You can always do additional editing and checking, but I suspect in
this case it was deemed more important to have the book out in time
for the ICS. One way to catch the errors that Mark mentioned is to do
an index. Particularly for a book like this, where there are a number
of people and a number of places mentioned, an index is valuable for
folks to find a particular name. And when you index such a volume you
always end up with "almost duplicate" or similar spellings that can
then be discovered and corrected.
The Atlas of the Great Caves of the World is a good example where the
index paid off big time because of the amount of "foreign" names that
went well beyond the 128 character fonts available at the time. The
solution was to design a special 256 character font with all the
special accents, etc. Fortunately computer technology has come a long
way since that 20 year old edition.
I thought it was a great read and look forward to similar books by
both Bill and others cavers.
- Pete
CaveBooks.com
On Sep 16, 2009, at 1:14 PM, Mark Minton wrote:
Charles Goldsmith said:
>Bill, just my opinion on it, but I disagree on your critique.
>It was probably edited too much, so no, it shouldn't have been
edited more.
I have to disagree about the editing, Charles. It _did_
need more, as Mixon said. Sure, it reads well and makes a great
story, but there are things an editor should have caught. For
example, the large room in San AgustÃn where Camp III was located is
spelled at least three ways: Sala Grande de la Sierra Mazateca (p.
26), Sala Grande de las Sierra Mazateca (p. 109), and Sala Grande de
las Sierra Mazatecas (p. 146). The first is correct. Swiss caver
Philippe Rouiller's last name is also spelled three different ways on
pages 193-4. Or how about on p. 201 where it says that a row of
stalagmites hung on the ceiling? However the most egregious error is
that the north arrow on all of the line maps in the chapters points
the wrong way, although it is correct inside the front cover. That
can be very confusing if one doesn't know the system and tries to
make sense of some of the progress described in the book. There are
also several minor factual errors, but those are mostly
inconsequential and would not be detectable by the casual reader.
Don't get me wrong, I like the book and found it to be fast
reading. I too look forward to Steele's next book. But I hope it is
better edited.
Mark Minton
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