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May 12 2008

Buffy Bites 2008. A new book of Buffy trivia, mistakes, cast information and more.

From Amazon: Are you a Buffy fan? Are you just a little fanatical? If so, then this is the book for you. Have you ever watched an episode and caught a mistake by the cast or crew? This book includes a huge list of such mistakes. Included is Buffy trivia galore. Also included is information about where to find those easter eggs for special DVD extras. A full detailed episode list, up to date cast biographies, and a huge detailed list of characters. As a special bonus, inside you will find memorable quotes from the show listed by character, as well as a dictionary of Buffy slang! And there is more... How about a time line showing the events from the first slayer all the way to Buffy! Can't remember the name of a certain villain we have you covered with a full listing of those Buffy villains. Last but not least by any means, is a full listing of the writers, directors, and crew...what would the show have been without them?

[ edited by Dana5140 on 2008-05-12 21:12 ]

Dana5140 | 19:28 CET | 37 comments total | tags: books; trivia

At this point, I would much rather read an expose. I've heard vague stories of tension and bad behavior. Dirty Buffy details, please!

peepstone | May 12, 20:39 CET

Yeah, me too!

[ edited by Simon on 2008-05-12 20:53 ]

danielgm86 | May 12, 20:46 CET

I suspect this is a subject that will be quickly and rightly brought to a close...

Gossip works because it allows salacious untruths to be spread about without any need to validate the claims. Do not believe any of the ludicrous fabricated twaddle you might have heard.

alien lanes | May 12, 20:51 CET

If anyone wants to play silly buggers with rumours, they'll find their posts deleted and if they persist they'll get banned.

Simon | May 12, 20:53 CET

*frown* I am 'fanatical' enough to know that I can answer every question given (if not from memory) with simple clicks to favorite fan sites. For free.

Mirage | May 12, 20:53 CET

I'm curious about that side of the show because if I had ever have the opportunity to be involved with anything as amazing as BtVS, I would be so excited everyday it wouldn't occur to me to act out. And I'm confused by actors who've distanced themselves from the show and by the rumors of bad behavior on set. If they are true, it just boggles me.

peepstone | May 12, 20:56 CET

Yeah, I would have assumed that the internet would have made such books more difficult to sell nowadays. Of course, Wikipedia does sometimes cite wry Whedonverse quotes with earnest enthusiasm.

Sunfire | May 12, 20:57 CET

Don't know why, bot couldn't open the link here...
Anyway, sounds good. I only have one Buffy book in this 'trivia style' [Bite Me, by Nikki Stafford] and it's pretty good...

But since I got this one last year, and it's a new edition, even inclunding information of the comics, I think I'll wait a while to buy a new one... Maybe wait one or two years, to get new editions of these books with more from season 8.

maxsummers | May 12, 20:58 CET

Well without partaking in rumour mongering it wouldn't surprise me if every day of filming wasn't a love buffet. Might be a magical wonderland to us but to those guys it's work and who here could spend 12-14 hour days (and nights) with the same set of people for 7 years, sometimes while ill or cold or wet (or dealing with personal issues) without tempers fraying ?

I guess the benefit of a book like this is for all the questions you're interested in knowing about without knowing you are ? Sure, you could look up the answers to most questions on the net but a) not every interview etc. is online and b) you'd have to know which questions to ask (i.e. you'd have to know what you don't know - which is a pretty tall order ;).

[ edited by Saje on 2008-05-12 21:08 ]

Saje | May 12, 21:07 CET

I'm lost. What are you all talking about? I just listed the data for a new book and I am reading all these posts about rumors and gossip, neither of which is listed in the information I posted. It's just a new book. Can someone let me know what I am missing here, or can we just accept that a new trivia book has been published?

Dana5140 | May 12, 21:14 CET

You're apparently missing the first (and possibly before editing, second) comments on this thread Dana5140 ;).

Saje | May 12, 21:23 CET

I'm not certain how interested I am in a self published book from lulu.com on things I most likely already know...

No, I know how interested I am. Not really.

NaughtyBoozeHound | May 12, 21:51 CET

It can hardly be any worse than the third Watcher's Guide. That was a major disappointment.

