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A review by mallard_duck
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston
3.0
2.5 (?) stars rounded up. it was definitely more than just ‘ok’, but did I like like it? hmm.
let me start with the fact that this book is incredibly well researched. it will never cease to amaze me how some scholars end up going into specializations so narrow that their entire domain becomes something as (you would think) obscure as a single punctuation mark. honestly, I find it somewhat humbling that for seemingly every thing that most people wouldn’t think twice (or even once) about, there is at least one person out there who has devoted their entire adult life to studying it. it’s certainly never occurred to me to ponder the history of periods, commas, exclamation marks, dashes, or the wide variety of other punctuation marks we use today – I kind of just accepted them as something that simply exists, like money or spelling rules; in other words, things which (in theory) I know are social constructs, but which I haven’t really explored in depth.
well, it turns out that even something as simple and taken for granted as putting spaces between individual words wasn’t always the standard. imaginereadingawholebookwrittenlikethis. it’s one of those things that I don't think should have surprised me (who hasn’t seen reproductions of old greek or roman writings in their high school history books?)... and yet it did.
despite this being an entirely non-fiction book on a topic that a lot of people wouldn’t instantly describe as ‘riveting’ (indeed, a few of my friends reacted to the news of me reading this book with mild amusement and “well, that sounds… fascinating” comments), shady characters is actually pretty entertaining. its greatest strength, I think, is the fact that it’s written in such a way that you don’t need to be an academic or a language nerd to understand it. in a way, I see this book as an introductory compilation of (surprisingly – to me – extensive) research on specific punctuation marks, many of which tend to be overlooked or plain forgotten these days. for those whose curiosity wasn’t sated by Houston’s summaries, the author provided a very, very detailed list of references and source materials, sorted by chapter for ease of use. while I don’t think I’ll be taking advantage of them any time soon, it most definitely shows the author’s dedication to the topic and speaks of the amazing work he’d done in order to publish this book.
the three stars are an entirely subjective rating – shady characters didn’t sweep me off my feet, but maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to properly appreciate another non-fiction book at this time. maybe I should pay more attention to not judging non-fiction books the same way I judge fiction, in the sense that the factual, sometimes dry language is to be expected here and is, in fact, a strength. (here I have to mention that I don’t think that shady characters is dry – in fact, the author leverages academic analysis and entertaining anecdotes well, although my personal take is that people calling this book ‘hilarious’ in their reviews might have been exaggerating. then again, no sense of humor is universal). maybe…
at the end of the day, I'd still recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about random everyday things.
PS after one read, I still can’t tell all the various types of dashes, pauses, and minuses apart.
let me start with the fact that this book is incredibly well researched. it will never cease to amaze me how some scholars end up going into specializations so narrow that their entire domain becomes something as (you would think) obscure as a single punctuation mark. honestly, I find it somewhat humbling that for seemingly every thing that most people wouldn’t think twice (or even once) about, there is at least one person out there who has devoted their entire adult life to studying it. it’s certainly never occurred to me to ponder the history of periods, commas, exclamation marks, dashes, or the wide variety of other punctuation marks we use today – I kind of just accepted them as something that simply exists, like money or spelling rules; in other words, things which (in theory) I know are social constructs, but which I haven’t really explored in depth.
well, it turns out that even something as simple and taken for granted as putting spaces between individual words wasn’t always the standard. imaginereadingawholebookwrittenlikethis. it’s one of those things that I don't think should have surprised me (who hasn’t seen reproductions of old greek or roman writings in their high school history books?)... and yet it did.
despite this being an entirely non-fiction book on a topic that a lot of people wouldn’t instantly describe as ‘riveting’ (indeed, a few of my friends reacted to the news of me reading this book with mild amusement and “well, that sounds… fascinating” comments), shady characters is actually pretty entertaining. its greatest strength, I think, is the fact that it’s written in such a way that you don’t need to be an academic or a language nerd to understand it. in a way, I see this book as an introductory compilation of (surprisingly – to me – extensive) research on specific punctuation marks, many of which tend to be overlooked or plain forgotten these days. for those whose curiosity wasn’t sated by Houston’s summaries, the author provided a very, very detailed list of references and source materials, sorted by chapter for ease of use. while I don’t think I’ll be taking advantage of them any time soon, it most definitely shows the author’s dedication to the topic and speaks of the amazing work he’d done in order to publish this book.
the three stars are an entirely subjective rating – shady characters didn’t sweep me off my feet, but maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood to properly appreciate another non-fiction book at this time. maybe I should pay more attention to not judging non-fiction books the same way I judge fiction, in the sense that the factual, sometimes dry language is to be expected here and is, in fact, a strength. (here I have to mention that I don’t think that shady characters is dry – in fact, the author leverages academic analysis and entertaining anecdotes well, although my personal take is that people calling this book ‘hilarious’ in their reviews might have been exaggerating. then again, no sense of humor is universal). maybe…
at the end of the day, I'd still recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about random everyday things.
PS after one read, I still can’t tell all the various types of dashes, pauses, and minuses apart.