I've been tripped by typos. Stumped by spelling. Messed with by misprints.

Most people expect to find something to read between the covers when they open a new book. What they often find are mistakes, all kinds.

One friend says, "I know when I'm reading a book the inevitable typographical error is going to strike. It may happen half way through, or two-thirds of the way through, but it always stops me reading, and then I wonder if I'm going to finish the book, and sometimes I don't."

I know how she feels. One of the most beautiful books I've seen recently -- Venice: A City, A Republic, An Empire by Alvise Zorzi -- is marred by an overwhelming number of careless errors. A book this expensive -- sixty dollars -- should be vetted before it is printed and sold.

On page ten: "The so-called high life lived by the local expatriots" instead of "expatriates." Page 19: "The bishop's see was transferred from the costal (sic) city of Altino..." Also "propsals" for "proposals" "pease" as well as "peach" for "peace," "beated" for "beaten" "mailand" (twice!) (on the same page!) for "mainland." Even the most basic computerized spell checker would catch most of these. "30 ears (sic) of war" on page 269.

What really dunked my biscotti, however, was the misspelling of proper Italian names. Perhaps some mistakes can be blamed on the difficulties of translation. But no Italian would mis-name a Visconti -- the famous clan that ruled Milan for 200 years. In this book the Visconti have unaccountably become (on page 268) the "Vosconti."

Publishers once upon a time paid educated people to fact check and proof read. Those days are past, or passed, or Pabst, or whatever. You'd think a publisher would be embarrassed to release such a flawed book, but since there no longer are any publishers, just corporate officers, there's nobody to embarrass.

In the case of this Venice book I wrote the Overlook Press asking, politely, what happened. To date, no one has replied.

We all hate this, and it's got to stop. In Tim Moore's amusing travel memoir The Grand Tour the author names (page 7) Thomas Jefferson's famous mansion "Montebello" instead of "Monticello." Ouch.

I could go on, and will. Ask any bookseller or librarian to remember a particularly egregious error and the litany spews forth.

We remember that a travel book on Guatemala locates a city in its index as being on pages "346-3,349." Other travel guides may revise the text but fail to revise the index.

Beverly Sills' autobiography has become a collector's item because of its first sentence: "I sang my first aria in pubic (sic) ..."

At a trade show for booksellers one publisher ceased handing out hundreds of copies of a new natural history guide to birds when it was discovered the same photograph had been used to identify two quite different birds.

On the outside cover of Sharon Doubiago's book of poetry Body & Soul Gloria Steinem delivers a nice blurb. Her name is misspelled "Steinhem." Ouch again.

In angry letters reprinted in Jon Winokur's book Advice to Writers, book reviewer Florence King expresses chagrin over careless reprinting of her book reviews. After listing numerous mistakes, and receiving a not very convincing apology, she writes:

"I am now wondering how many other of your reviewers have had experiences like mine... I intend to read every review with an eagle eye and mark all errors of fact, spelling, punctuation, bad grammar, and general knowledge, as well as all suspicious examples of tempo and euphony gone awry, and send them to you. You are badly in need of a proofreader and now you have one -- after the fact perhaps, but a proofreader just the same. Starting this coming Sunday I will be permanently poised over your shoulder and ready to pounce."

Personally, I never make mistakes, at least on nights when my wife is still awake when I finish writing. She's my editor and all-around skeptic and I love her for it and for all the other reasons you love somebody. Other than that, all mistakes are my own.

Aired Friday January 18, 2002 at 8:00 am and Sunday January 20, 2002 at 10:55 am

Orders/Information:

Lavishly illustrated, well-translated, unaccountably full of misprints: Venice 697-1797 A City, A Republic, An Empire by Alvise Zorzi. Overlook Press hard cover $60. ISBN 1585671320.

The Grand Tour: The European Adventure of a Continental Drifter by Tim Moore. St. Martin's Press hard cover $23.95 ISBN 0312281560. Forthcoming in paperback in Spring, 2002.

Florence King is writing in 1997 to her editor (of "a newspaper which shall remain nameless") and her letters are reprinted in Advice to Writers compiled and edited by Jon Winokur. Vintage paperback $12. ISBN 0679763414.