Sunday, October 21, 2007

Whoopsie!

I've been reading the book "Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands" by Gavan Daws. I'm only halfway through it.

Micronesia has been mentioned two times in passing, and both times the facts are wrong!

On page xi of the prologue it says, "Early in the sixteenth century [Magellan] sailed from Cape Horn to the Philippines without encountering a single island on the way."

WHOOPSIE!!!

He encountered GUAM! Unless Guam is considered by Daws to be a mini-continent or something.

Then on page 172 he writes "Waddell came upon the Harvest at Ascension Island in the Marianas..."

WHOOPSIE!!!

Pohnpei (aka Ascension Island) is a part of the CAROLINE islands, not the Marianas! Unless the island quickly floated over to the Carolines after Magellan visited.

I probably shouldn't be so critical. I have written a book which is in the final stages of publication. At the rate things are moving, it should be available any decade now. It is bound to have its share of glaring errors.

This is my second bloggish book attack in the past several weeks. Sorry to act like such a know-it-all. I'm actually a know-a-little-bit-of-it-all.

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