Ever wonder about those mistakes you find in books? How could the editor and writer miss them? Little things like in the book, Carrie, Stephen King has the owner of the Kelly Fruit company named Hubert on page 69 and Henry on page 217. Or in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Buckpeak is tied to a tree before Harry and Hermione go back in time. However, when they travel to the past, Buckpeak is tied to a fence.
After reading through a writing blog this morning, I discovered an unusual website. It is called Bookmistakes.com, and there is an impressive list of mistakes found in some famous books.
http://www.bookmistakes.com/best_book.php.
It makes you think that we are all human, no matter how famous the book or author. Everyone makes mistakes. Of course, they are usually found by readers and fans. They are not usually distracted by the processes of writing or never see the pounds of revision that lead up to a novel.
I can relate to some of these mistakes that most likely come out of hours of revision. A character name is changed later in a revision. Often one change is missed. Or when the writer is thinking through all the details, or going from draft to draft, a detail is remembered wrong or confused.
Smallest of details can get by the editor and writer. There is so much detail and description in every book. To error is human. It is the natural course of things. But sometimes, just to find an error is exciting. The thought occurs, ah, they didn't catch everything. As in Angels & Demons, Langdon swims in the water of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi after a man has drowned. But of course, the fountain only is about one foot deep.
These little mistakes bring out the joy in reading. It's like being a book detective to find out even authors are human. Because if writers like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Dan Brown can make mistakes, they are just like the rest of us. It makes us all feel a little more human.
Tiffany Turner is the author of the Crystal Keeper Chronicles. Her books can be found at Amazon.com.
Referenced Links for this Post:
Lauren's World of Mystery Writing
Bookmistakes.com
1 comment:
To error is indeed human...and to forgive divine, which we must do. If we forgive the errors of others, then they can forgive us Yet, as a writer, I can't help but smile, and feel better about myself as a writer when an error is found in the work of one of the big names.
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