"You may or may not have seen my post at Punctuality Rules Tuesday, about a book I recently bought that had the actual TITLE misspelled on the spine of the book. A glaring typographical error that really (really!) should have been caught. So, using that as a springboard, today’s question: What’s the worst typographical error you’ve ever found in (or on) a book?"
Beeing inn an libary, i seee alot off thiss, thogh its allmost allways acidental. Misslabelling teh syde off volyumes, taht sortov fing. Cant thinc off eny blatent erors inn tituls oar eeven conntents off buks themselfs... all so ca'nt kepe tihs upp four mutch longerer, sew shal tern teh qestion ovver two ewe...?!
These maykes mee sew shelf conseous i mey nevr leaf a cormorant agin ///
ReplyDeleteYour to funny!
ReplyDeleteI see this every day from my high school students! And the weird thing is that they don't even care. My biggest pet peeve is there, their, and they're. No matter how many times I try to teach this, they just refuse to learn it! ~Linda
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I cannot keep myself from editing. My husband knows when I've read a book before he has. I also have to confess to having done this in library books (in pencil).
ReplyDeleteThe newspaper is another thing. This happens not only in college newspapers or local ones but mainstream papers too - such as the Boston Globe. At one time, I marked really bad errors and mailed them back. I don't bother anymore.
Regarding marking in books: We've just come from a presentation on Emily Dickinson's reading habits. This was part of the project going on now to replenish the bookshelves at the Homestead and the Evergreens, next door. The retired literature professor, an Emily Dickinson scholar, told us that Emily marked in her books (just as Anne Fadiman in Ex Libris).
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is I could read your entire post. Boy, I don't notice spelling anymore.
ReplyDeleteNot in a book but on the carpark at my college: This space reserved for resident chaplin.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
The worst ever was a very prominent typo in my own dissertation spotted by me AFTER it was marked and returned!
ReplyDeleteIt was on a secondary TITLE page.
The page had ONLY ONE WORD ON IT - and I got it wrong!!!!
I typed "testiles" instead of "textiles!!! AAAARGGGH!!!
I work at a publishing house and we had a very lucky escape the other day. 'Forgotten Solders' was on the spine until the very last minute, before an extra 'i' was added. This will sound very weak, but the spines on covers are quite difficult to proof-read. Ahem. (hangs head quietly and leaves)
ReplyDeleteWe are able to read words (even if it irritates us) in which a considerable number of spelling errors exist. Quite remarkably as long as the first and final letters are unchanged you can randomly jumble up the intervening letters and still almost always make complete sense of the text and even read it with out too much decrease in speed. Visit this URL for some interesting examples (in a variety of languages) and discussion: http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/
ReplyDeleteDark Puss
Ah, after 30+ years of teaching, incorrect spelling and grammar have been reinforced so many times that I am no longer sure of anything. (Boy, am I glad I put the comma in the right place?!) OVW
ReplyDeleteBrilliant post! It reminds me of the 'Down Wiv Skool' books I used to love.
ReplyDeleteNLiGeJ Your blog is great. Articles is interesting!
ReplyDeleteZXfqAM Thanks to author.
ReplyDeleteThanks to author.
ReplyDeleteThanks to author.
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