I am delighted to find that Amazon.com is now making many of Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" books available in electronic editions for the Kindle. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the process of transferring the text from paper to pixels is a little sloppy, at least in the version I have of "If Death Ever Slept." In particular, there are repeated instances where the word "his" becomes "Ms" and "him" becomes "Mm," which is distracting at best when trying to read the book. If it were a freebie or ultra-low-cost book, I'd make allowances, but at a price point ranging from $6 to $12 or so, depending on the book, I think a bit more care should have been taken.
I was glad to see this also. I have been buying most of these as they appear (except for the higher-priced ones). It appears that most of the Nero Wolfe volumes will be available for the Kindle and others by the end of summer... good news indeed. It's unfortunate that insufficient care was taken in copy-editing the electronic versions (assuming that any was done), I agree it is very distracting. I have found these kinds of errors in almost all ebooks I have purchased. I recently bought the Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr ebooks from Amazon and found a similar situation. In general, I would have thought that for the price being charged, I would get a higher quality product.
Posted by: Mike | April 22, 2011 at 09:38 AM
I don't have a Kindle and don't plan to get one. I saw it yesterday while I was in Staples and my main reaction was: GAK! (Me coughing up a hairball.) I suppose if I travelled a lot, I'd sing a different tune.
Anyway, I have all the Nero Wolfe books (except a couple) in paperback and I am happy enough with those. No 'mms' and 'ms' for 'his' there. Ha!
I'm reaing TOO MANY CLIENTS again for the umpteenth time, Les. Gosh I wish fate had given Rex Stout dispensation to live and write forever. :)
Posted by: Yvette | April 22, 2011 at 02:51 PM
Mike, I couldn't agree more. What disturbs me is the sloppiness that I find in producing a book for which the producer is charging money. Not a lot of money, granted, but more than a token dollar or two.
Yvette, I agree about Stout. As you know, the publisher did try to continue the series, bringing in Robert Goldsborough to write new books, but the ones I read were always just far enough off-target in tone or language to be jarring. By the way, I also have all the Wolfe books in paperback; I got this Kindle edition for portability (and because I let a friend borrow my paperback and realized I needed to read it again before a Wolfe Pack discussion next month).
Posted by: Les Blatt | April 24, 2011 at 02:24 PM