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neilrcoulter's review against another edition
5.0
Shady Characters was an absolute pleasure to read. People who write about language often fall into certain traps: condescending, arrogant, pedantic, name-dropping, forced humor. Somehow, Keith Houston avoids all of that and finds exactly the right tone in this book. He has great information to share, and he writes it in a fun, engaging, welcoming way.
☞ I highly recommend the book to anyone who loves history, language, and the history of language.
It might seem like writing about punctuation and typographical marks would be a rather narrow topic. But as Houston explains one kind of mark in each chapter, he opens a panorama of history and culture that is dizzyingly fascinating. We go back to the library of Alexandria, graffiti in Rome, medieval scribe annotations, Gutenberg’s obsessive line-justification, the first novels of Richardson and Fielding, Abraham Lincoln, twentieth-century journalism, and the huge influence of Christianity on all aspects of the written word. Each chapter looks at a different mark or symbol, and the stories are concise and always interesting—pilcrow,* interrobang (long one of my favorites; you know what it looks like, right‽), octothorpe,† ampersand, the @ symbol, asterisk and dagger,‡ hyphen, dash, manicule, quotation marks, and irony and sarcasm (of course~).
I loved this book. I will probably read it again and will definitely recommend it to my students and fellow editors.
* The symbol I think of as a paragraph marker.
† Now more commonly known as the “hashtag.”
‡ And the double dagger, and much more.
☞ I highly recommend the book to anyone who loves history, language, and the history of language.
It might seem like writing about punctuation and typographical marks would be a rather narrow topic. But as Houston explains one kind of mark in each chapter, he opens a panorama of history and culture that is dizzyingly fascinating. We go back to the library of Alexandria, graffiti in Rome, medieval scribe annotations, Gutenberg’s obsessive line-justification, the first novels of Richardson and Fielding, Abraham Lincoln, twentieth-century journalism, and the huge influence of Christianity on all aspects of the written word. Each chapter looks at a different mark or symbol, and the stories are concise and always interesting—pilcrow,* interrobang (long one of my favorites; you know what it looks like, right‽), octothorpe,† ampersand, the @ symbol, asterisk and dagger,‡ hyphen, dash, manicule, quotation marks, and irony and sarcasm (of course~).
I loved this book. I will probably read it again and will definitely recommend it to my students and fellow editors.
* The symbol I think of as a paragraph marker.
† Now more commonly known as the “hashtag.”
‡ And the double dagger, and much more.
mallard_duck's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 (?) stars rounded up. it was definitely more than just ‘ok’, but did I like like it? hmm.
let me start with the fact that this book is incredibly well researched. it will never cease to amaze me how some scholars end up going into specializations so narrow that their entire domain becomes something as (you would think) obscure as a single punctuation mark. honestly, I find it somewhat humbling that for seemingly every thing that most people wouldn’t think twice (or even once) about, there is at least one person out there who has devoted their entire adult life to studying it. it’s certainly never occurred to me to ponder the history of periods, commas, exclamation marks, dashes, or the wide variety of other punctuation marks we use today – I kind of just accepted them as something that simply exists, like money or spelling rules; in other words, things which (in theory) I know are social constructs, but which I haven’t really explored in depth.
well, it turns out that even something as simple and taken for granted as putting spaces between individual words wasn’t always the standard. imaginereadingawholebookwrittenlikethis. it’s one of those things that I don't think should have surprised me (who hasn’t seen reproductions of old greek or roman writings in their high school history books?)... and yet it did.
despite this being an entirely non-fiction book on a topic that a lot of people wouldn’t instantly describe as ‘riveting’ (indeed, a few of my friends reacted to the news of me reading this book with mild amusement and “well, that sounds… fascinating” comments), shady characters is actually pretty entertaining. its greatest strength, I think, is the fact that it’s written in such a way that you don’t need to be an academic or a language nerd to understand it. in a way, I see this book as an introductory compilation of (surprisingly – to me – extensive) research on specific punctuation marks, many of which tend to be overlooked or plain forgotten these days. for those whose curiosity wasn’t sated by Houston’s summaries, the author provided a very, very detailed list of references and source materials, sorted by chapter for ease of use. while I don’t think I’ll be taking advantage of them any time soon, it most definitely shows the author’s dedication to the topic and speaks of the amazing work he’d done in order to publish this book.
the three stars are an entirely subjective rating – shady characters didn’t sweep me off my feet, but maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to properly appreciate another non-fiction book at this time. maybe I should pay more attention to not judging non-fiction books the same way I judge fiction, in the sense that the factual, sometimes dry language is to be expected here and is, in fact, a strength. (here I have to mention that I don’t think that shady characters is dry – in fact, the author leverages academic analysis and entertaining anecdotes well, although my personal take is that people calling this book ‘hilarious’ in their reviews might have been exaggerating. then again, no sense of humor is universal). maybe…
at the end of the day, I'd still recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about random everyday things.
