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Old 04-23-2014, 12:06 AM   #211
Rev. Bob
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Speaking of which, there is no such stinking thing as a "Sorcerer's Stone".
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Old 04-23-2014, 05:24 AM   #212
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All of the Harry Potter books also suffer from this. I remember bookmarking a website with an exhaustive list of the changes...
But these changes are perfectly OK since the books are different editions.
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Old 04-23-2014, 10:44 AM   #213
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But these changes are perfectly OK since the books are different editions.
And the changes have been authorized by the creator of the material.
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Old 04-24-2014, 10:07 AM   #214
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What do you mean by "the real version of the same book on my hard drive"?
I mean the version of the e-book that I have on my hard drive and comparing that to the Amazon preview.

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Originally Posted by QuantumIguana View Post
If you're really concerned about whether the book has been altered, I suppose you could take the sample, convert it to text and do a text compare against the file you had.
What's the fastest way to do this?
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Old 05-03-2014, 09:05 AM   #215
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I mean the version of the e-book that I have on my hard drive and comparing that to the Amazon preview.



What's the fastest way to do this?
Could someone please help me with this?
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Old 05-03-2014, 09:36 AM   #216
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If I download a public domain book from, say, PG, and go through it and make "improvements" and upload it to the MR library, how would any downloaders know what I'd done unless they were already familiar with the book? I could "fix" grammar and punctuation and modernize language, and who would know without careful cross-checking?
These are my thoughts as well.
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If I spent my time worrying about things like this, it would take away my enjoyment of the book. So, I don't spend time worrying. I just read.
But don't you want to know that what you're reading is genuine?
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Old 05-03-2014, 09:55 AM   #217
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You can compare your digital copies to what is shown by looking up the book in Google books.
What's the fastest way to do this?

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I think there is a very legitimate problem behind this arising out of the fact that it is very much easier to alter the content of an ebook than of a paper book.
If the book has intact DRM then the issue become that of trusting the source, e.g. Amazon, and although they may have shown themselves less than perfect at times, at least you know what you are dealing with.
Right.
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Originally Posted by Victoria View Post
This search for certainty in the written word is a longstanding issue - not something newly introduced with ebooks.

For example, look at the history of the Christian bible: no originals from the Hebrew bible - just translations of translations; transcription errors crept in through hand-copying over the centuries; disagreement over critical word choices in modern translations due to differing theological and political perspectives of the scholars; the 1&2 century had a different understanding of 'author' from today, so that works were attributed to Paul and others, though written after their deaths, etc.

Social media / 'global village' now allows readers to brush elbows with authors. JK Rowling says she made a mistake with Ron and Hermione - too much information! What are we supposed to do with revelations from authors, rewrite the books in our head?

I think the OP is correct that ebooks introduce another avenue for change creeping into the written word. It would be very easy for an author to slip in a word change here and there to address criticisms in reviews, when correcting 'typos' and misspellings. Figuring out what is 'canon' is important, but it's not new, and it there will always be some degree of uncertainty.
So I should be uncertain of just about every e-book I read?

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Originally Posted by avantman42 View Post
If it's a best-seller, maybe. If it's not a best-seller, it's significantly less likely. The internet doesn't mean that more people will read a given book, it just makes it easier for them to tell each other about it.
I'm concerned with e-books that are sold on a very small scale.

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Yes absolutely, I agree it's far harder for changes to go unnoticed and reported.

But if someone is searching for certainty - the canon - in some situations it is substituting one problem for another. What if it's the author that makes the change from one version to the next? What weight should be given to that?

Another example is via movie and tv 'tie in' books that are popular now. I've started reading Star Trek books, and I feel a bit uncertain when the author goes in a different direction than the tv series, or kills off a main character - do I accept that?

Should I give it more weight to the books, if the author worked on the original tv series? Or should I just treat the earlier tv shows as the official canon?

I know Star Trek is trivial compared to Karl Marx - but what if someone dedicates their lives to his vision, and then Marx's diary is found, and his thinking evolved in a different direction? Or he wrote a revision, but was he killed and it was suppressed before he could publish it?

It's very important to try to nail down the canon, but there is often level of uncertainty.
Good points!
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Old 05-03-2014, 10:09 AM   #218
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As Winston Churchill said "history is written by the victors." I am sure that this holds true in all but the driest of accounts, fiction or non fiction. Changing someone else's work and pretending that this is what the actually wrote is IMO bad, but censors have been doing it for a long time.

I think it is up to the reader to decide what they want to read. Sometimes a story retold with a change of style is more enjoyable. Almost always there is bias whether by the original author or by someone rewriting what they said.

You are only in danger if you believe everything you read and make life changing decisions based on it. Kind of like believing Cheese Whiz is really good for you because it is only 90% fat instead of 98% fat like butter.

Helen
Right, so what about self-help type e-books like Tony Robbins? Couldn't these be altered and contain harmful information? This is what concerns me more than anything else.
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Old 05-03-2014, 11:42 AM   #219
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Right, so what about self-help type e-books like Tony Robbins? Couldn't these be altered and contain harmful information? This is what concerns me more than anything else.
If a person takes everything written in any self help book as gospel, without doing further research, that person deserves anything that happens as a result. Blindly following anything or any person is going to cause a problem eventually.

I'm going to agree with those in this thread who think that this just isn't an issue. If you think it's an issue, then stop reading "e-books that are sold on a very small scale" and only buy from the big publishing houses. If you are getting something for free, or almost free, you have no right whatsoever to expect perfection.

Shari
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Old 05-03-2014, 11:43 AM   #220
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Right, so what about self-help type e-books like Tony Robbins? Couldn't these be altered and contain harmful information? This is what concerns me more than anything else.
Seriously? THAT is what concerns you the most about all this?

Luckily, the very nature of the self-help book industry almost guarantees that any freely distributed books will not be "legitimate" ones.
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Old 05-03-2014, 09:01 PM   #221
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Seriously? THAT is what concerns you the most about all this?

Luckily, the very nature of the self-help book industry almost guarantees that any freely distributed books will not be "legitimate" ones.
I was going to say something about Tony Robbins not needing any help with providing 'harmful information', but yeah, that works.
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Old 05-03-2014, 10:12 PM   #222
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I tried googling Tony Robbins, but it appears that his Wikipedia entry is nothing but a commercial for his pitch. Is he known for offering damaging advice to his readers?
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Old 05-04-2014, 04:54 AM   #223
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Malicious edits are unlikely. Someone would notice, especially if the book is from a legitimate source. It's just not worth worrying about. If the sample doesn't have DRM, you could use an online tool to convert it to TXT format, Google mobi to txt. But what would that tell you? If you already trust the files you have, then read those. If you don't trust the files you have, but DO trust Amazon, then get your books from Amazon. In order to test your files, you must have some known good source against which to test, and if you have a known good source, then use that. When is the last time you heard of malicious edits to books?
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Old 05-04-2014, 09:41 AM   #224
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I tried googling Tony Robbins, but it appears that his Wikipedia entry is nothing but a commercial for his pitch. Is he known for offering damaging advice to his readers?
Yeah, harmful is a bit over the top though there have been a number of injuries during his firewalking routine. Mostly it's a huge scam. You start off cheap and it gets more and more expensive the further you get into his seminars.
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Old 05-04-2014, 10:19 AM   #225
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If one was interested in Tony Robbins self help or similar an audiobook/video may be less likely to be altered. And possibly more effective.

Many years ago I listened to the firewalker tape, and thought it was neat. But I listened to/watched a few others (from the library) and soon became disenchanted. (The 'Yeah Right" syndrome)

Each to their own though.

Helen
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