The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I'm currently reading a book from an Simon & Schuster imprint where every em-dash has gone missing and the words just run together wherever they're supposed to appear.

That's just awful. I'd probably be driven to search for a pirate copy, if the book's any good. Ofc there might be no better illegal copy either.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yesterday I started to read The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin. I bought the book from Google Play 4 years ago. The publisher is Hachette UK.

So I reach Chapter Six and see the chapter title... wtf? I've attached a screenshot.

What's the problem? Clearly spelling has changed a lot in the future.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

What's the problem? Clearly spelling has changed a lot in the future.

If only that were the case. The events in the book take place in 1876. Well, I guess the spelling was different then too...

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's just awful. I'd probably be driven to search for a pirate copy, if the book's any good. Ofc there might be no better illegal copy either.

Another book from the same imprint had a missing chapter. I had to go to the Open Library to read a scan of the print copy.

Who the hell did such a sloppy job digitizing these books?

[DNSB]

Since we seem to be on pet peeves, one of mine are those books where the author/proofreader/whomever tosses in Oxford commas seemingly at random. One recent book I read had 6 of the 14 chapters using the Oxford comma and 8 that didn't. The Oxford comma is found before an and in a list of 3 or more items though some like to use if before any and. A sample use would be: John, Jason, and Jerry went to town to purchase some groceries, liquor, and shirts.

I don't really care which way they use the comma just that they be effing consistent.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The Oxford comma is found before an and in a list of 3 or more items though some like to use if before any and. A sample use would be: John, Jason, and Jerry went to town to purchase some groceries, liquor, and shirts.

I don't really care which way they use the comma just that they be effing consistent.

That's common US use of an Oxford comma.
Some don't use it at all, esp. in UK & Ireland. Others only use it where a list item isn't a single word, i.e. the list would be ambiguous.

It is annoying when spelling or punctuation is correct, but is inconsistent in the book. Like nosey and nosy even in the same chapter!

Commas are tricky because they have so many usages. Occasionally re-ordering clauses gets rid of one.
Adjectives like in a list of properties of a noun have a special order, but only take list commas if it would work putting an and instead.

It's not really an "Oxford" comma!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

Edit:
The ambiguity section has good examples, and as with two clauses, sometimes you are better re-writing the list because no-one will know what you mean no matter if that "Oxford" comma is in or out.

Maybe the book is poorly written and been sprinkled with commas?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's just awful. I'd probably be driven to search for a pirate copy, if the book's any good. Ofc there might be no better illegal copy either.

Yuppperdoodle, a certain country that has "eBook formatters" coming out the eyes, ears and nose, strikes again!

(This happens when people who are trained by rote, NOT problem-solving, see "hard-hyphens" in scans-->OCR Word files that are meant to become eBooks.

They search and replace them--with nothing. That means that every place the line-ending, hyphenation hyphen appears, should [mostly] work, but in those instances in which the dash appears for other reasons, "mother-in-law" yup, the words run together, i.e., motherinlaw.)

But, hey, it was cheap and they didn't have to pay some pricey US-based firm!!!

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

OCR error?

I'm currently reading a book from an Simon & Schuster imprint where every em-dash has gone missing and the words just run together wherever they're supposed to appear.

What book is this?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Yuppperdoodle, a certain country that has "eBook formatters" coming out the eyes, ears and nose, strikes again!

(This happens when people who are trained by rote, NOT problem-solving, see "hard-hyphens" in scans-->OCR Word files that are meant to become eBooks.

They search and replace them--with nothing. That means that every place the line-ending, hyphenation hyphen appears, should [mostly] work, but in those instances in which the dash appears for other reasons, "mother-in-law" yup, the words run together, i.e., motherinlaw.)

But, hey, it was cheap and they didn't have to pay some pricey US-based firm!!!

Hitch

I think we need new laws in the US to make this sort of thing illegal and to have to use staff in the US for US books.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What book is this?

One of the Star Trek novels from Pocket Books. Examples in bold:

Uhura sighed dramaticallythe same sigh she used every time Chekov refused the various native foods she felt the need to foist upon himand popped a piece into her mouth as though to prove it was edible. Chekov assumed she'd someday believe him when he told her he wasn't interested in being experimental about what he ate. So far, it was eight years and counting. "Be brave," she persisted when she'd finished chewing. "They don't have sophisticated cooking facilitiesthe Kitka live in an arctic environment."

Kirk surprised his friend by leaning down and placing a firm hand on the bed to either side of McCoy, effectively trapping the doctor where he sat. "What's eating you?"

"Nothing's"

"Bones." He spoke quietly, without annoyance, and drew McCoy's attention like steel filings to a magnet.

[tayseidel]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

One of the Star Trek novels from Pocket Books. Examples in bold:

As a kid, I could never get into LA Graf's books. His prose is a bit verbose.

[ownedbycats]

Yeah, there were a few parts where I had a bit of trouble following along with the scene on account of it.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

One of the Star Trek novels from Pocket Books. Examples in bold:

They never heard of reverse hyphenation, OCR marking original end of line, nor of spelling checkers?

Obviously no proof reading either.

Crazy.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

They never heard of reverse hyphenation, OCR marking original end of line, nor of spelling checkers?

Obviously no proof reading either.

Crazy.

A lot of the Trek novels I've read so far have various issues with their digitization from print > ebook.

The worst case was this book, chapter 15 is missing entirely - it got replaced with a duplicate of chapter 14. I ended up having to resort to a scanned copy of the print edition to read it.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

They never heard of reverse hyphenation, OCR marking original end of line, nor of spelling checkers?

Obviously no proof reading either.

Crazy.

Yah, generally, I have not found any publishers of any size that proof the books from in-print-->scanning-->OCR. Not a one.

They all assume that somehow, magic will happen and it will all come out perfectly. Dunno why on earth they think that either.

Hitch