Many of you are probably aware of this, but since I have made this mistake TWICE now, I thought it might bear a note of caution. For those of us who love foreign authors, be aware that many times the same book has a different title. For example: Jack Kerley's book "Broken Souls" is really the same as "Garden of Vipers" and Anne Holt's book "What Is Mine" is actually the same as "Punishment"  (my two mistakes). I also discovered, (before I did it again) that Anne Holt's book "What Never Happens" is the same as her book "The Final Murder". As I may find more of this, I will tag these books as duplicates. Hope this saves some others the frustration that I have encountered .                     

...and sometimes the hardcover has a different title from the paperback, even when the book is exactly the same. I have fallen for this one more than a few times!  Especially if the cover image changes, too. Oops!

I have had this happen with Boris Akunin and a some other authors.  Some of the Harry Potter books have different titles in Europe than here. I think the 1st one is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  Not sure about the others in the series.

I've noticed that some authors like Nora Roberts and Janet Evanovich have older books reissued and they change the title.  I also try to tag them when I can.  They've done this with Hannah Howell. I picked up a book of hers recently and thought it sounded familiar. Sure enough I look in the publishing page and find in tiny writing "previously published under the title xxxx".  Instead of issuing a new never published Highland series book-they slapped a new name on an old OOP  book of hers.  Luckily I caught it before I bought it again. 

Yeah, I've seen this a lot, especially with European books.  Once I reserved two books by the same (British) author from the library because they were the first two he'd written.  Good guess.  It was the same book: A British version and the American version which came out a year later.  I think in some cases the change is just to avoid legal issues with switching publishers. 

I try and always check the copyright page.  Too many books are reissued with new covers.  And the British have a different set of rules regarding publishing than everyone else.  So this happens with early books of folks who make it big and with a whole lot of English authors who are being marketed to the US after sucess in the UK.

Another example is Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander".  In Britain, Australia etc. the title is "Cross Stitch".  I met DG at a book signing and she said her original title was Cross Stich but her American pusblsher didn't like that title, said it might be confused with the needlework, so she changed it to Outlander.  But the British publisher thought Cross Stith was fine for them.  I'm such a geeky fan I have copies of the book under both names.

Also regarding the Harry Potter book, I read that the orginal title was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but the publishers thought American readers would not be sophisticated enough for that so they changed it to Sorcerer's Stone for the American publication.

One thing about Nora Roberts' books, all of her new publications have an "N" or "R" (can't remember which) design on the cover, so you know it's not a reissue.  That's saved me a few times!