Okay, here’s the deal.  While at lunch with a friend the other day, the topic of the movie “The Exorcist” happened to come up (these things tend to occur around me).  I explained to him that this remains the one horror film I cannot bring myself to view alone (or with other people for that matter) without getting a major case of the heebie-jeebies.  Watching it at all virtually ensures a few nights of a possessed Reagan’s nasty-ass face popping into my head at will as I make a feeble attempt at slumber.  So, yes I have seen it, and yes, that staircase crab-walk scene is fucking freaky.  Moving on…

Original Cover

Being older and wiser, he suggested I read the book and indicated that (as with pretty much all books) you get more insight into the characters and therefore the book freaked him out more than the movie.  Well, since the movie is my mental kryptonite, and if the book was somehow worse (better?  whatever) than the film, I had to read it post-haste.  Nasty pea-soup dribbled, sleep depriving face be damned!  I went home and pulled up my Amazon account, which is where our story begins.

As of today, simply typing in “The Exorcist” in Amazon’s search engine under the Kindle category, brings up many books but the first and only “Exorcist” book (by William Peter Blatty) is the upcoming 40th Edition, due out September 27th of this year and is therefore not available yet.  I thought, okay, well where is the regular, non-40th Edition that has been out since it was published in 1971?  After a few searches, I found the page for the regular version, but instead of the “buy with one click” option I usually have, it read only “add to cart”.  WTF?  So, I scrolled down and clicked on the “Kindle Edition” under Formats and was — what the hell?– redirected to the page for the 40th Anniversary Edition!  Gah!!!

Anyway, I have sent an e-mail to Amazon about this issue and to their credit I did receive a timely response and they are looking into it.  I sincerely hope that this is not what it looks like — a blatant attempt to force people to purchase the 40th Edition.  It does not make sense to do that, since both versions cost the same ($9.99) but you just never know these days.

I still don’t have the book and if I have to wait until September to get it, there is a slight chance (okay, a 100% chance) that I will forget about my quest and not order either version.  Damn.

UPDATE 7/30/11:  Well, I received a response from Amazon and it was within the window of time (5-7 days) they promised.  However, after deciphering the e-mail it turns out the old version for Kindle has been completely replaced by the 40th Anniversary Edition which, again, is not available until September.  I can still order the old version in paperback, and I probably will, but only because my husband talked me into it.  Well, that’s my story anyway.

For your viewing pleasure, here is the e-mail I received from Amazon, verbatim:   

Hello,

This is a follow up to the previous response regarding the kindle edition “The Exorcist”.

I’ve heard from the Kindle technical team and confirm that the link for the Kindle edition is correct.

“The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition” is kindle version for the physical book (hard copy) “The Exorcist”.

Please be informed that only the 40eth anniversary edition of this title is available in a kindle edition. The older version of the title published in February 1994 is available only in Mass Market Paperback version.

For additional support:

www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

I hope this helps. We look forward to see you again soon.