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19 reviews for:
Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing: Encounters with the Mysteries and Meanings of Language
Daniel Tammet
3.93 AVERAGE
19 reviews for:
Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing: Encounters with the Mysteries and Meanings of Language
Daniel Tammet
3.93 AVERAGE
gab_rielle's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Very beautifully written for a nonfiction book.
However, I will note that it reads more like a collection of short stories that a cohesive narrative. The AI stuff has also aged rapidly.
However, I will note that it reads more like a collection of short stories that a cohesive narrative. The AI stuff has also aged rapidly.
anne978's review
I am strangely receptive to alluring book titles. Some books are named so brilliantly that the title alone is enough to make me yearn to read it, no matter what the topic. A few of my favourite titles are Far From the Madding Crowd, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Living to Tell the Tale, In Search of Lost Time, Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, The Cider House Rules, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.
A new favourite title is Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing. It is beautifully visual, and after finishing this book I could see why this title was chosen - it seems to reflect Tammet's way of looking at the world of language.
Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing is a very interesting mix of different subtopics within the field of language. I had expected a more educational book, but Tammet's setup is more personal than that. Every chapter is based on a place he visited, people he met, experiences he had, or simply experts he questioned about a topic of his interest. For instance, there is a chapter on Tammet's TEFL experience in Lithuania, one with his meeting with a native speaker of Nahuatl and one on sign language. I would say that Tammet is more interested in venturing into unexplored areas of language, rather than focussing on conveying as many facts as possible. This may disappoint one reader and delight the other - I was leaning toward the latter.
I liked the wide range of topics and seeing his personal input: Tammet often just describes being intrigued by something and then arranging a meeting with someone. Every page shows how much he enjoys language and the chapter on OuLiPo clearly shows his love for playing with language. I didn't learn a lot of facts per se, but after reading it I feel like I have been introduced to a lot of different ways of thinking about and using language, and that in itself makes Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing inspiring and worth a read.
A new favourite title is Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing. It is beautifully visual, and after finishing this book I could see why this title was chosen - it seems to reflect Tammet's way of looking at the world of language.
Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing is a very interesting mix of different subtopics within the field of language. I had expected a more educational book, but Tammet's setup is more personal than that. Every chapter is based on a place he visited, people he met, experiences he had, or simply experts he questioned about a topic of his interest. For instance, there is a chapter on Tammet's TEFL experience in Lithuania, one with his meeting with a native speaker of Nahuatl and one on sign language. I would say that Tammet is more interested in venturing into unexplored areas of language, rather than focussing on conveying as many facts as possible. This may disappoint one reader and delight the other - I was leaning toward the latter.
I liked the wide range of topics and seeing his personal input: Tammet often just describes being intrigued by something and then arranging a meeting with someone. Every page shows how much he enjoys language and the chapter on OuLiPo clearly shows his love for playing with language. I didn't learn a lot of facts per se, but after reading it I feel like I have been introduced to a lot of different ways of thinking about and using language, and that in itself makes Every Word Is a Bird We Teach to Sing inspiring and worth a read.
frany79's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
luke1972's review against another edition
4.0
Books about language and how we use it are usually interesting to me and this was no exception. Very accessible but informative.
cheemeego's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent exploration of one of my favorite things—language. My only qualm with the book is that I wish there was more diversity in it. The author explores sign language, a language made up two hundred years ago by a Dutch man who decided he just wanted to, AI language, etc etc., but I couldn’t help but notice there was a lack of diversity in terms of the groups he explored. It would have been awesome if he shed light on dying Indigenous languages as well as old Celtic ones, and I would have loved if one of the few non-Western languages he visited was done not through the lens of Christian missionaries’ impact on tribal communities. Nothing he included was “problematic” by any means, but throughout the book I was aware that the minority of essays he showcased included POC voices. The author has a wonderful, succinct, lyrical way with words and the ability to pare down vast amounts of information into digestible chunks, so I wish that same degree of love and care was shown to a wider variety of languages.
