Buyer Beware

I don't know if any of you are aware of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. They are wonderful science-fantasy books allegedly aimed at older kids. I read the first in the series last summer, intended to get hold of the other two and then completely forgot about it. But something reminded me last week - I think I heard that they're making a fillum of it - and I set off in search of the full set. My local second-hand bookshop had three books by PP that all claimed to be part of the Dark Materials trilogy, so I bought them. I got 'Northern Lights', which is Book I, 'The Subtle Knife', which is Book II, and 'The Golden Compass', which is Book I.

Did you spot the deliberate error? No, me neither. What I've actually got is two versions of Book I - the UK version and an American edition. For some unfathomable reason the American publishers have changed the name of the first book. Why they think 'The Golden Compass' is a better title than 'Northern Lights' is beyond me. Why the author and copyright holder let them do it is something else again.

I remember that 'Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone' was published in the US as 'Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone'. I can possibly understand that because 'Philosopher' is a very big word, and it is spelled incorrectly. If 'sulphur' is 'sulfur', then surely 'philosopher' should be 'filosofer'. But I digress.

I'm halfway through Book II, and enjoying it immensely. Wonderful stuff.