Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

(Note: I had first posted this in the "Book & Author Page Issues" thread, but then upon noticing the folder has a topic delineating what should be posted in this folder, and that errors in book descriptions was not on the list, I reposted it in the Superlibrarian thread, since the "read before posting" thread on that folder mentions it is for "A few other less common things," and the manual says this includes changes in book descriptions. Then I noticed there was a "read before posting" thread in the general folder, and it said both to be absolutely sure something belongs in the Superlibrarian folder before posting there, and that the "Book & Author Page Issues" folder is where requests for corrections to book descriptions belong. I am sorry for the multiple posts, but at the same time, this was confusing. I am still not sure whether a Superlibrarian is required to alter book descriptions, because the manual page the Superlibrarian folder's "read before posting" thread links to says this is the case, and the "read before posting" thread for the "Book & Author Page Issues" folder does not list altering book descriptions as one of the reasons to post there, but the general folder's "read before posting" thread does say to post those in the "Book & Author Page Issues" folder. This needs to be sorted out. Phew—on to the request.)

I wouldn't be surprised if an issue like this has come up in the past, but all the same it seems unusual: The description for The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Discourse on Language (this is the correct edition) is incorrect: Where it says

The Archaeology of Knowledge begins at the level of "things aid" ...

it should say

The Archaeology of Knowledge begins at the level of "things said" ...

Nowhere in the book does the notion of "things aid" show up; instead Foucault talks about "things said" when he says the analysis of statements involves questioning "things said" in their mode of existence.

The rub is that the literal back cover of the book says "things aid" and not "things said." This means that the standard description provided by Vintage Press has a typo, not just the Goodreads description. Indeed, as one normally reads the back cover of a book before getting particularly far into it, I was highly confused at what the back cover's "things aid" was supposed to mean, until reading the book made me suspect it was supposed to be "things said" and the back cover had a typo. And it is a particularly bad typo, in that the book itself is rather difficult reading as books go, and far more people are going to read the description of this book than read the book itself. A typo telling you the book starts in a way it doesn't is going to be highly confusing.

Thus this is an issue that Vintage itself needs to correct. Yet I don't know that Vintage has any way for the average person to point out errata, though I would not be surprised if they know about this particular typo already. But Goodreads is not Vintage; and given that this typo really will confuse people, I think it does make sense to emend it. Though still, this would mean Goodreads's description looks almost exactly the same as the one on Amazon and at Vintage, and yet is different in just one respect. I kind of think it should still be changed, but I am admittedly not entirely sure. I suppose it is good my Librarian status lapsed given that it's been a while since I changed anything; I shall have to restudy the manual, though I don't think it answers this question.

Done - it could take a bit for the correction to display, due to caching.

Please edit the title / subject of your post and add [Done] so other librarians know it is complete.