publishers (was NP Harry Potter redux)

[kevin at limits.org]

I can see why it would be useless to tell someone that "If you liked
_Crime and Punishment_, try some other titles from the Penguin Russian
library," but there are some publishing houses, mostly small divisions
like Verso, Pantheon, or Viking, from which one can expect a relatively
consistent subject matter and/or quality.  After all, the editor is an
important influence on the author.  Of course, one could also get a
lot more information on other books from those publishers by contacting
that publisher (including going to their web site) than by trusting
amazon.com, which doesn't seem to understand very well how to group or
categorize books that exist in multiple editions/translations.

Kevin Troy