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65 reviews for:
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
Jeff Deck
3.18 AVERAGE
65 reviews for:
The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time
Jeff Deck
3.18 AVERAGE
Grammar geeks and logophiles, this is the book for you. If you're/your a corrector of writing errors, you will enjoy traveling with the authors on their/there/they're quest to eradicate typos across America. On the lookout for mispelled words and errant apostrophes, with a typo correction kit in hand, they make 'lemonade' out of 'lemonaid', and search for entertainmvent and souvernirs. If you don't believe me, check out greattypohunt.com or read this book. Annoyed or puzzled by this review? Definitely not the book for you :)
So um, this book is awesome. I'm not even sure where to start with how awesomely well put together this book is (guess that's what happens when an editor writes a book). First of all Borders has it shelved in the "Writing Style" section of the store, and while I realize that it is about grammar and punctuation I feel that categorization it has been given is misleading. What this book achieves is not a dry or tedious lecture on grammatical style, but rather a Bill Bryson-esque travel writing style which conveys a sense of fun and adventure to its reader.
This book manages to be engaging throughout, without losing steam near the end like some travel writers (or just nonfiction writers in general) I've encountered in the past. It also does an excellent job of exploring tangents without getting lost in them.
One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises that awaited me in this book is how unpretentious the author is (both Jeff and Benjamin are listed as the authors, but Jeff is the narrator so for now he's the author I'm going to refer to). What I love about him is that as he states many times it's not about catching someone making a mistake it is about setting the mistake right without judgment of the individual. He is also continually considering the new points of view that the individuals he encounters bring up, which I really appreciate. Along these lines he does something truly amazing, he acknowledges a point which was bothering me from the very start of my reading. The fact that the standardization of grammar, punctuation and spelling is actually a relatively new thing (only a couple of hundred years old). He acknowledges this fact without being dismissive or condescending and in fact uses it as an opportunity for an intelligent debate over how it informs his quest.
On a more personal note I knew pretty much from the get go that I was going to at least get a moderate amount of enjoyment out of this book. The author is only five years older than me and seems to share a great many interests with me and the sort of people I tend to befriend. This had the result of making all of his cultural references particularly amusing for me. He also manages to reference tons of books and authors without it sounding the least bit forced or pretentious. Every time I'd come across a reference to a book, author or cultural moment that I recognized (and there were a lot) I'd find myself smiling and loving him just a little bit more. This isn't always the case, I've read plenty of books where the author's reference to a work of literature will leave me thinking "you're just saying that to sound intelligent, but really you're a moron."
*Extra bonus points for using the word "mountebank" (p.127).
*And I was nerdishly(spell check be damned) glee-filled by his numerous nods to Shakespeare.
This book manages to be engaging throughout, without losing steam near the end like some travel writers (or just nonfiction writers in general) I've encountered in the past. It also does an excellent job of exploring tangents without getting lost in them.
One of the biggest and most pleasant surprises that awaited me in this book is how unpretentious the author is (both Jeff and Benjamin are listed as the authors, but Jeff is the narrator so for now he's the author I'm going to refer to). What I love about him is that as he states many times it's not about catching someone making a mistake it is about setting the mistake right without judgment of the individual. He is also continually considering the new points of view that the individuals he encounters bring up, which I really appreciate. Along these lines he does something truly amazing, he acknowledges a point which was bothering me from the very start of my reading. The fact that the standardization of grammar, punctuation and spelling is actually a relatively new thing (only a couple of hundred years old). He acknowledges this fact without being dismissive or condescending and in fact uses it as an opportunity for an intelligent debate over how it informs his quest.
On a more personal note I knew pretty much from the get go that I was going to at least get a moderate amount of enjoyment out of this book. The author is only five years older than me and seems to share a great many interests with me and the sort of people I tend to befriend. This had the result of making all of his cultural references particularly amusing for me. He also manages to reference tons of books and authors without it sounding the least bit forced or pretentious. Every time I'd come across a reference to a book, author or cultural moment that I recognized (and there were a lot) I'd find myself smiling and loving him just a little bit more. This isn't always the case, I've read plenty of books where the author's reference to a work of literature will leave me thinking "you're just saying that to sound intelligent, but really you're a moron."
*Extra bonus points for using the word "mountebank" (p.127).
*And I was nerdishly(spell check be damned) glee-filled by his numerous nods to Shakespeare.
I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway, and boy am I glad I did. I have always been one of those people who are a little obsessive about correct grammar, and I am always glad to see others who are, too. But don't think that is only what this book is about. This book is about correct grammar, but it is also about finding and discovering yourself in different ways. And, it is about how important concise communication is, for obvious reasons. I really enjoyed this book on many levels.
I debated between giving this book four stars and five stars and finally ended up with five stars.
I hate to say this, but Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson need an editor (as do we all). I admire the authors of The Great Typo Hunt, a book detailing their cross-country journey to eradicate typos, big and small, but for folks so bent on clarity, I’m not sure why they hadn’t considered conciseness equally important.
