Yes, to the question about author's errors.

I recently started a book although I can't remember the title or the author, but it was someone 'popular'. In the first chapter she is given a cup of tea and a few lines later puts down her coffee cup. I realise it is only a very small mistake but it just put me off reading any further!

Bon, yes, I am bothered by errors, even small ones like Vee mentioned. That said, I have no idea what a rhododendron looks like or if it would lose its leaves or not. Maybe they don’t grow in Florida, or maybe I just don’t know what they are. 😁

There was a TV series many years ago that was set in Florida.. It must have been shot in California, though, because we had lots of laughs at the mountains in the background! (For those who don’t know, Florida is flat as a pancake. The highest hill is about 600 ft.)

Donna....as they say "flat as my sister !"

And rhododendron doesn't grow in Florida.....or in the south.

So I guess that error would be location-sensitive !

Here’s one…in Kate’s Progress by Cynthia Harrod Eagles, she’s describing two pubs in a village. In one paragraph the building is three stories high; in the next paragraph the other building is three storeys high.

Sadly several books I enjoy re-reading have big mistakes in them which I have to avoid.

I even emailed an author to ask if I was correct about one character's age. She kindly replied that I was right and said she had focused on the young woman as she imagined her and not realised her error.

Sometimes I ignore the mistakes and other times dump the book. It depends on how much I am engaged in the story.

Errors bother me a lot, but it does depend on whether it is an oversight, like Vee's teacup vs coffee cup, or something that should be checked, like the rhododendron bushes. I feel a bit more lenient about the former.

I also know that some authors have their work changed by editors for trans-Atlantic purposes. So it is possible that Cynthia Harrod-Eagles wrote 'storeys' which is the British version, and it was changed to stories (US version), but they missed one.

As Kath says re storeys/stories in the UK/Aus etc the 'levels' of a house are described as ground-floor (US first floor) first-floor (US second floor) and so on. It can get confusing.

I had never noticed the spelling difference before!

Errors do bother me, like one book where the hero's hair changed from dark to blond.

Carolyn, that is annoying because you have a mental picture and then that gets changed!

That also happened in a Georgette Heyer book where a character's hair colour changes.

She rarely makes mistakes!

An error I have mentioned before, from one of C J Sansom's 'Shardlake' books. Set in the time of Henry VIII he has the scullion peeling potatoes!

Also, not author error but.......I do not like images of the characters on the cover of a book.

In fact, that will dissuade me from considering it as my next read.

I find editorial and typographical errors annoying, but what really puts me off is a true authorial error such as the anachronistic potatoes. One error in particular put me off ever reading another book by the author: major plot point for a murder using poison extracted from oleanders growing along the highway - in New York State! Oleanders are hardy only in zones 8-10, upstate New York has zones 4-6. I grew up in New York State, never saw an oleander until I moved to Florida. Hmph!

I know this should be about books but thought I would just vent my spleen about an episode of the popular TV prog. Upstairs Downstairs which was part of a 'followup' series set in the 1930's. One of the aristocratic characters is spending time in Germany. It is 1938 and Kristallnacht is upon the city. Our heroine rushes out into the street (surrounded by loud sound effects) goes to a phone box and rings up her family in England . . . and gets straight through. No operator needed to connect the call or coins fed into the slot. The appliance of science so far ahead of it's time.

Vee, Very dramatic licence! In England local calls took time before you were told to Press Button A.

I get annoyed by the wrong cigarettes being smoked in WW2 films. I applaud the portrayal of the heavy smoking at that time but not with filter tips.

You can see which modern actors are faking smoking. They don't inhale!

Annpan

Wasn't it necessary to ask the operator for 'trunk calls', or the overseas operator, then they booked you a slot and you waited for maybe a few hours before you were put-through?

After three minutes the operator butted in "Your time is up caller. Put another . . .so-many pennies . . . in the box please"

I only know about those kinds of calls from films but I think you are right.

I never made calls from a telephone box or a private phone (excepting to get a Girl Guide badge) as no one I knew other than the Guide Captain had a telephone.

I had to use the phone at the nearby butcher's shop to call in sick one time to Boots Library. My unsympathetic boss said that if I could phone her I should come to work!

It wasn't until I worked in an office when I was eighteen that I used a phone regularly.

I have just begun The Archangel Project by C. S. Graham and right away someone is "wrecking havoc." I'm reading an e-book, so there's no way to know if it is a typo or author error.

They also don't know the proper usage for lie and lay.

Carolyn, Demand your money back!

The library came up with three requested books and a DVD! Such a choice which to read first when I am engrossed, glued to the US news programs! What excitements you are having there!

Chickens LAY eggs, people LIE on things.

You LAY something down and it LIES there, per my mother, teacher par excellence.

Carolyn, I do some proofreading for an author who claims to be strict about grammar, but when I changed a couple of her 'lays' to the correct 'lies', she said she knew it was wrong but lay sounded much better! Not to me.

I guess in light of text grammar, we're lucky anyone still cares about "lay" or "lie" !

Kath, your post made me groan; and, yoyo, you are probably right.