Best book mistakes of all time (see this week and this month)
You may have noticed the "vote" buttons after every mistake on the site. If you've got a favourite mistake, vote for it to help it to the top of the leaderboard. Only one mistake per title is listed.
| Rank | Title | Mistake |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Da Vinci Code | In the book Teabing is a die hard British patriot, yet he refers to the sport of soccer. NO Englishman would use the word soccer for the game of football. <em>[People keep trying to correct this - you've really got to accept it. It's nothing to do with Teabing being older - soccer may have been used in the very early days of the game, but the governing body of the sport in the UK is the Football Association, formed in 1863, demonstrating how that was the accepted word for the sport even then (otherwise it would be the Soccer Association). Likewise the international governing body, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), formed in 1904 - no mention of the word soccer there either. And it won't be him changing it for Langdon's benefit, considering a) Langdon's intelligent enough to know what he means, and b) he's so determinedly English about everything else.]</em> |
| 2 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | At the Leaky Cauldron, Mr. Weasley tells Mrs. Weasley that, for several months, Sirius Black had been overheard in Azkaban repeatedly whispering "He's at Hogwarts" (unknown at the time, referring to Peter Pettigrew). But later in the Shrieking Shack, Sirius says that he learned Pettigrew would be with Ron at Hogwarts the same night he, Sirius, escaped. |
| 3 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Dumbledore tells Harry at the end that Lord Voldemort is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin. But ancestors are in the past - he means Voldemort is the last <b>descendant</b> of Salazar Slytherin. Not a mistake Dumbledore would have made. (Corrected in later printings.) |
| 4 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | On page 25, it mentions that the boa constrictor at the zoo winked at Harry. Snakes don't have eyelids at all, so it's impossible for them to wink. |
| 5 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | In Hogsmeade, Sirius implies that at a certain point, Snape's attendance at Hogwarts overlapped with Bellatrix Lestrange's. But given their dates of birth, Bellatrix would have left school two years before Snape started. |
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| 6 | Angels and Demons | In one of his lectures Robert Langdon tells his students that the Christians got their tradition of communion, eating their god, from the Aztecs. The Aztec civilization dates to the 13th century while the tradition of communion is as old as Christianity itself. And even disregarding when the Aztecs lived, the Europeans had no contact with America until the late 15th century and could thus not have gotten any traditions that way. |
| 7 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | On page 186 of the American hardcover, about a quarter of the way down the page, a paragraph begins "Malfoy looked rather as he had done the time Hermione had punched him in the face." He was never punched by Hermione in the books; in Book 3, she only slapped him. |
| 8 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | The way Sirius explains the death of his brother Regulus implies that he was killed by the Killing Curse. But in "Deathly Hallows," it is established that Regulus was killed by the Inferi in Voldemort's Horcrux cave. |
| 9 | Halo: The Fall of Reach | On page 159, we are introduced to 'Ensign William Lovell', but later on, on page 188, Captain Keyes calls him 'Ensign Michael Lovell'. |
| 10 | Carrie | In the first segment of the book, it is stated that Ralph White died in February of 1963, and that seven months later, Carrie was born. Later in the book Carrie's mother thinks back to the time she had first seen Carrie use her telekinesis in her crib, and that she had wanted to kill Carrie, but Ralph had stopped her. |
| 11 | Twisted | Petra is reading some details about the size of a murder weapon used to commit 6 similar murders. The diameter of the weapon is estimated at 77 centimeters. It says according to Petra's ruler, 77 centimeters is 3 inches. This should be 77 millimeters as 77 centimeters is about 30 inches. |
| 12 | The Shelters of Stone | In "the Valley of Horses" Jondalar tells Ayla that the man he beat up had had Zolena as his donii woman the previous year and was still in love with her. In this book he says that the other man wanted Zolena as his donii woman the same year she became Jondalar's, and that the reason for his jealousy was that she picked someone else. |
| 13 | Misery | In Part 3, Chapter 33, two news reporters come to see Annie and interview her about the missing policeman. She walks out with a shotgun full of "double-ought buck", fires a warning shot, and then when she re-enters the house she magically has a rifle, not a shotgun. |
