Grammar Mistakes In Books

[Aubrey Nicole]

It bothers me when I'm reading a PUBLISHED novel and I find grammar mistakes. Usually I take a pencil and underline the mistake. I don't know why, but it makes me feel better, I suppose.
For instance, today I was reading The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. About 80 pages into the book I read this sentence:

Quote:

"You must of been a manicurist at one time"

Must HAVE!
There is the possibility that it was a vernacular (am I using this word the right way?) thing, as it was someone speaking at the time. However, even when speaking, "must've" sounds the same as "must of". (I am still reading the book, however. It's very good so far, and it was just one mistake).

And, of course, I am was reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I was reading the fifth or sixth book (I can't quite remember) and I kept finding tiny errors, such as where commas could have been, but weren't, and so on. I stopped reading. (Of course, this was also due to the fact that Richard Rahl and Kahlan had both turned into huge Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus.)

Hopefully I put this in the correct sub-forum.  

[The Love Turtle]

I think you did put it in the right fourm (I'm new at this guild)

I've read that book The Silence of the Lambs and I noticed quite a few errors, on page 80 (like you mentioned) page 85 and page 96.

O_o I quite liked the Sword of Truth story.

Cate Tiernan, and Rolf Harris makes mistakes some times. Like no commas or no full stops or speach marks.  

[Kurshami]

I don't have any examples off the top of my head, but I do know that mistakes can be irritating. I don't think it ruins a book, but it definitely knocks me out of the book and back to the real world where I can feel anguish at it.

But when people are speaking, I think bad grammar should almost be a necessary part. Not many speak like the way characters do in books, so my opinion is simply that everyone in a book is a valedictorian from Harvard or a suppressed genius. I can count on my fingers how many people I know speak like a book (me being one of them).  

[Luxx Aeternam]

It can sometimes ruin the mood, but with some things, you have to learn to let it slide. Maybe the editor was having a bad day and wanted to mess up the book or something. In many of the Magic: The Gathering books, there are several grammatical errors throughout the book. But if the story is good enough, you should only be slightly irritated at it. Maybe scoff at it, but then move on.  

[Trumpet Ego]

One time I was reading a book and I found three errors in one day. It gets me so annoyed in frusturated. One of the mistakes was not capitalizing a name!  

[Domenic]

I was reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (brilliant book), and I noticed that a period should've been somewhere (there was a capital-lettered and non-important (therefore didn't need to be capital) word right after where the period should've been) but I think it was scratched out or something. Either than that, I have no examples off the top of my head.  

[(LD)Croaks]

God! You people seem to think that grammar and punctuation is everything! I mean, come on! If your reading a good book that you like then why would it matter if there was a spelling mistake or a comma or period missing? Can't you look past that and enjoy the book without being a grammar Nazi? I've read more then a hundred books! And I've found mistakes and errors in almost all of them, it doesn't bother me, because I can see past a mistake and enjoy the book for what it is, a piece of art. If everything was perfect then this wouldn't be Earth, nothing can ever be perfect in this place, EVER!. It shouldn't ruin the book just because of a shitty editing job. Authors put their time and lives into these and you should be able to realize that nobody is perfect and mistakes shouldn't burn a hole in a book. Ugh. . .  

[Aubrey Nicole]

(LD)Croaks

God! You people seem to think that grammar and punctuation is everything! I mean, come on! If your reading a good book that you like then why would it matter if there was a spelling mistake or a comma or period missing? Can't you look past that and enjoy the book without being a grammar Nazi? I've read more then a hundred books! And I've found mistakes and errors in almost all of them, it doesn't bother me, because I can see past a mistake and enjoy the book for what it is, a piece of art. If everything was perfect then this wouldn't be Earth, nothing can ever be perfect in this place, EVER!. It shouldn't ruin the book just because of a shitty editing job. Authors put their time and lives into these and you should be able to realize that nobody is perfect and mistakes shouldn't burn a hole in a book. Ugh. . .

I would think that if someone is PUBLISHING a book, and thus getting PAID to edit/write this book, then they can at least attempt to have proper punctuation and spelling. I'm not saying that I won't read a book just because of one error, but if there are a lot of errors, it detracts from the actual plot of the novel, and makes me question the author's/editior's credibility.  

