Quote:
Originally Posted by EbookNovice
Hey all, I've been working to get rid of all of my physical books to the point where 90% of new books I buy are e-books so that I'm not harming the earth. However, one scary thought crept into my mind: What if the e-books I'm reading have been manipulated and their content is wrong? ...
Is there a way I can check that the e-books I'm reading are genuine?
How can I trust that an e-book hasn't been manipulated?
|
I think the most effective way would be to prepare the ebook yourself from a genuine original.
But even if you do that you may have some worries:
- Suppose the author has revised his or her book - is the original version the 'genuine' book or is the revised version the 'genuine' version?
- Suppose the author has done a version of a book for sale in the USA and a different one for sale in the UK - which is the genuine version? And I haven't even started on the differences in spelling and punctuation between the USA and the rest of the world.
- Suppose the author has left an obvious typo in his or her book? Is the 'genuine' version the one containing the typo or the one that someone else has corrected?
- Suppose the meaning of a word has changed over time - is it more genuine to use the word that the author used which has changed its meaning, or the word that conveys the sense of the original now?
- Suppose the punctuation the author used is very different from the punctuation we use today? I have open in front of me a copy of
The Red Cockade by Stanley J. Weyman printed in the 19th century. The first sentence my eye fell on is
" You have heard ? "
If you did the ebook would you be manipulating it to make it "You have heard?" Or would it be more 'genuine' to use the style in the original book? I have read different editions of that book which used "You have heard?" Which is the genuine edition, and what makes it the genuine edition?
Some of us prefer to make the first line after a scene break not indented. If we use that style in the ebook of a book which does not use that style is the ebook any less genuine than the original?
In any event, who has the authority to answer these questions, and how did they get this authority?
I don't claim for a second to have the answers, or even to be able to point you to a style guide for MobileRead or any other forum. All I'm trying to point out is that your question is very complex. For what it is worth I'd dearly like to see some agreed upon guidelines for the forum - though I certainly would not want to see rules.