Review of Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (Hardcover)

Not to gild the lily, this is to all intents and purposes a basically good book. Hopefully, it will be utilized to put an end to grammatical and usage errors, as well as misuse of apostrophe's, "quotation marks" and other punctuation.

If that paragraph above does not give you the dry heaves, you need to read Bill Bryson's "Dictionary."

Unfortunately, much as I enjoyed this book, I'm afraid it will appeal primarily to people who already know a lot of this information, instead of to the many who would benefit from reading it. And that's too bad ("The belief that *and* should not be used to begin a sentence is without foundation. And that's all there is to it." [p. 13]).

As Bryson notes, this book is not a style or usage guide. For that, I would recommend Fowler and Wallraff, sources Bryson often cites, and especially Bill Walsh's Lapsing Into a Comma : A Curmudgeon's Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print--and How to Avoid Them. What this book does provide is a useful guide to clarity of expression through precise use of language. While many people may not know, or care, about the distinctions between "lectern," "podium," "dais," and "rostrum" (p. 119), for example, the distinctions are nevertheless important, and Bryson helps nail them down.

He makes the important point that English is a language without a governing authority. Tradition and usage define what's proper. Language is evolutionary -- an example, as Hayek noted, of spontaneous order. However, it's possible to take this idea too far. In the Introduction (a passage quoted on the back cover as well), Bryson says, "If you wish to say 'between you and I' or to use *fulsome* in the sense of lavish, it is your privilege to do so...". I'm not certain this is the sort of advice people necessarily need to hear, unless of course you add the important corollary that the rest of us have the privilege of considering you an idiot for doing so.

Apart from that, though, this is an entertaining as well as useful read, and one I encourage writers both professional and casual to keep handy.



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Review of Roget's Thesaurus of Phrases (Hardcover)

Have you ever been writing and desperately needed another idea for a two-word or longer phrase?Have you consulted your thesaurus and found nothing that matched?If so, this clever thesaurus of phrases is for you.

Some of the thesaurus phrases are fairly technical or formal; for example, Einstein's Theory of Relativity can also be described as the "principle of equivalence" and Darwin's natural selection can be called the "law of the jungle."However, most of the phrases are more colloquial in nature; for example, look up "down-and-out" and you'll find clever substitutes, such as "in the poorhouse" and "on the skids."In addition, a short "phrase maker" section is included at the end of the thesaurus, which provides words that can be paired together.For example, look up "information" and the phrase maker suggests "confidential" or "classified" as modifiers.

This thesaurus is likely to be useful for most any writer, whether your writing is creative or more technical.The only debit is that phrases are not cross-listed, so "in the poorhouse" is not an entry; one has to divine the correct listing for the book to be useful.This problem, however, is a minor inconvenience compared to the likely use writers of all sorts will derive.Highly recommended.



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