# Newer versions of certain books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262 "2018-06-17T15:10:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/21 "2018-06-19T22:32:56Z")
Moving this to Cafe Society ---
**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:** [June 20, 2018, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/22 "2018-06-20T00:19:08Z")
A lot of times with textbooks, the new edition doesn’t even add new problems-- It just changes the order of the problems that are already in there. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2018, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/23 "2018-06-20T00:50:03Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > David Gerrold updated his _The Man Who Folded Himself_ at some point. When I got my iPad I thought that would be a cool ebook to have and read whenever I wanted; I stumbled at the first “update”, tripped at the 2nd and never found a 3rd because I stopped reading. His _ **The World of Star Trek** _ was also bowdlerized after the first edition. I made it a point to correct all of the changes when I borrowed a copy from my local library. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/24 "2018-06-20T13:30:33Z")
I wish I’d kept my first edition of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Willie Wonka’s workers were real life African pygmies. They were later changed to Oompah Loompahs. Can you say Political Correctness? ---
**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:** [June 20, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/25 "2018-06-20T13:59:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s not exactly the same thing, but Isaac Asimov’s novelization of **Fantastic Voyage** from 1966 was not otherwise related to the film. It apparently always bothered him, because he basically rewrote it as **Fantastic Voyage: Destination Brain** in 1987. I have a copy of [_Fantastic Voyage 2: Destination Brain_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage_II:_Destination_Brain) that I have not read. I had read that it was a different book about miniaturization. FV was written from someone else’s film script. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/26 "2018-06-20T14:06:51Z")
Basically, he wrote the first under contract, as a novelization of the movie, but he didn’t think the movie did a very good job as science fiction. So he re-wrote it to his own tastes, addressing the things the movie glossed over. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/27 "2018-06-20T14:45:08Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I have a copy of [_Fantastic Voyage 2: Destination Brain_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Voyage_II:_Destination_Brain) that I have not read. I had read that it was a different book about miniaturization. FV was written from someone else’s film script. It was indeed. The original script was by Otto Klement, but that was rewritten by the underrated Jerome Bixby\* Asimov simply wrote the novelization, based on that screenplay. Since the book came out before the movie, a lot of people thought it was based on Asimov’s book, which probably rankled him, because he objected to the scientific errors. It might be why he ended writing FV2. For some reason three books tied to SF movies in the 1960s continued to sell for YEARS with the exact same covers – \*Fantastic Voyage, Planet of the Apes, \* and _2001: A Space Odyssey_. Two of those are novelizations. \*Bixby ought to be well-known for the short story that became the Twilight Zone episode _It’s a GOOD Life_, the one where Billy Mumy can do anything he wants by wishing it. He also wrote _It! The Terror from Beyond Space_, from which _Alien_ stole its plot, as well as a few other science fiction movies and a couple of episodes of the original _Star Trek_. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/28 "2018-06-20T20:13:49Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > His _ **The World of Star Trek** _ was also bowdlerized after the first edition. I made it a point to correct all of the changes when I borrowed a copy from my local library. In pencil, I hope! :eek: You wouldn’t permanently deface public property, would you (even to restore Gerrold’s immortal line, “Meanwhile, it’s been more than two hours since Kirk’s last piece of ass and he starts getting twitchy”)? ---
**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:** [June 20, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/29 "2018-06-20T20:27:18Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > In pencil, I hope! :eek: When I worked at a Library, we dragged guys who did that into the alley and beat the snot out of them. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/30 "2018-06-20T20:37:09Z")
F. Paul Wilson’s revised “Nightworld” is virtually a different book. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262/31 "2018-06-20T20:47:49Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > In pencil, I hope! :eek: You wouldn’t permanently deface public property, would you (even to restore Gerrold’s immortal line, “Meanwhile, it’s been more than two hours since Kirk’s last piece of ass and he starts getting twitchy”)? Yes, in pencil; and yes, that was one of the lines. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newer-versions-of-certain-books/816262.md?page=1)