This goes beyond foreign versions of textbooks. A friend recently recommended "The Broken Sword" by Poul Anderson. The trouble is, the text of the 1954 work wa

This goes beyond foreign versions of textbooks. A friend recently recommended "The Broken Sword" by Poul Anderson. The trouble is, the text of the 1954 work was watered down in 1971. So it's apparently important to read the right edition, or so Michael Moorcock warns. [1] I've had small online booksellers assure me they have the edition I want. When I open the package in the mail, it's never the right version. When I contact the merchant to ask how I can find the right edition, they just refund my money and stop talking to me. Other sales people have told me they have no warehouse access, they have no way to confirm what's getting in the boxes. The easiest way for them to find out the edition of a book is to just ship it to me and have me let them know. You'd think you could have a meaningful discussion with a bookseller about editions. I know it's not something that matters for every sale, but you'd think at least those few who choose to deal in books would occasionally notice that not all books with the same title look identical, and start to wonder why. We've moved from a world where I can put my hands on a book, glance at the copyright page, feel the paper, see the condition, to one where every version of a work, from annotated to abridged, can be lumped together as a fungible commodity. I know, Bezos moves a lot of paper, this isn't going to keep him up at night. But if I get one "old man yells at clouds" rant, this goes in mine. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jan/25/featuresreviews.guardianreview18 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jan/25/featuresreviews...