[(LD)Croaks]

dorkifiedchick

I would think that if someone is PUBLISHING a book, and thus getting PAID to edit/write this book, then they can at least attempt to have proper punctuation and spelling. I'm not saying that I won't read a book just because of one error, but if there are a lot of errors, it detracts from the actual plot of the novel, and makes me question the author's/editior's credibility.

Why does it matter? Why would you question the credibility of an author/editor because of one or two mistakes in a book? You think your so high and mighty? Why don't you write a book or edit a fullscale work of someone else? You're getting all irritated because someone did something that's not perfect. When in reality, none of you could do nearly as well as they did. You write a book yourself and see how easy it is, you edit a book before it gets close to publishing and see how well you do. You just don't get it! Your all criticizing people for what you could never do! You think this is okay? Walk in these people's shoes for a day and you won't have s**t to say, none of you have the right to judge these people! Do you gain anything from being so callous towards them? Why don't you just try and step back for a moment and just look straight at what you've been doing. And tell me, do you think you're right or wrong?  

[Countess Valentine]

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, I HAVE written a book. I HAVE edited it. And I'm a full-time editor for a friend who is writting a few short stories and is going to get the published as well. And you know what? It's NOT THAT HARD! You try to stand up for editors who are getting paid a whole lot of money and aren't doing their job. All they are are doing is slacking off. That's it. Anyway, I've found many, many grammatical errors in books, including many famous ones. They don't put me off the series, but it makes me very angry.  

[(LD)Croaks]

Tokyoanimefan

>snip<

You've written a real book? Really? Show me. And your taking this knowledge from real life experience? YOU'RE THIRTEEN! You think editing your own book is worth s**t? You think editing short stories for a friend is worth said s**t? Editing anything a book, poem, short story or even an essay is very hard and taxing work! Believe me, my father is a lawyer. He has to write and edit extremely important legal documents. Do you think I don't know what it takes to edit or write something? No matter who writes something it's always gonna have mistakes and you can't edit your own work! At least not for the final edit, you have editors do that. And editors don't make a whole lot of money, they have to get by just like everyone else. Tell me, what is the name of your book? How long is it? I'm writing a book too, but I'm not dumb enough to completely edit it myself because I'm not qualified, you have to go to college to even get close to makeing a book grammatically correct. The English language is an incredibly complicated language, one of the most complicated languages in the world! It's up there with Japanese. English is basically impossible to completely master.  

[merlinblackheart]

I agree that editing is hard, writing your own stuff helps, I'm currently writing a book, but since my mother is was an editor for a newspaper and my father is a lawyer, I know that it takes many revisions and editing before ANYTHING is ready to be published. Unless you're being really careful, though you can miss stuff. That's why I make all my friends and sometimes my mom read the stories I write, they'll catch things that make my story better, like asking questions about why something happened in a certain way, although my mom still likes to think that I'm like 17 and innocent as an angel, so she wants to make my stories less dark… That's the curse of being an only adopted child who doesn't really do anything wrong.  

[daisy4given]

I have found several mistakes in published books, and honestly, it mostly makes me feel embarrassed! Seriously, I think, "how can SO many people have read and edited this book, and still let it get published in this condition"? I feel embarrassed for the poor writer who is made out to look bad, when really, they have a whole team of people who should have caught it. Sometimes the misprints actually create confusion for me as a reader, and I have to re-read the passage before I realize that there was a mistake.
Usually it bugs me, but doesn't ruin the overall experience for me.  

[Parisxx]

i don't get frustrated mad or angry. i usually just see it and say it properly. Sometimes the publisher can just skim and miss a few mistakes oh well, but sometimes its annoying like you said above there are what many mistakes on the couple pages to follow. I hate that but i make mistakes when i am not thinking clearly. That is when i am writing. Some people read it differently razz Maybe they thought it made sense, But it can drive me insane from time to time.  

[YoTeAmo]

I remember last year, when I was reading a book, the book had errors on every page. There were spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, and repeated sentences. When I see books that have many mistakes, it makes the book pointless to read. If the author can't go over her work after writing it, she must not have thought the book was very fascinating. If you ever write a book, please check over your work and make sure there aren't a lot of mistakes. It makes the reader focus more on the mistakes than on the book itself.