I’m not a grammar nazi. I expect people in informal settings to use words like “complected” (technically a word now, but more properly “complexioned”), and to end sentences with a preposition even if it does leave me thinking, “Oh, I’m sorry–was there more?” That’s fine, and it’s equally fine to use informal language when a character in a book is speaking, but the author of a book must be held to a higher standard. If not the author, then at least the editor, for heaven’s sake! I realise my paperback nightstand fodder isn’t exactly composed of classics that will be studied in schools in another fifty or a hundred years (in another two weeks, I won’t remember having read them myself), but one might hope they’d be at least literate. It’s bad enough that I see posts on message boards from apparently otherwise intelligent people who use “it’s” as a possessive, use “alright” though it isn’t even a word, use “aggravate” when they mean “irritate or annoy”, and confuse “already” with “all ready”. God, don’t get me started on the homophones.