Talk:Reader's Digest Condensed Books

Untitled
Hello, I'm looking for a specific story that was in a Reader's Digest Condensed books. I've been looking for this for many years with no luck. The problem is that it was a spanish traslation and it's proven to be even more difficult to find. I believe the title was something like "Flight (# some number) in Danger" or something like that that was the title in spanish so it could've changed. It's about a Vietnam fighter plane pilot that fakes his own death and hides the plane (vertical landing plane)he was flying in an island. Later he comes back in a yatch with fake mannequins pretending to be rich civilians and goes back to the island were he hid the plane. He brings the plane back to California. This guy had a huge plan to rob some gold from different banks in California using the stolen plane to threaten a US Senator in commercial flight, forcing authorities to call the banks to let his thief friends take gold bars from several California banks. His thief friends are all dressed in Santa Claus customes and they finally steal the gold and take it to a specific airport and pack a water-landing-airplane with gold. When they let the pilot(guy with the plan) know they got the gold and he fakes a nosedive with the plane and dissapears into no-radar zone and meets his friends. They later take the gold-filled water-plane to the Sn Francisco coast and sink it. Ten years later or so they come back to the spot where they sunk the plane and they claim the gold they had sunk in the plane.......This is a long story I know but that's what I remember. I would love you very much if you help me find this story. Thank you so much... JC —Preceding unsigned comment added by Juaus (talk • contribs) 02:05, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Anthologies
What about the Condensed Anthologies? I swear Monica Baldwin's "I Leap over the Wall" was in one of these. As was Orwell's 1984. Wellesradio 20:21, 3 December 2007 (UTC)Wellesradio
 * It seems you are thinking of the much shorter treatment that apparently appeared first in the June 1950; Vol. 56, No. 338 regular issue of the magazine. I don't see it re-expanded to the Condensed Books / Select Editions series. TaoPhoenix (talk) 23:06, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Editions
Also, were there separate UK and US editions? I remember from my childhood several - such as this one - that are not on the list here. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 17:18, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there certainly were! The listing that appears under RDCB here on Wikipaedia is for the US editions, NOT the UK ones... Rodders —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.142.114.46 (talk) 15:12, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

I am building a complete list of the UK editions - I actually have every volume from 1 to 260. I guess I should list them on a separate page to avoid confusion? I have volume numbers and the titles of the books contained within, but not yet authors or dates. Thejpster (talk) 22:42, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

I am also trying to build a list - but of the South African editions. These were intitially the same as US, then the same as UK and Australia, and then together with Uk and then US. I would really appreciate a complete listing of the UK editions to check against the SA list. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mollm (talk • contribs) 05:43, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

Australian versions seem to have differed, also - I recall reading several on the list which are paired with stories I don't recall. Chris Keating (talk) 06:46, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

What's the point of condensed books?
I was hoping to find some commentary in this article on the purpose or intent of condensed books, rather than merely a list of them.

Why would you read these? Who is the target audience?

Are these for people who don't have time to read full-length books, but just want to be able to say "oh I read that" so they can have an opinion on it?

I know one librarian who would regularly throw out any of these donated to the library, due to their dubious abridged value compared to the actual full books.

Also, apparently schools and universities look down on these as book report or study material for students since it's basically skimming and cheating, vs students who have taken the time to read the full version of the books. -- DMahalko (talk) 01:22, 3 January 2014 (UTC)
 * My wife said she used to read these. She feels it was a good way to find authors she had not read before and decide if she liked their style or not.  If she did, she would go to the library and get the full version, but if she didn't like it, she did not feel as though she had lost as much time, since she is the type that almost never gives up on a book once she has picked it up. NightBear (talk) 13:30, 28 February 2015 (UTC)
 * I'd like an answer to this, too. It would seem that the books selected were best-sellers for people who hadn't the ability to concentrate for long. They are like those records with titles like 'Beethoven's Greatest Hits', which serious musicians call 'Bleeding Chunks', aimed at those who want to listen only to 'the good bits' of a symphony, and probably haven't the ability to grasp a work of art as a whole. 121.44.182.165 (talk) 09:29, 25 June 2016 (UTC)

Article talk pages are for discussing improvements to the article, not for general discussion of the article's topic. - Sum mer PhD v2.0 14:06, 5 July 2016 (UTC)
 * From having read some of the "full" editions of the books, I can say that some of the "condensing" was done to sanitize the books to a certain extent, presumably to avoid offending the Reader's Digest audience - passages dealing with homosexuality, sexual intercourse, etc, were deleted, while profanity was also excised. Most notable example I can give is Arthur Hailey's "The Moneychangers", the condensed version of which is very different to the original. Chris Keating (talk) 06:39, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Enumeration/Chronology
Thank you so much to the editor who created this page. I am a Librarian who is trying to figure out how to represent these items in our online library catalog. My only problem is that the 3 volumes I have in front of me at the moment are enumerated as "Volume [no.] 19YY" with a seasonal designation. Would it be alright with the creator if this page if I added this information? I don't want a wiki-war or hurt toes and feelings. NightBear (talk) 13:00, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Condensed Books
Hi, I'm cataloguing my books on my AZZ Cardfile and I've found some discrepancies. I'm assuming they're discrepancies, as I'm holding the book in my hand, but what I'm seeing is not right. The first condensed book I found it on was the following:

Volume 90 - Summer

A Falcon for a Queen - Catherine Gaskin Meeting With a Great Beast - Leonard Wibberley Blockbuster - Gerald Green The Shape of Illusion - Wm. E.Barrett Duel in the Snow - Hans Meissner

I don't have the book right now as I am at work, but the last story on my book isn't "Duel In The Snow" by Hans Meissner. The other stories are there and in the correct order. I have one condensed book that, according to this page, there are 4 or 5 different stories and even though they are in the same book I'm holding - according to this page they are on 4 or 5 different volumes. Can someone help me out here?

Just came across a prime example - this is what is on the page:

Volume 195 - #3

The Firm - John Grisham Payment in Full - Henry Denker Final Approach - John J. Nance Home Ground - Hugh Miller

But my book, which starts with "The Firm" and "Payment In Full" is like this:

The Firm - John Grisham Payment In Full - Henry Denker The Honey Ant - Duncan Kyle Another Winter, Another Spring - Louise de Kiriline Lawrence.

Why the discrepancy? — Preceding unsigned comment added by BrendaAHynes (talk • contribs) 13:28, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

BrendaAHynes — Preceding unsigned comment added by BrendaAHynes (talk • contribs) 13:21, 17 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Your copy is probably a UK or Canadian edition. It mentions in the lead section that these can be different. Dan Bloch (talk) 15:52, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

Thank you.....I see that now. Appreciate your answering my question. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BrendaAHynes (talk • contribs) 18:21, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

Reader's Digest condensed books before "Reader's Digest Condensed Books"
Apparently Reader's Digest magazine included condensed books in its regular issues before the hard-bound books were brought out.

Reference: "The magazine's format for several decades consisted of 30 articles per issue (one per day), along with an "Increase your Word Power" vocabulary quiz, a page of "Amusing Anecdotes" and "Personal Glimpses", two features of funny stories entitled "Humor in Uniform" and "Life in these United States", and a lengthier article at the end, usually condensed from a published book.[7]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reader%27s_Digest#Inception_and_growth

Reference: "It began publishing condensed versions of current books in 1934." https://www.britannica.com/topic/Readers-Digest

Reference: Frederich Hayak's "The Road to Sefrdom" was featured in condensed form in the April 1945, issue. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom

Frappyjohn (talk) 23:03, 11 April 2021 (UTC)