Most of us know that books about correct usage of the English language aren’t checked out nearly as frequently as books on cooking, biographies, or mysteries, to name a few. How do publishers get these books to grab your attention so you will read or even buy them? Language books “gotta have a gimmick”. Giving them a compelling, catchy title with an intriguing turn of phrase could help them to fly off the shelves and get checked out. To a degree, then, it’s what’s on the outside that counts. The catchy-titled books cited below may make you want to read on. Which titles really stand out? Browse these books shelved on Balcony 2B. Find out if you can resist perusing and even checking one out!
Between you and I: a little book of bad English / James Cochrane (428.3 C66)
(The author has written an informative and highly amusing little book about bad English, full of examples of incorrect grammar and usage that often pervades modern radio broadcasts, newspaper articles, and political speeches.)
Between you and me: confessions of a comma queen / Mary Norris (428.2 N857)
(Mary Norris provides descriptions of some of the most common and vexing problems in spelling, punctuation, and usage—comma faults, danglers, "who" vs. "whom," "that" vs. "which," compound words, gender-neutral language—along with her clear explanations of how to handle them.)
The big book of beastly mispronunciations / Charles Elster (421.5 E49)
(An authoritative and unapologetically opinionated look at American speech. As author Elster points out, ‘there is no sewer in connoisseur, no dip in diphthong, and no pronoun in pronunciation’.)
Comma sense: a fundamental guide to punctuation / Richard Lederer and John Shore (421 L47)
(A thorough field guide ‘to the pesky little critters of the punctuation forest’ in the authors' words …. the perfect book to help make your written words perfectly precise and profound.)
Eats, shoots, & leaves : the zero tolerance approach to punctuation / Lynne Truss (421 T87)
(The author boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. Lynne shows how meaning is shaped by commas and apostrophes, and the consequences of punctuation gone awry.)
Just ask Mr. Wordwizard: sentences repaired, words offered, ignorance thwarted / David Grambs (428 G74)
(David Grambs sets out to entertain, educate, and enlighten with this collection of ruminations on hundreds of language topics, designed in a lively question-and-answer format.)
Origins of the specious: myths and misconceptions of the English language / Patricia T. O’Conner (422 018)
(Do you cringe when a talking head pronounces "niche" as NITCH? Do you think British spellings are more "civilised" than the American versions? If you answered yes to either question, you're myth-informed, says O'Conner. She sets the record straight about bogus word origins, politically correct fictions, fake acronyms, and more.)
The revenge of anguished English: more accidental assaults on our language / Richard Lederer (428.2 L47)
(Everyone makes mistakes--why are they so much funnier when they are someone else's? Lederer seems to know the answer. Includes product warnings and celebrities’ bloopers.)
The transitive vampire: a handbook of grammar for the innocent, the eager, and the doomed / Karen Elizabeth Gordon (428.2 G66)
(Both playful and practical, this is the style book and guide addresses classic questions of English usage with wit and the blackest of humor.)
Yes, I could care less: how to be a language snob without being a jerk / Bill Walsh (428.2 W223)
(This book is a lively and often personal look at one man's continuing journey through ‘the obstacle course of grammar.’ Author Walsh argues with both sides in the language wars, the sticklers and the apologists, and even with himself.)
