Word Perfect – Susie Dent
A less coffee table-ish book from Susie Dent
Linguistics
The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language – Peter Martin
A book about the differences between American and British English, the lack of success of the first American Dictionary, and Noah Webster.
read more The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language – Peter Martin
Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words – John McWhorter
John McWhorter once again does a great job giving us a little bit of linguistics with humor
read more Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words – John McWhorter
Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A “Pure” Standard English – John McWhorter
Wherein I don’t so much review a book as I review John McWhorter.
read more Word On The Street: Debunking The Myth Of A “Pure” Standard English – John McWhorter
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries – Kory Stamper
There are some books you didn’t even know you needed until you read them.
read more Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries – Kory Stamper
Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever – John McWhorter
John McWhorter is a favorite of mine, so I am admittedly biased. But I enjoyed it.
read more Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever – John McWhorter
The Story of English in 100 Words – David Crystal
David Crystal wrote a nice little coffee-table of linguistic factoid.
The Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson
Reading this felt like a review course, but maybe that isn’t always a bad thing.
Failures in Polymathy 