I’m just curious if anybody’s had this experience.
A month or so ago I tried buying the Loebs second Dio Chrysostom online
at barnesandnoble. I recieved the Loeb “Minor Latin Poets”. So, ok, I
return it and order it again. This time from amazon.com yesterday I got
my box in the mail and inside was the red Minor Latin Poets again.
Besides working my way through Wheelocks some years ago, I don’t
really read latin, so I’ll send this one back as well.
What I’m curious about is how this happened. Different isbn #s different
volumes in the Loeb catalogue. I guess they both recieved it from the
same source and the procurement process is so intensive that it passed
unnoticed. Pretty odd.
Now I’ve got to figure out how to communicate with either of these places
to get the book I want. Oh well, this oughtta be fun.
They probably got it from the same distributor, and the distributor is at fault (the publishing industry works that publishers sell their books to distributors, and then distributors sell those books to bookstores).
One of the reasons I prefer, when possible, to buy in person rather than online is that I see exactly what I buy before I buy it.
I did’nt know there were any stores left in America that have a decent selection of classical
books. I’d certainly prefer to buy my books at a store. Especially if they had a good used
section. However, living where I do, I expect I’ll just have to deal with this problem, as well
as missing and late items.
Though online bookstores have their uses. I’d not been able to find Anna Comnenas
“Alexiad” anywhere till I found abebooks.com. I got an 1870’s Teubner edition from that
site for about 20 dollars. So I can’t complain.