Simon | May 12, 21:54 CET

I saw that, saje, but did not pick it up as what it was. I thought they were commenting on the book, not going off topic there. Got it. I am way too literal today. Not my normal state of affairs, I assure you. :-)

Dana5140 | May 12, 22:01 CET

I haven't looked at the Watcher's Guides in a while, but from what I remember I could at least read through them...

And, after reading the excerpt on Amazon, this book seems poorly written. There's nothing worse than reading a book on a subject you love that's poorly written.

[ edited by NaughtyBoozeHound on 2008-05-12 22:05 ]

NaughtyBoozeHound | May 12, 22:04 CET

This book contains vast amounts of material copy and pasted from other websites. Example - click on the book image to read it in Amazon's online reader. Flick to page 10. Compare to this. It's literally the same content copy and pasted. The cover image is also one of Fox's copyrighted promo photos, with Photoshop 'water colour' effect applied. It also lacks a disclaimer on the cover about being unofficial.

In other words, this totally takes the piss.

gossi | May 12, 22:16 CET

It does have some nonofficial language on the inside, for whatever that is worth. So being a printed book, what makes this different, in terms of copyright, from what's recently happened with the Harry Potter Lexicon? I was unsure of that case, but it was hard to find coverage that was very clear about any of the legal issues involved. BBC News from October. I know there was an update recently, but I am finding BBC difficult to navigate at the moment. But maybe that was just testimony, not a verdict.

ETA: And I do understand that the Harry Potter Lexicon author was trying to publish a printed version of his own site that was based on Harry Potter, and not copying and pasting trivia from other sites as has been implied here.

[ edited by Sunfire on 2008-05-12 22:31 ]

Sunfire | May 12, 22:30 CET

Flick to page 10. Compare to this. It's literally the same content copy and pasted. The cover image is also one of Fox's copyrighted promo photos, with Photoshop 'water colour' effect applied. It also lacks a disclaimer on the cover about being unofficial.

Oh that's naughty and Fox will NOT be happy .

I love BTVS and Angel but really wondered how this got commissioned. now I understand,it's a self published cut and paste job.

[ edited by debw on 2008-05-12 22:33 ]

debw | May 12, 22:33 CET

Yeah that's pretty bad. The most charitable interpretation is that the book's "author" is that site's owner and the T&Cs have small-print whereby contributors relinquish copyright. But something in my water tells me that's probably not the case ;).

Looks like Mirage was much more literally correct upthread than anticipated.

Saje | May 12, 22:46 CET

Yeah, gossi - and I'd venture to say that that lifting the phrase "drinks machine" from the original at movie mistakes - which is somewhat idiosyncratic, and not at all typical of an American writer - would be pretty much of a total giveaway... um, if lifting the entire section wasn't already.

And compare this from Buffyworld's "Buffy Slanguage" with this, in Buffy Bites (go to page 105 in the viewer - starting with "AN ELSEWHERE TO BE.)

[ edited by QuoterGal on 2008-05-12 22:53 ]

QuoterGal | May 12, 22:52 CET

When I was a newbie I found the Keith Topping "Slayer" mass-market paperback guides valuable and got them as they came out. I never needed anything more than this, although the literary essays in "Reading the Vampire Slayer" were good too. As for on-set gossip, I'll pass. (SMG was quoted long ago as hoping there would never be a Buffy gag reel.)

doghouse | May 12, 22:57 CET

Jeez, the guy owns Buffyworld too ?

Makes you wonder how he could assert his own copyright and still sleep at night.

Saje | May 12, 23:02 CET

I believe I was the one who started the off-topic thing, I'm truely sorry about that. Didn't mean to come out that silly.

danielgm86 | May 12, 23:02 CET

Saje, unless I'm missing something couched in your luffly patented sarcasm ; > - which is certainly possible - I'm not suggesting anything about the Buffyworld site - but I am suggesting that Mestre's book may have definitions lifted from it.

Or what the what? Of the what? Huh?

QuoterGal | May 12, 23:28 CET

Methinks Saje refers to his "most charitable interpretation" theory from above. Thus, the author would own all sites that he's lifted information from. Yeah, not likely, huh...

NaughtyBoozeHound | May 12, 23:36 CET

Ah... a charity which passeth understanding. What a more-charitable-than-me person Saje must be.