PS after one read, I still can’t tell all the various types of dashes, pauses, and minuses apart.
let me start with the fact that this book is incredibly well researched. it will never cease to amaze me how some scholars end up going into specializations so narrow that their entire domain becomes something as (you would think) obscure as a single punctuation mark. honestly, I find it somewhat humbling that for seemingly every thing that most people wouldn’t think twice (or even once) about, there is at least one person out there who has devoted their entire adult life to studying it. it’s certainly never occurred to me to ponder the history of periods, commas, exclamation marks, dashes, or the wide variety of other punctuation marks we use today – I kind of just accepted them as something that simply exists, like money or spelling rules; in other words, things which (in theory) I know are social constructs, but which I haven’t really explored in depth.
well, it turns out that even something as simple and taken for granted as putting spaces between individual words wasn’t always the standard. imaginereadingawholebookwrittenlikethis. it’s one of those things that I don't think should have surprised me (who hasn’t seen reproductions of old greek or roman writings in their high school history books?)... and yet it did.
despite this being an entirely non-fiction book on a topic that a lot of people wouldn’t instantly describe as ‘riveting’ (indeed, a few of my friends reacted to the news of me reading this book with mild amusement and “well, that sounds… fascinating” comments), shady characters is actually pretty entertaining. its greatest strength, I think, is the fact that it’s written in such a way that you don’t need to be an academic or a language nerd to understand it. in a way, I see this book as an introductory compilation of (surprisingly – to me – extensive) research on specific punctuation marks, many of which tend to be overlooked or plain forgotten these days. for those whose curiosity wasn’t sated by Houston’s summaries, the author provided a very, very detailed list of references and source materials, sorted by chapter for ease of use. while I don’t think I’ll be taking advantage of them any time soon, it most definitely shows the author’s dedication to the topic and speaks of the amazing work he’d done in order to publish this book.
the three stars are an entirely subjective rating – shady characters didn’t sweep me off my feet, but maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to properly appreciate another non-fiction book at this time. maybe I should pay more attention to not judging non-fiction books the same way I judge fiction, in the sense that the factual, sometimes dry language is to be expected here and is, in fact, a strength. (here I have to mention that I don’t think that shady characters is dry – in fact, the author leverages academic analysis and entertaining anecdotes well, although my personal take is that people calling this book ‘hilarious’ in their reviews might have been exaggerating. then again, no sense of humor is universal). maybe…
at the end of the day, I'd still recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about random everyday things.
PS after one read, I still can’t tell all the various types of dashes, pauses, and minuses apart.
roxalyn's review against another edition
3.0
Some chapters drag on, but some are incredibly interesting.
library_ann's review against another edition
4.0
For nerds only.
The history of the development of some of the punctuation marks used in English. Overall enjoyed the whole thing, although I felt it bogged down in the Dash chapter (too much minutiae about Gutenberg's Bible) and the final chapter on how to punctuate irony. But generally a fun read.
The history of the development of some of the punctuation marks used in English. Overall enjoyed the whole thing, although I felt it bogged down in the Dash chapter (too much minutiae about Gutenberg's Bible) and the final chapter on how to punctuate irony. But generally a fun read.
sillypunk's review against another edition
5.0
A really fun and light history of some of our most used punctuation: https://blogendorff.com/2019/01/28/book-review-shdy-charac%E2%80%A0ers/
adventurouspotato's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
thebradking's review against another edition
5.0
Generally speaking, I'm nonplussed by books about writing (save for [book:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft|10569] and [book:Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within|44905]). That said, I do love good style and grammar books, which is ironic as any of my editors or copy editors would happily tell you. [book:The Elements of Style|33514], [book:Eats, Shoots and Leaves|19434017], and even [book:The Chicago Manual of Style|103362] sit near my reading areas.
And so I was excited to pick up [book:Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks|17573647], a brief history of punctuation -- some long forgotten and some in use today. An outgrowth of Keith Houston's blog, the author explores how and why we use the symbols we do today. (As a fun aside, the book's design incorporates all the symbols as a demonstration of how the styles evolved throughout time.)
There's not much more to say about the book. You either find the history of these things fascinating, or you're wrong. If you're looking for my recommendation, here it is: I liked Shady Characters so much I purchased his follow up [book:The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time|26530319].
And so I was excited to pick up [book:Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks|17573647], a brief history of punctuation -- some long forgotten and some in use today. An outgrowth of Keith Houston's blog, the author explores how and why we use the symbols we do today. (As a fun aside, the book's design incorporates all the symbols as a demonstration of how the styles evolved throughout time.)
There's not much more to say about the book. You either find the history of these things fascinating, or you're wrong. If you're looking for my recommendation, here it is: I liked Shady Characters so much I purchased his follow up [book:The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time|26530319].