That Bible, right between the Elder Edda and Ovid.

Celia S. Friedman: “He said softly”.

Sometimes it seems to pass unnoticed. Many years ago, I was discussing details of Asimov’s “Foundation” online with another reader, and we found that I kept quoting passages he could not verify. In the end we realised that some time in the early 1980s, “Second Foundation” was stealthily edited, modifying a couple of data that were inconsistent with the two previous volumes and removing or altering a few phrases. While I had the original edition, he had the revised one and therefore was unable to find my quotes!

Well, I have done it. Sort of. My wife was assigned to translate our first novel, and whenever she was getting bored she started to make up her own stuff. Now her version not only makes the teenage prota cheekier than before, it even features an additional character, a toddler who keeps meddling into the scenes regardless of how often she is kicked out. And I found myself forced to readjust the original to my wife’s translation that has become more of a retelling. For I had to admit that she has improved on it.

They read Ishiguro and expect Murakami.

Google is your friend.

Frodo Baggins.

There is a good chance that she was written by Ben Bova. His attitude about female love interests leaves much to be desired.

Tehanu comes pretty close to that. 😁

Moreover, it gets better with each volume as the author matures.

Tolkien, Lucian of Samosata, Perry Rhodan.

Perelandra. Started the trilogy three times and each time gave up after three boring as hell chapters.

I forgot its title; it was allegedly written by the wife of astronaut James Irvin on his lunar mission. Throughout the book, the lady had exactly two things to say:(a) My husband was an astronaut (LOOK AT ME!!!).(b) God.

On every bloody page it was God, God, God, God all over the place. Now I see why Oriana Fallaci had referred to the astronaut wifes as a flock of silly geese.

Unfortunately they are in breach of copyright.

Unfortunately they are in breach of copyright.

The Ramayana.

Indeed many of my fellow translators are not aware of this problem.

Kids being smarter than adults. I remember one old French YA novel from the 1950s that got it right: The children were stuck with a medieval inscription on a stone plate none of them could interpret. And they did what any reasonable children would do: Next time, they brought the Latin teacher from their school.

I’m really perplexed by readers seemingly not realizing that a minute has two meanings: (a) sixty seconds, (b) a short moment.

Felix R. Palma was the worst offender here. I stopped reading when one character got teeth knocked out and a few pages later engagedly kissed his girlfriend.