A review by stevendedalus
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper

4.0

An obvious labour of love that gets lost a bit in the weeds. It has that book-deal-from-social-media smell, with personal anecdotes and Twitter wars interspersing an interesting dive into a rare subject.

Stamper savours words, sprinkling esoteric and obscure words with obvious happiness, adding to the charismatic and personal appeal of her writing.

Explaining the construction, daily operations, and business side of dictionaries is really where the book shines, showing the hidden side of a daily object. Unfortunately, the padding at the end as the book gets into political struggles over gay marriage feels unnecessarily long and recapitulative of all the purpose-of-the-dictionary stuff that went before. You can practically hear the editor begging for extra pages.

But it's still a worthwhile corrective to grammar snobs and a love letter to the English language form a true paid expert who writes with charm. May have been better as a long-form article, but I don't really begrudge its wandering.