The Great Typo Hunt

A little while ago, my husband noticed that I was lacking in a book to read. I had finished my previous selection and had yet to choose another. So, in the interest of being helpful, he brought me several to choose from, leaving the other novels on the end table for me. So began a reading feast!

The first I chose was a nonfiction. I don't read too much in the way of nonfiction. It seems that made up stories tend to catch my interest more often. And if you aren't a good story teller, then the truth comes out rather bland, much like the newspaper. I do read the newspaper every day, but it's just not the same as a great fiction. I read a different nonfiction earlier this summer that was quite brutal to get through. It was just dry and non-engaging. The character development was missing and it felt like the story (or lack, thereof) was just dragging.

But this nonfiction was something different. Written by two men (Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson), but written in the first person narrative from Mr. Deck's perspective, this book contains a good story. They really knew how to get the words down without leaving me wondering where the story was. It was well-written, bringing me on their journey, and making me feel a part of the adventure.

I present to you, The Great Typo Hunt.  This is the true story of a man's journey (accompanied by several friends) around the great country of the United States of America. His mission? Change the world, one correcction correction at a time. While attending his five-year college reunion, Jeff Deck decided that he wanted to change the world. Many of the people he'd graduated with had done some great things in the five years since graduation. Jeff wanted to make his mark. A road trip was something he was putting into consideration, but how could that tie into doing something great in the world?

Jeff had a degree in creative writing. That led him to a publising company, where he worked as an editor for a few publications. He found that he was a natural at spotting typos. He'd since moved on to another job. But his heart "remained that of a revisor and corrector." When he returned home from his reunion, he noticed a sign: No Tresspassing. The extra s in trespassing seemed to taunt him. It wasn't the first time he'd noticed this sign. But then it made him wonder, how many other mistakes were out there that no one bothered to fix?

And thus, the great typo hunt was born. He enlisted three other friends to accompany him, each on different parts of the trip. He planned three months on the road covering about half of the 50 US States. He went around the country, finding and fixing typos, and blogging about it as he went.

There were some people who were very gracious about correcting the errors, some who were down-right stubborn about it, and then there was a run-in with the law, concerning a historic sign. Corrections were made by request, in secret and some were just simply denied. There were a few times the book wandered a little on a tangent here and there, but mostly, it was a great adventure. And now, I'm seeing typos everywhere!