I present to you the second and final installment of bite-sized book reviews for word lovers:
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style – Benjamin Dryer. This is a new book that has been getting (or was getting a couple of months ago, probably aligning with his book tour) a ton of media coverage. Mr. Dryer is a grammar maven, being vice president, executive managing editor, and copy chief of Random House. The hype is well deserved, and every grammarphile should read this book. I was most impressed when I saw that he covered similar topics in his book as I in my Best Little Grammar Book. In addition, he agreed with me most of the time, and I even thought we had similar senses of humor in our writing. I was going to write to him and let him know this, but . . . Highly Recommended
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries – Kory Stamper. I really didn’t think I would enjoy this book when I started it. It seemed like a boring topic: how the dictionary is created and updated. Was I wrong! I was fascinated with how dictionaries are updated, how word origins are figured out, and how words are chosen to be added. The book takes place more in the recent past before everything was done online. Stamper worked for Webster, I believe. Highly Recommended
The Elements of Style (1918) – William Strunk, Jr. This little book used to be called Strunk and White (yes, E.B.), and I don’t know what happened to White; he doesn’t seem to be getting author billing. Written in 1918 for Strunk’s college class, this has been THE grammar reference book for decades. I actually never owned it and never read it (as far as I can remember) until a few years ago when I bought it at my local library’s book sale. A little dry??? Yup. I can’t really criticize the content (since I don’t remember anything I might have found), but the presentation is pretty boring. My yellow books covers the same things, I hope in a more interesting way. MEH
On Writing Well: The Classic Gide to Writing Nonfiction – William Zinsser. As The Elements of Style is often considered the bible of grammar reference books, this book is often considered the bible of writing books. It is really difficult to teach writing or to even talk about what good writing is. Zinsser does a great job, and this is a worthy book (in my opinion and the opinion of many others). Zinsser wrote for the New York Herald Tribune and has taught writing at Yale and the Columbia University School of Journalism. Recommended
May We Borrow Your Language? How English Steals Words From All Over the World – Philip Gooden. This book sounded so interesting. It was soooo boring. I did not finish it. Each page or so talks about a specific word and its origin. I am sure some people liked it. I thought it was a snooze.
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott. Goodreads doesn’t list this as I book I claimed to have read, but I know I read it and I enjoyed it. This is one of the popular books for learning the craft of writing. Lamott is a popular author who lives in Marin County California. Recommended
On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft – Stephen King. This book is another popular book for writers studying the craft of writing. It is part memoir and part instruction. Once again, I know I read it, but I have no proof! I am not really a Stephen King fan (the two I read, I liked, but they weren’t the creepy ones), but you don’t have to be a King fan to like this book. Recommended
Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists – Erin McKean (editor) – Verbatim was a language quarterly that is no longer in existence. It published amusing and entertaining essays on the English language. This book is a collection of essays from the journal over approximately the past three decades. You will probably love some of the essays and be bored by others. I ended up reading the articles that interested me. I was teaching at the time I read the book, so by far my favorite part was an essay crafted by putting together real bloopers from students’ essays. Recommended
No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days – Chris Baty. This book was specifically written for those who wish to take on the challenge of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November. The aim is to write a novel (draft) in 30 days. They say there are two ways to write a novel: 1. Plan it and outline it. 2.Pants it. It will write itself, hence the title of the book. A must read for NaNoWriMo writers!
If you have additional books you have read and would like to recommend — or not — please sent them as comments. I know I have barely touched the surface! Thanks!
Thank you for this, Arlene. Like every writer, I have several of the books you’ve referenced, including the Strunk and White–a book demanded of us in my English 101 class. After years and years of scanning the book, I determined I can’t ever find anything I want. Some of the books I’ve kept aren’t memorable. They include books demanded of both my husband and I by college professors. Thank heaven, they were all in paperback, though that fact rarely affected the prices charged by college bookstores. I also have the Stephen King book, but I confess to not having read it (yet). I have another little one called “Between You and I: a little book of bad english,” by James Cochrane. I’ve read it and kept it for the past 13 or 14 years, but I can’t say I refer to it often (if ever). I use yours, little books which I find to be concise and quick to use while I’m writing. Referring back to your recommendations, I’ll take the time to read my Stephen King and perhaps pick up copies of some of the other books you’ve cited. Thanks again for this interesting article.
Thank you so much for the comments — and the compliment! I think I have also read Between You and I at some point.