As you know, I love the Temeraire books. The original English-language versions have no errors whatsoever, no typos, no spelling or grammar mistakes... In fact they are among the best books I have read recently in that respect. So I'm sorry - and angry in a way - that you've had to put up with that kind of poor publishing and that the author has been let down by it! I have never minded the 'holes' in the 'world' of the books - it's as if the writer is writing from within the world and doesn't question things, just as mediaeval writers would not have questioned e.g. the way gravity makes things fall. I love fantasy and am happy to accept fantasy worlds provided they are internally consistent; I don't expect total 'reality' though I would be taken aback if, for instance, the dragons had wings that were obviously too fragile to support them.

I dislike Agatha Christie - I used to like her books as a teenager but on re-reading have found them to be formulaic and poor on characterisation. I don't recognise the titles you have been reading but I think often publishers use different titles for different language editions and then the translations don't make sense...

The Bertrand Russell book sounds interesting.

I enjoy your reviews, and am thinking that after a year (let's wait till Christmas) of just briefly reviewing everything I read I might go for just listing things and reviewing worthwhile books in more depth. I used to do that (on LJ) but was interested to see what happened looking at an entire year's reading, and giving ratings etc.