doc_strange: (Default)
doc_strange ([personal profile] doc_strange) wrote2011-11-07 05:38 pm

Book update

Well, Amazon replaced the book and emailed a UPS label for the return. New book arrived.

It was great. Until I got 120 more pages in, when one of the page clusters let go. Yes, same problem, just not in the first cluster.

Time to call the publisher to let them know they have a bad batch out there. The book is Anathem, mass market paperback... So, ahem, perhaps some of my flist can let the author know there is a physical printing of the book that I have to say gives the nice (in terms of the book) atmospheric feel of having to preserve an ancient folio while reading it.

I have paperbacks from the 1960s and much older hardbacks... all of which manage to "hold it together" - kind of sad that a modern paperback is more ephemeral than an ebook.
ivy: (axe barbie)

[personal profile] ivy 2011-11-08 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
Doh. Perfect, yet sucktastic.
erik: A Chibi-style cartoon of me! (Default)

[personal profile] erik 2011-11-08 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
(a group of pages like that is called a "signature". It's one or a few sheets of paper that has been cleverly printed so that when cleverly folded it becomes a stack of pages in order. They are then bound into the book and the folds trimmed off three edges.)

[identity profile] docstrange.livejournal.com 2011-11-08 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks. I was hoping someone would pipe up with some terms. There is of course jargon for everything within each profession that deals deeply with that thing. Nice to know.

Unfortunately, like most jargon, it is nearly useless except within the profession.

"Hello, Amazon, signatures keep falling out of my book."

"Uh, sir, that is not a signed copy."

Yeah.

(Anonymous) 2011-11-09 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
Apparently when Amazon runs out of stock of something, they now use their own publishing facilities to print more copies. I'm wondering if this is one of those... - lb

[identity profile] docstrange.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
Supposedly the info on the front pages or cover will differ. This appears to be all the publisher's own printings. Sadly.