In 2008, Deck and Herson, his best friend, formed the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) and decided to clear up the misspelled clutter of American grammar. The group finds typos, Deck complete with a Typo Correction Kit full of markers and correction fluid, and attempts to correct misspelled signs and misplaced apostrophes. Sometimes, TEAL asks permission, and other times, the missions are covert.
The Great Typo Hunt book was fashioned from Deck and Herson’s blog of a similar name (which hasn’t been updated since March), and I think the stories might’ve held my interest more in small, present-time snippets. My main gripe with the book is the embellished, flowery writing style and excessive use of $10-dollar, GRE vocabulary. For example:
“Alas, before I could picture a pastoral landscape filled with sickeningly bubbly existences under a friendly sun, that destroyer of dreams interfered once again.”
Or:
“For some, the ambivalent nature of apathy rears its fuzzy-logic head.”
Maybe those sentences aren’t so bad now, but reading sentences like that for 200-plus pages actually makes the text less interesting and more complicated.
The real action comes in the last quarter of the book when Deck and Herson are prosecuted for “vandalizing” the Grand Canyon (they corrected a typo on a historical sign). I also enjoyed the broader discussions on how standard English spelling and grammar came to be and how copy editing can facilitate clarity in communication — insights well explained in The Great Typo Hunt. However, this book is more of a memoir of a comical road trip than a grammar classic.
In 2008, Deck and Herson, his best friend, formed the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) and decided to clear up the misspelled clutter of American grammar. The group finds typos, Deck complete with a Typo Correction Kit full of markers and correction fluid, and attempts to correct misspelled signs and misplaced apostrophes. Sometimes, TEAL asks permission, and other times, the missions are covert.
The Great Typo Hunt book was fashioned from Deck and Herson’s blog of a similar name (which hasn’t been updated since March), and I think the stories might’ve held my interest more in small, present-time snippets. My main gripe with the book is the embellished, flowery writing style and excessive use of $10-dollar, GRE vocabulary. For example:
“Alas, before I could picture a pastoral landscape filled with sickeningly bubbly existences under a friendly sun, that destroyer of dreams interfered once again.”
Or:
“For some, the ambivalent nature of apathy rears its fuzzy-logic head.”
Maybe those sentences aren’t so bad now, but reading sentences like that for 200-plus pages actually makes the text less interesting and more complicated.
The real action comes in the last quarter of the book when Deck and Herson are prosecuted for “vandalizing” the Grand Canyon (they corrected a typo on a historical sign). I also enjoyed the broader discussions on how standard English spelling and grammar came to be and how copy editing can facilitate clarity in communication — insights well explained in The Great Typo Hunt. However, this book is more of a memoir of a comical road trip than a grammar classic.
You need an appreciation for grammar to enjoy this book, but as a copy editor and lover of grammar, I enjoyed it!
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
A witty book about two guys travelling the United States (more accurately, the edges of the continental portions of it), seeking out typos and trying, more or less successfully, to correct them. A great premise, but I sort of felt like the idea of the trip, the accompanying blog, and indeed even this book, seemed a bit gimmicky. It's presented as a passionate crusade, but it felt more like a guy looking for something to do and finding a fun way to do it. I can't fault anyone for that; it sounds like it was a lot of fun and an eye-opening experience. But it felt like the editing aspects of the story were an excuse to make a long road trip.
The writing is funny, and thoughtful, and throughout there is a lot of navel-gazing about the causes of typos (laziness? poor education? hypercorrection?) and what drives a person to want to correct them. There are discussions about prescriptive and descriptive approaches to English, and observations about peoples reactions to being confronted with their own typos. And, ultimately, their typo correction efforts result in the U.S. government literally making a federal case about their
activities.
A section toward the end about Direct Instruction as a panacea for ridding the world of typos and improving editing practice seemed a bit displaced and out of joint with the rest of the book. I did like the taxonomy of typos in the appendix, and how they were divided into different genera: apostrophe errors, misspellings, agreement errors, etc.
I just hope that after reading this book typos don't start to annoy me even more than they currently do. Also, I'll be waiting for someone to point out a typo in this review. I'm sure they're in here somewhere...
The writing is funny, and thoughtful, and throughout there is a lot of navel-gazing about the causes of typos (laziness? poor education? hypercorrection?) and what drives a person to want to correct them. There are discussions about prescriptive and descriptive approaches to English, and observations about peoples reactions to being confronted with their own typos. And, ultimately, their typo correction efforts result in the U.S. government literally making a federal case about their
activities.
A section toward the end about Direct Instruction as a panacea for ridding the world of typos and improving editing practice seemed a bit displaced and out of joint with the rest of the book. I did like the taxonomy of typos in the appendix, and how they were divided into different genera: apostrophe errors, misspellings, agreement errors, etc.
I just hope that after reading this book typos don't start to annoy me even more than they currently do. Also, I'll be waiting for someone to point out a typo in this review. I'm sure they're in here somewhere...