Comparing Covers
At the Millions, a comparison between the American and UK editions of some of the Morning News 2009 Tournament of Books contenders. (Link from Morning News, of course.)
I am actively stifling my urge to go to amazon.co.uk
But I’m going to keep an eye out at Half Price books; often the UK editions will turn up used or as remainders. That’s where I got UK editions of Harry Potter One and Two, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and the lovely HC of Special Topics in Calamity Physics (still unread).
(See how I finagled that? I HAD to go to the UK amazon to get the links for the UK editions. Heh. I did not shop, though. Yet.)
February 25th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I have a UK edition of Bridget Jones’s Diary too! I actually picked mine up in a used bookstore while I was studying Oxford, so it’s doubly special to me. Other than that, I think the only British editions of I have are the entire HP series, though I technically have the Canadian editions (which are identical to Bloomsburys, near as I can tell).
I have to say though, no cover on this earth could get me to like A Partisan’s Daughter!
February 27th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
We had a funny experience at book group when we read Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell. One woman said she found it really difficult to read because it had so many unfamiliar terms. We asked her for an example, she got one from the first page, and we realized she had the UK version and we had the US, and they were different translations. Hers was definitely harder to read for us–it wasn’t just little changes like apartment/flat, boot/trunk, etc.
When I went to London a few years back, I spent WAY too much time in Waterstone’s. I thought they had great displays, and I agonized over what books to get there. I chose two Peter Ackroyd books, House of Doctor Dee and Hawksmoor (I’d just finished From Hell), both of which are still unread, natch, but neither of which are in print in the US.