Re: Finally, Success!


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Posted by Ed Kiser on July 05, 2006 at 21:43:30 from 152.163.101.7 user Kisered.

In Reply to: Re: Finally, Success! posted by PeterH on July 05, 2006 at 20:33:12:

The original reason I typed these books in, and did NOT SCAN them into TXT files, was that I was trying to re-read these books after quite some time since those early days of reading Ransome, but I found that I was skipping through the text all too swiftly because I already knew the story, so I was not spending the proper time with the text to really do a good job of re-reading. So by typing it, that process made me actually READ every word in a slow enough fashion to be able to get much better insight into the details of these stories. As a result, I found out so much more this way, as if "new stuff" had been added since my earlier readings that I just did not remember, so it made for a very productive mental reaffirmation of these details.

Now, having put these into machine readable format, it occured to me, as a by-product of that typing effort, that I could get the computer to scan through all twelve books very swiftly to discover a keyword or phrase, and by so doing, uncover more details about these writings than I had realized before.

From time to time, various contributors to the TARBOARD have requested me to use this scanning process to look for a particular wording, which I was quite glad to do and to post the findings back on the forum. I learned from these searches and thus have inhanced my own understanding of these stories.

Due to COPYRIGHT considerations, the copy I made can be considered a "fair use copy" of these books that I personally own, but these files cannot be distributed to others as such would permit them to bypass the purchase of these books and thus avoid earning any royalty such a purchase would have produced for the copyright owners of the Ransome Estate. So these files are to be kept for my own use only. Sorry to sound so selfish about it, but just trying to comply with the spirit of the copyright laws.

Another byproduct of this typing process is that by looking so closely at every word and every punctuation mark, a great many TYPO errors that are in the published books have come to light. I sent a document describing what errors I have found to the copyright owner so future editions can have these mistakes corrected. In normal reading, one does not readily spot these errors, as somehow the eye and mind will "fill in" the needed detail to make it right and so the error gets glossed over and escapes notice. But having to TYPE it in, these details get spotted more easily. When I find mistakes in my typed versions, I go back to the original book to see if maybe I duplicated an existing typo, or did I create one of my own. Usually it is my own error, so I fix it in my files, but if the error is in the original book, then I add it to my list of TYPOs, but still fix it. In some ways, my TEXT file version may thus be an improvement over the published version.

It was a labour of love - and a lot of fun to re-enjoy the delights of being with my childhood friends all over again. They never get older; and when I am "with" them, I can be young again also.

Ed Kiser, Kentucky


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