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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
informative
This is my third time reading this since the mid-1990s. So much information, so engagingly presented. Highly recommended.
Not as much a history of American English language as it claims to be (or as I would have liked it to be) - more a history of America with some additional notes on how certain American words were coined. A good read, though definitely not as entertaining or as captivating as many of Bryson's other books.
Bill Bryson is like a guest at a dinner party who's full of entertaining anecdotes, but more concerned with telling them properly than with whether his audience is enjoying them. Usually I do enjoy them, but here he went on a bit. It was a struggle to finish.
I'm giving this book four stars because I loved it, not because I think it's a book that will appeal to the general public. It's stuffed to the brim with word origin after word origin, and factoid after factoid- one would have to read it five times to absorb everything, and reading it five times would probably kill you. As scattered as it was at times, I still think it was a great read. Bryson's prose is, as always, irresistibly conversational, brilliant, unapologetic, and at times hilarious (although clearly somewhat unpolished at this point).
informative
First of all, whoa.
This book is deceptive, it looks big to begin with but there's a staggering number tangents, tales and facts crammed in it. I really enjoyed the approachable, conversational tone that Bryson maintained throughout the book. It was like chatting with a friend (so it's okay if you don't remember everysingledetail) rather than a lecture from a professor (where you damn well better remember it all, bucko).
I wish there had been more information pertaining specifically to the evolution of American English, since that's what the title implied the book would be about. On the other hand though, I'm pretty easy to please as long as there's plenty of interesting trivia and humor. Bryson delivers easily on those requirements.
This book is deceptive, it looks big to begin with but there's a staggering number tangents, tales and facts crammed in it. I really enjoyed the approachable, conversational tone that Bryson maintained throughout the book. It was like chatting with a friend (so it's okay if you don't remember everysingledetail) rather than a lecture from a professor (where you damn well better remember it all, bucko).
I wish there had been more information pertaining specifically to the evolution of American English, since that's what the title implied the book would be about. On the other hand though, I'm pretty easy to please as long as there's plenty of interesting trivia and humor. Bryson delivers easily on those requirements.
As I read this book, I couldn't help but thinking that I'd read it before. Then, I noticed his liberal quotations and references to "The People's History of the United States." In fact, too many references. It seemed like everything was something I'd read about before.
Which...um...is weird because this book is supposed to be about LANGUAGE. Ok, he states in the intro...he likes to digress. But all the digressions serve to be interesting tidbits as well as somehow relating back to language. But some never seem to relate. And as for the actual language discussion, he often does just list words as other reviewers have commented. Near the end, the book gets scattered as history stops moving chronologically and moves in vague theme oriented chapters.
It just seems like most of the Americanisms that he touched on were largely intuitive. As in, the age of the automobile results in new car words. The internet does too. I wanted a bit deeper analysis of the issue...or something.
And the last chapter...well that just pissed me off. Suddenly he feels the need to make some huge overarching point relevant to our everyday lives. Considering that the rest of the book didn't argue for anything rather than presenting anecdotes and facts, this opinion section came out of left field. And he kind of sounded like a self-righteous prick spouting theories of how people should and shouldn't use language. It could have been interesting had this been a major theme running throughout the book. I just don't get the point of this book...at all. So it gets a 2.
Which...um...is weird because this book is supposed to be about LANGUAGE. Ok, he states in the intro...he likes to digress. But all the digressions serve to be interesting tidbits as well as somehow relating back to language. But some never seem to relate. And as for the actual language discussion, he often does just list words as other reviewers have commented. Near the end, the book gets scattered as history stops moving chronologically and moves in vague theme oriented chapters.
It just seems like most of the Americanisms that he touched on were largely intuitive. As in, the age of the automobile results in new car words. The internet does too. I wanted a bit deeper analysis of the issue...or something.
And the last chapter...well that just pissed me off. Suddenly he feels the need to make some huge overarching point relevant to our everyday lives. Considering that the rest of the book didn't argue for anything rather than presenting anecdotes and facts, this opinion section came out of left field. And he kind of sounded like a self-righteous prick spouting theories of how people should and shouldn't use language. It could have been interesting had this been a major theme running throughout the book. I just don't get the point of this book...at all. So it gets a 2.
Mentions my hometown (Monroe, NY...cuz Liederkranz cheese was invented there.