dwager's review against another edition
informative
reflective
4.75
I really enjoyed this collection of thoughtful essays on language experience. Tammet, himself a polyglot and a translator, draws on his own life as well as interviews with with people from a variety of backgrounds in writing about a dizzying array of issues and contexts surrounding language.
debnielsen's review against another edition
3.0
Some chapters were more interesting than others - “Finding my Voice,” “The Language Teacher,” “Icelandic Names,” “Dead Man Talking,” and “OuLiPo” were my favourites. Lipogramatic - writing without using one letter, interesting concept. Captures structure and form which is always of interest to me.
333_lucy_333's review against another edition
5.0
Interest: 9/10 stars
I might be a little biased because I'm interested in the mechanics of language, but this book is just so interesting. Its multilingual perspective pushes past mere English, so we get the full understanding of what language is. He investigates many topics, too, from translation to the linguistics of telephone calls, so the reader never grows bored.
Pacing: 10/10 stars
Each chapter was perfectly paced, in my opinion. He lingers where necessary, but he does not drag things out. They're also just the perfect length to read in one sitting, and since each chapter is basically unconnected to the last, it can be read like a literary journal.
Writing/structure: 8/10 stars
I really liked the writing style in this. Direct, clear, but not boring. Tammet has a way of conveying his thoughts in such a pleasant way.
The only reason this doesn't have nine stars is because of the chapter in which he doesn't use the letter "e." Yes, it's a fun little challenge, but that chapter was annoying to read since things were mostly unclear and jumbled.
Enjoyability: 9/10 stars
The combination of intrigue, clear writing, and fantastic pacing made this book so much fun to read. Tammet picks his topics expertly, as well, and develops them with ease.
Multilingual: 10/10 stars
Like I mentioned earlier, this book is written from a multilingual perspective. It makes the book's dialogue all the more interesting because we learn of fundamentally different ways of speaking. My favorite chapter might be on the translation of the Bible for specifically that reason; Tammet writes about a culture with a language that didn't even have an alphabet, and then Christian missionaries integrated themselves into the village culture to learn their language (by the way, this is a recent story, like within the last handful of decades). It was so intriguing to read about the language and how people develop understandings of one another.
(9+10+8+9+10)/50 =
4.6 stars, rounded up
I might be a little biased because I'm interested in the mechanics of language, but this book is just so interesting. Its multilingual perspective pushes past mere English, so we get the full understanding of what language is. He investigates many topics, too, from translation to the linguistics of telephone calls, so the reader never grows bored.
Pacing: 10/10 stars
Each chapter was perfectly paced, in my opinion. He lingers where necessary, but he does not drag things out. They're also just the perfect length to read in one sitting, and since each chapter is basically unconnected to the last, it can be read like a literary journal.
Writing/structure: 8/10 stars
I really liked the writing style in this. Direct, clear, but not boring. Tammet has a way of conveying his thoughts in such a pleasant way.
The only reason this doesn't have nine stars is because of the chapter in which he doesn't use the letter "e." Yes, it's a fun little challenge, but that chapter was annoying to read since things were mostly unclear and jumbled.
Enjoyability: 9/10 stars
The combination of intrigue, clear writing, and fantastic pacing made this book so much fun to read. Tammet picks his topics expertly, as well, and develops them with ease.
Multilingual: 10/10 stars
Like I mentioned earlier, this book is written from a multilingual perspective. It makes the book's dialogue all the more interesting because we learn of fundamentally different ways of speaking. My favorite chapter might be on the translation of the Bible for specifically that reason; Tammet writes about a culture with a language that didn't even have an alphabet, and then Christian missionaries integrated themselves into the village culture to learn their language (by the way, this is a recent story, like within the last handful of decades). It was so intriguing to read about the language and how people develop understandings of one another.
(9+10+8+9+10)/50 =
4.6 stars, rounded up
cmjustice's review against another edition
5.0
Fascinating explorations. Well articulated and delivered, Fun to read