That error first showed up in Feb 1996, and is still in place in the bundle I bought from FictionWise, published in 2006. The proof error has been in every copy/edition that I have ever seen, audiobook included.

One thing makes me worry, Laurell K Hamilton stated on her Oct 30 blog entry, that she had

Added three new lines to the final proofs of Divine Misdemeanors in answer to a query from New York.

That book is hitting the shelves on Dec 8. How on earth are the publishers going to have the thing printed and shipped in under 6 weeks? How is Brilliance Audio going to record the unabridged audiobook, produce the different versions, and ship to distributors in under 6 weeks?
To my mind that is just asking for errors.

i.e. I’m much more forgiving on a book I got for free straight from an author than I am for one I’ve paid for from a publisher. I’m also much more forgiving of missing punctuation and misspelling errors, as long as they aren’t endemic, than I am of editing errors.

Is “irregardless” even a word?

No. And I’m with you, a published work containing such a travesty should be hurled.

Continuity errors really drive me nuts. To me, this breaks the reader's trance more than SPAG errors.

Speaking of Anita Blake and continuity errors, in one of the books (can’t remember which, but it was before they went for shyte) Anita lost her car in a violent incident, and then the next day drove out to meet the million-year-old vampire and back home again. Shortly after that, she all of a sudden was missing the car again. Sigh. I empathise, because gods know what you could miss when you switch scenes around in the editing process, but somebody ought to have caught it.

I don’t read my print books after they come out, but I do wonder how well the constant editing and copyediting with Trackchanges comes out in the end product. I proof the printed version and they seem remarkably clean, but I’m human. After a tiring day at the computer, or riding in my car or a plane (since proofs invariably arrive before a trip), I simply may not be focusing as well as I should.

But grammar errors and misspellings really shouldn’t get through.

Incubus Dreams was particularly egregious in that regard, and yes, it bothers me more when it’s a big pricey hardcover. If the publishers want me to shell out the big bucks, they can pay a little more attention to the finished product. I also expect to find fewer errors in a book printed by a big-name publisher.

Continuity errors really drive me nuts. To me, this breaks the reader’s trance more than SPAG errors. There’s nothing like having the protag’s history/eye color/etc. change midscene to bring it sadly home that none of this is real.

A former boss frequently said she was being “appeased of the situation” and if I ever see it on a printed page, there will be an immediate book hurling followed by burning.

Publishers, you are warned!

Typos are one thing, but ignorant malapropisms are something else.

From the Washington State errors website:

Here's a case in which eagerness to avoid error leads to error. The original expression is the last part of a deliberately ungrammatical joke: “If that's what you think, you've got another think coming.”

My point? Mistakes happen. It’s part of life. So, I guess that goes without saying that I’m for a few mistakes, because I honestly feel they are unavoidable for a variety of reasons. One reason being what reads as perfectly acceptable to one will press the pet peeve button for another. I know, that doesn’t really qualify as an error, but to the one who’s button was pushed it may feel like an error. The point is, personal taste also comes into factor where reading is concerned.

However, some mistakes aren’t as acceptable as others. Segments of a sentence doubled up being doubled up being one example. (Mistake intentional there just to show what I was talking about.) Drives me nuts when I see that happen, but as a rule, I can overlook most errors or differences in personal taste.

And though we strive for perfection, there is no such thing. Perception and all that comes into play here, so what’s perfect for one would be extremely (or at least partially) flawed to another.

It is not grammatical, no; but colloquialisms aren’t necessarily so.

The one that really bugs me is “I could care less.” Out loud you might be able to throw the right amount of sarcasm behind it to pull it off, but written it has to be “I couldn’t care less” or it doesn’t make sense.

I voted for perfect, because in an ideal world books would be. They’re not, but I think if you don’t aim for perfect – if you accept a few errors right off the bat – then even more erros will be introduced. Incorrect word usages gets me the most, especially homophones. I’ll accept more errors in dialogue, since many people don’t follow strict grammatical rules when speaking, but I feel the body of the text should be stricter.

I’ve learnt to swallow a lot of UK/US stuff, and I suspect I’ve swallowed a lot that would be errors in either country, just through repeated exposure, but at the end of the day if it’s a UK print then at the very least the spellings ought to be altered to fit. And heaven forbid a US author set a book in this country and then use Americanisms for British characters! That’s just poor research.

Format errors are a real pain, especially if it’s consistent, but that is something that can only appear after all hoops have been jumped through. Best anyone can do is report it and wait for the reprint.

And typos that could be caught by a spell checker are just inexcusable.

So even if I know that a few errors are pretty much unavoidable, I did vote for perfection. While unattainable by mere mortals it should remain what we strive for.

There's a particular phrase I've noticed a lot lately, and have been wondering if I'm wrong in thinking it's incorrect. Maybe y'all can tell me. “You've got another think coming.” Shouldn't this be “thing”? I've lost track of how many times I've seen this.

That’s actually the second part of a two-part expression, i.e. “If you thought [x], then you’ve got another think coming”.

“You've got another think coming.” Shouldn't this be “thing”?

In my opinion, it’s “think”. No, it’s not grammatically good, but it’s what people say. Properly, I think it should be “thought”, but it’s “think”.

It’s one of those things that you can say (usually when you’re threatening your offspring), or include in dialogue, but certainly not in narrative.

There’s a particular phrase I’ve noticed a lot lately, and have been wondering if I’m wrong in thinking it’s incorrect. Maybe y’all can tell me. “You’ve got another think coming.” Shouldn’t this be “thing”? I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen this.