collection of John W. Campbell stories being released.
Christopher Wood wrote novelizations for the movies **The Spy Who Loved Me** and **Moonraker** to be released with those films, instead of re-releasing Ian Fleming’s novels.
L. Sprague de Camp wrote a novelization of **Conan the Barbarian** in place of re-releasing Howard’s book in 1982. They did another novelization for the new Conan movie a couple of years back.
And recently they released a novelization of **John Carter** instead of (or in addition to) releasing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/31 "2014-12-10T21:14:24Z")
Yeah, I’m aware of the many questionable novelizations of that era. Not sure whether I am more bemused by them or by repackaging of classic works with movie wrappers.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/32 "2014-12-10T21:59:17Z")
Walter Wager (whose books were adapted into _Telephon_ and _Die Hard 2_, among others) was a successful crime and espionage writer. Which is why it bugged me so much that he had the lead character in several novels carry a .357 and always check the magazine. :smack:
No, she wasn’t carrying a Coonan or Desert Eagle. The books were written before either of those companies made their .357 semiautos.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/33 "2014-12-10T22:07:11Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Walter Wager (whose books were adapted into _Telephon_ and _Die Hard 2_, among others) was a successful crime and espionage writer. Which is why it bugged me so much that he had the lead character in several novels carry a .357 and always check the magazine. :smack:
Well, let’s not even get started on Dale Brown. Parking a space station over the North Pole in LEO was only the beginning of his whoppers.
ETA: I ran into another crime novel where the author said revolver, revolver, revolver and then made some comment about the magazine or slide. You’d really think…
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/34 "2014-12-10T23:00:14Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> There’s a lot of that out there. When the 1976 version of **The Island of Dr. Moreau** came out there was a novelization of it released, instead of the H.G. Wells book.
>
> Also, Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization of **The Thing** in 1982, instead of a collection of John W. Campbell stories being released.
>
> Christopher Wood wrote novelizations for the movies **The Spy Who Loved Me** and **Moonraker** to be released with those films, instead of re-releasing Ian Fleming’s novels.
>
> L. Sprague de Camp wrote a novelization of **Conan the Barbarian** in place of re-releasing Howard’s book in 1982. They did another novelization for the new Conan movie a couple of years back.
>
> And recently they released a novelization of **John Carter** instead of (or in addition to) releasing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books.
You missed the best one: Fred Saberhagen’s novelization of _Bram Stoker’s Dracula_.
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### Author:  [@Uther\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uther_Penguin)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/35 "2014-12-10T23:05:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Christopher Wood wrote novelizations for the movies **The Spy Who Loved Me** and **Moonraker** to be released with those films, instead of re-releasing Ian Fleming’s novels.
>
> L. Sprague de Camp wrote a novelization of **Conan the Barbarian** in place of re-releasing Howard’s book in 1982. They did another novelization for the new Conan movie a couple of years back.
So? At least for the Bond examples, the movies were very different from the stories they took their titles from. And there is no Howard story that served as immediate base for the movie. After all, Thulsa Doom and the whole skake cult shtick is taken from the Kull stories, not Conan ones. So your example would be more correct if you had written “L. Sprague de Camp wrote a novelization of **Conan the Barbarian** in place of publishing nothing at all.”
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/36 "2014-12-10T23:16:04Z")
Another inexplicable one: Robert Crais gifted his protagonist Elvis Cole with a 1965 or so Corvette. Then has him get something out of the trunk.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/37 "2014-12-11T01:22:44Z")
I’m always removed from a story when the author refers to a .9mm handgun. I don’t know much about guns, but that doesn’t seem like it would hurt very much.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/38 "2014-12-11T01:35:24Z")
> [@Morbo](#):
>
> I’m always removed from a story when the author refers to a .9mm handgun. I don’t know much about guns, but that doesn’t seem like it would hurt very much.
I dunno: vaccinations can sting pretty bad, especially tetanus.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/39 "2014-12-11T02:43:21Z")
Continuing the Stephen King pile-on: In _The Drawing of the Three_, the chapters about a mob boss are riddled with phrases that are supposed to be Italian, but are ludicrously wide of the mark. King mixed up bits of French and Spanish with touches of English, plus stuff out of his own imagination, and tried to pass it off as Italian. I was glad when those painful chapters were finished; they hurt my Italian brain.
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### Author:  [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/errors-in-books-that-make-you-shake-your-head/706830/40 "2014-12-11T05:29:56Z")
More Stephen King pile on, from his travesty, _Cell_. IN this book, Stephen demonstrates his lack of knowledge about firearms.
> [@](#):
>
> He shook out one of the other loads, knowing just what he would find. Beth Nickerson’s .45 was loaded with highly illegal cop-killer bullets. Fraggers.
> [@](#):
>
> He had agreed that this might be so, but reminded Alice that their object tonight was not destruction per se but ignition. Then he’d explained the highly illegal nature of the ammunition Arnie Nickerson had obtained for his wife’s .45 fraggers. What had once been called dumdum bullets.
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