Thanks, NaughtyBoozeHound - my brain just couldn't conceive of Saje even playing with meaning that, so I was working on something else entirely.

Ya know, if I had the time, I could probably find even more such sites, but why... I mean, really, why? It's all been said.

ETA: Just in case I've been unclear, picture a flock of flying smiley-faces - think Birds with fewer beaks and claws - all over this post with respect to my fellow whedonesquers.

[ edited by QuoterGal on 2008-05-13 03:07 ]

QuoterGal | May 13, 00:31 CET

Killer smilies?

*runs screaming from room*

korkster | May 13, 02:49 CET

See!?!! Sometimes even smileys don't help.

O, the pitfalls of the written word.

*looks over her shoulder and scurries out a little faster than normal, chased by no-doubt rabid smileys.*

QuoterGal | May 13, 02:54 CET

ok, now I could open the link... and yeah, it looks really bad.

maxsummers | May 13, 02:59 CET

With Gossi and Simon resorting to bizarre Britishisms and Korkster and QuoterGal running off in fear (presumably in different directions!) one is reminded that the Net, like love, is a battlefield. And I just wanted to know about Easter eggs.

Capt. Logic | May 13, 03:24 CET

Hee. As Mirage pointed out, it's mostly likely all available online.

You can either go to the BtVS forum at TV.com and scroll down to the part about Easter eggs, or read the Buffy Bites book on page 249 - you can search it for Easter Eggs if that's easier. However, I'd go to the TV.com site; it's better written and doesn't have words dropped out.

QuoterGal | May 13, 04:02 CET

Are we forgetting the most awesome of Buffy trivia sites? http://www.triviaguide.net/

(no offense to the other sites, of course.)

ormaybemidgets | May 13, 06:39 CET

Ah... a charity which passeth understanding. What a more-charitable-than-me person Saje must be.

Well I didn't say it was my interpretation, just the most charitable one (i'm with my water in this instance ;).

And I too add a couple of smileys of the non-killer variety (they can still fly though cos that's just cool).

"... resorting to bizarre Britishisms ..."

'Tis true, playing silly buggers and taking the piss are olde Britishe pastimes ... e. Often simultaneously.

Saje | May 13, 09:20 CET

Well a book is more thumbable in soem ways, you can flip thru it and learn things on episodes you werent' consciuosly considering looking up.

peepstone danielgm86; Maybe soembody will do a book like that eventually. However, I think it'll be of limited worth; the main cast and the writers, unlike on some shows, aren't the types who'd be likely to contribute to it. Heck, eventually E! will do a behind-the-scenes thing.
As was mentioned, these are real epople working under real conditions. It won't always be sunshine and butterflies. And soem people who became friends early on may have eventually drifted a bit.

If you're talking specifically about stories that the techies called SMG "The Duchess," I'm willing to say flat-out that, on every TV show or movie ever made, at least some of the crew have said that about the lead. Since it always happens, I don't give it much stock here.

DaddyCatALSO | May 13, 15:29 CET

I have to agree with you on the third Watcher's Guide, Simon. The first two were brilliantly produced, very detailed and had a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes information and interviews.

The third probably suffered from having three seasons crammed into it as opposed to two, and only one writer, but it was pretty disappointing that it was so noticeably inexhaustive in contrast to the previous two books. There was very little extra information or interview material with anyone officially involved with the show, and it was inexcusable that there wasn't a music section detailing all of the music used in the last three seasons.

As has already been mentioned, I suppose the good thing about the Internet is that so much information is available online so many fansites and places like Wikipedia have about as much information as you could have in a book, but I also think it's really nice to have a physical copy of it and the first two Watcher's Guides give really brilliant coverage of the first four seasons and a lot of interesting information.

Razor | May 13, 18:00 CET

This reminds me of a story (in dutch) my newspaper ran recently on someone who automatically compiled books from internet articles (from sources who release copyright). He managed to "write" 86.000 books. It's apparently so easy he makes a profit selling less than 1 copy per book.

Celebithil | May 13, 20:57 CET

Thank you once again QuoterGal! That was just what I was looking for.

Capt. Logic | May 14, 01:00 CET

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