Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Abridged Too Far

Last year, I bought three six-packs of Lee Strobel's book The Case for Faith, for Zambia. It was the "student edition". I didn't bother opening one of the six-packs until the night before I left for Zambia. Turns out the "student edition" is not the same as the regular book, it's a dumbed-down comic book version of the real thing. Was I disappointed (and steamed at Chapters-Indigo)! I ended up taking the set I had opened to Zambia, and returning the other two when I got back.

This year, I eschewed Chapters-Indigo for Amazon.ca. Came across a hard-cover version of the same book for $6.95.! Emailed them to see if this was really a hardcover edition, or was it mislabeled. They Beatled me (as in, "No Reply"). Needing eighteen, I decided to order one, just to confirm that it was in fact hardcover, and at such an excellent price!. It arrived today. And it's hardcover! And it's two inches by three inches big! Something called a "miniature edition". Am I disappointed (and steamed at Amazon-ca)!

I'm not sure if there's a bigger message here. The book-sellers list thousands of books; I guess I'll blame the publishers. Anything that does not contain the full text of the book really ought to have the words "Abridged" or "Balderdashed" or "Dumbed-Down" somewhere in the subtitle.

Speaking of ordering via the Internet, I also wanted to get The Gospel of John DVD. I checked Future Shop, Chapters-Indigo, Amazon,ca, and Amazon.com. Of the four, only one, Amazon.com, make it explicitly clear that their's was the widescreen, 2-DVD set, containing two versions of the film. So I bought it from Amazon.com. And, although their site also made it explicitly clear it would not arrive before Christmas, it did!

Hey, it's getting better all the time (Can't get much worse!)

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"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"