A mystery of two Byron Katie books
October 24, 2023 2:10 PM Subscribe
I'm trying to figure out what's going on with two books, one is about Byron Katie, the other is written by her and edited by her husband Stephen Mitchell. Both are long out of print and I've twice ordered the first book from third party booksellers on Amazon and received the second book instead.
I want to read A Cry in the Desert: The Awakening of Byron Katie by Christin Lore Weber, from 1996. I'm trying to learn about Byron Katie's life and this is the only thing I've been able to find so far. There's a review by someone claiming to be Stephen Mitchell saying that the book is "well-intentioned but inaccurate" and that they persuaded the author to pull the book from publication. This made me want to read the book even more and I ordered it from a seller whose books ship directly from the Amazon warehouse.
When it arrived, it was the wrong book: A Brief Anthology of Byron Katie's Words, edited by Stephen Mitchell. I returned it and ordered it again, this time from a different seller who does their own shipping. I received the same incorrect book.
So I did an Amazon search on the ISBN inside the book I received and it pointed to A Cry in the Desert. The product page for A Cry in the Desert lists the ISBN of the "Brief Anthology" book that I now have in my hands. The product page for that book doesn't list an ISBN.
I just noticed that one of the listings includes 4 photographs of the book and it is indeed the "Brief Anthology" book. My guess is that the booksellers upload their books to Amazon using the ISBN and they aren't aware that the two books are mixed up.
First question, does anyone know the history of this book A Cry in the Desert...either what's in it or what led to it being pulled from publication? It almost seems like they put together a quick book of Byron Katie's words (only 67 pages) and used the other ISBN for the new book, making it difficult for anyone to locate the original book.
Second question, is the book A Cry in the Desert available anywhere? If you've read it, is it worth continuing the search for it? I'm starting to think someone really doesn't want this book in circulation. There are 14 copies listed on Amazon, ranging in price from $24 to $82. I'm not planning to order this from Amazon again but would like to keep searching elsewhere if there's a chance there are some copies in circulation.
I want to read A Cry in the Desert: The Awakening of Byron Katie by Christin Lore Weber, from 1996. I'm trying to learn about Byron Katie's life and this is the only thing I've been able to find so far. There's a review by someone claiming to be Stephen Mitchell saying that the book is "well-intentioned but inaccurate" and that they persuaded the author to pull the book from publication. This made me want to read the book even more and I ordered it from a seller whose books ship directly from the Amazon warehouse.
When it arrived, it was the wrong book: A Brief Anthology of Byron Katie's Words, edited by Stephen Mitchell. I returned it and ordered it again, this time from a different seller who does their own shipping. I received the same incorrect book.
So I did an Amazon search on the ISBN inside the book I received and it pointed to A Cry in the Desert. The product page for A Cry in the Desert lists the ISBN of the "Brief Anthology" book that I now have in my hands. The product page for that book doesn't list an ISBN.
I just noticed that one of the listings includes 4 photographs of the book and it is indeed the "Brief Anthology" book. My guess is that the booksellers upload their books to Amazon using the ISBN and they aren't aware that the two books are mixed up.
First question, does anyone know the history of this book A Cry in the Desert...either what's in it or what led to it being pulled from publication? It almost seems like they put together a quick book of Byron Katie's words (only 67 pages) and used the other ISBN for the new book, making it difficult for anyone to locate the original book.
Second question, is the book A Cry in the Desert available anywhere? If you've read it, is it worth continuing the search for it? I'm starting to think someone really doesn't want this book in circulation. There are 14 copies listed on Amazon, ranging in price from $24 to $82. I'm not planning to order this from Amazon again but would like to keep searching elsewhere if there's a chance there are some copies in circulation.
Best answer: If you buy the book on eBay, the listing will have a picture of the actual book you'll receive. Here's A Cry in the Desert.
I checked the ISBN on that book and on A Brief History, and they are indeed the same.
posted by FencingGal at 3:36 PM on October 24, 2023
I checked the ISBN on that book and on A Brief History, and they are indeed the same.
posted by FencingGal at 3:36 PM on October 24, 2023
The Thriftbooks listing for A Brief Anthology has some pics of the front matter, which show that the ISBN 1890246026 is printed in the book. However, checking WorldCat and other resources, that ISBN appears to have been officially registered/linked to A Cry in the Desert which was published earlier.
So yes, it seems likely that the editor of A Brief Anthology printed the other book's ISBN in order to obfuscate the existence of the previous book. Of course, that's not really how ISBNs work - the official records still point to the book that originally had that ISBN. But it's enough to cause confusion when someone inputs the metadata printed in the book into Amazon, especially if nobody is double-checking the title against the ISBN.
As for where to read it — seconding the recommendation for archive.org!
posted by sparkling at 4:17 PM on October 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
So yes, it seems likely that the editor of A Brief Anthology printed the other book's ISBN in order to obfuscate the existence of the previous book. Of course, that's not really how ISBNs work - the official records still point to the book that originally had that ISBN. But it's enough to cause confusion when someone inputs the metadata printed in the book into Amazon, especially if nobody is double-checking the title against the ISBN.
As for where to read it — seconding the recommendation for archive.org!
posted by sparkling at 4:17 PM on October 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Just thought I'd mention that I've had great luck getting old out of print books from Powell's so you might be able to get it there.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 7:01 AM on October 25, 2023
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 7:01 AM on October 25, 2023
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posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:25 PM on October 24, 2023 [8 favorites]