| 14 | The Seventh Tower: Into Battle | In Chapter 21, in the assembly of the minors, the text reads "while Milla and Adras transversed the terraces of the Assembly." At the moment, Adras is with Tal is in Aenier. It should read Odris. |
| 15 | It | When adult Ben goes to get a library card the librarian addresses him as Mr Hanscomb without having been told his name. Later on when she talks to Mike she doesn't know Ben's name anymore. |
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| 16 | The Godfather | The war between the families is referred to as the Five Families War of 1946 at the end of book I. Later on it's suddenly the Five Families War of 1947, even though it begun with Michael killing Sollozzo and McCluskey in early 1946. |
| 17 | Emperor: The Gods of War | When Julius is going after Pompey to Asia Minor and he reaches the harbor in Greece he tries to talk to the sailors but they don't speak Latin. So he asks Adán to translate for him, but he is unable to since he hasn't learned Greek yet. But Julius is fluent in Greek himself, he was taught as a boy and uses the language on several occasions throughout the series, including in this book. Why couldn't he just talk to the sailors in Greek himself? |
| 18 | Bridget Jones's Diary | In the first chapter, when Bridget is going to Grafton Underwood for the Turkey Curry Buffet it's is clear that she drove there - she mentions getting onto the M6 by mistake and jamming her foot down on the accelerator - but towards the end of the buffet, Mark is made to offer her a lift back to London, to which she replies that she will be getting the train back in the morning. Surely she would just drive back? What would be the point in leaving her car at her parents' house? |
| 19 | Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH | During the conversation about plowing, the shrew asks Mrs. Frisby, "Remember in the spring of sixty-five? He plowed on the eleventh of March, and on a Sunday at that." In 1965, March 11 fell on a Thursday, not a Sunday. |
| 20 | Temple | During most of the book an idol is being carried around, about the size of a human head, made of a material from a meteorite ("Thyrium"). This is said to have a density one order of magnitude lager than that of Plutonium. That gives a mass for the idol of about one metric ton, a bit heavy to carry around. |
| 21 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | Near the end of chapter thirty, it says that the only people left in the room of requirement are Harry, Ginny, Mrs Weasley, Lupin, Fred, George, Bill and Fleur. But on the next page Percy (who had recently entered the room) says sorry to Mr Weasley, but Mr Weasley had left the room along with all the other people. |
| 22 | Thinner | Being Swedish I found this quite comic. When the Gypsies speak Romani it is not Romani at all, but sentences in Swedish which make no sense at all within the context. |
| 23 | The Story of Doctor Dolittle | Among the monkeys and apes waiting in Africa to be cured by the doctor, orang-utans are mentioned. But orang-utans are not native to Africa, and it is highly unlikely that they might have crossed the Indian Ocean all the way from Borneo. |
| 24 | Cujo | After Donna tells Tad that he can ride with her to the Camber's place, it says "Ted clapped his hands." It should be Tad, not Ted. |
| 25 | Halo: First Strike | The Longsword Fighter that landed in Ascendant Justice's hangar bay is repeatedly referred to as a Pelican on pages 75, 93, 95 and more. |
| 26 | Nancy Drew and the Secret of Shadow Ranch | In the scene where Bess, George and Nancy are talking about cowboys on the ranch, Bess mentions how Ned, Nancy's boyfriend, is going to be jealous, but this is book 5, and she doesn't meet Ned until book 7. |
| 27 | Christine | When Arnie and Leigh gives the hitchhiker a ride, on page 265 (Chapter 34), it says that the hitchhiker opened Christine's rear door. But Plymouth Furies of that era had only two doors. |
| 28 | Gerald's Game | Chapter 16 states that Tom Mahout's eyes are grey. His eyes were mentioned as being bright blue at the end of Chapter 31. |
| 29 | The Rule of Four | Tom's jacket keeps reappearing constantly. He leaves it down in the tunnels in the beginning and is unable to go back and get it, yet after the lecture he gives it to Paul. Then when Paul and Tom are leaving the library Tom is magically wearing the jacket again. |
| 30 | White Oleander | The author reveals her limited Spanish when she has a character, purportedly a native Spanish speaker, saying to Ingrid, "¿Cuál es su nombre? Su hija es más guapa." Which translates to, "Which is her name? Your daughter is more beautiful." But in the book, those words are rendered as, "What is her name? Your daughter is very pretty." Not only does the author a) mistranslate the Spanish, but she b) gives the woman words no native speaker of Spanish would say. |