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ninette's review against another edition
3.0
A round up of etymological anecdotes - each one connected to the next and the last one to the first (hence the circular stroll) sounded like my kind of book. What I did not realize, however, is that this would be exactly the kind of scheme one would employ to make a book about a subject like etymology more caterable to the masses. So naturally it is a rather superficial stroll filled to the brim with puns and jokes. And the latter ones got increasingly annoying in the second half of the book, so that I was quite relieved when it was finally over.
But while this might be a matter of taste, there was a far bigger problem, namely the superficiality. I do not know enough about all the other anecdotes to pass judgment, but at least with the ones concerning classical antiquity, I noticed that he tends to give a rather abridged version of the story. While I see that he clearly did not want to bore people to death with particulars, I would not have been comfortable letting them stand like they do.
But while this might be a matter of taste, there was a far bigger problem, namely the superficiality. I do not know enough about all the other anecdotes to pass judgment, but at least with the ones concerning classical antiquity, I noticed that he tends to give a rather abridged version of the story. While I see that he clearly did not want to bore people to death with particulars, I would not have been comfortable letting them stand like they do.
gwit's review against another edition
3.0
Fun read. Lots of interesting bits. Wish it went into more depth and detail.
The ‘let’s make everything connect’ approach quickly lost its charm. Maybe if reading one section per day the approach would have been more bearable.
The ‘let’s make everything connect’ approach quickly lost its charm. Maybe if reading one section per day the approach would have been more bearable.