The first thing I noticed about the UK-only book The Peanuts Guide to Happiness is that they made the same strange cover design choice that I’ve seen on very few other occasions – they left the Peanuts characters off of the cover. You’d think if you were paying good money for a Peanuts licenses, you’d use that recognizable element right up front, but no; some designer felt that his imagery was more important than Schulz’s.

The second thing I noticed is that their disrespect for Schulz went even further – they had misspelled his name. And not in one of the usual ways, dropping the C or adding a T. No, they had misspelled it “Atul Gawande”.

It was about this time that it awned on me that my UK book provider had sent me the wrong book, something that flipping through the pages and seeing a shocking lack of Snoopy confirmed for me. I contacted the bookstore, letting them know of the error, and they let me know that they would send the correct book, and that the erroneous one was mine to keep.

When Dr. Mrs. AAUGH Blogger came home today, I said in mock excitement “I got a book in the mail today!” (The actual occurrence of my getting a book in the mail is quite frequent.) “Was it a Peanuts book?” she asked (for it usually is, and almost always if I’m feigning excitement over getting a book in the mail.) “NO!” shouted I, violating the normal rhythm. “It was supposed to be, but instead, they sent me something called The Checklist Manifesto, by someone called ‘Atul Gawande’.”

“Oh?” she said, with a degree of genuine surprise. “I’ve been meaning to read that!”

So it’s a win all around.

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