Is There a Cow in Moscow?

Finished May 21

Is There a Cow in Moscow? More Beastly Mispronunciations and Sound Advice: Another Opinionated Guide to the Well-Spoken by Charles Harrington Elster

This book is arranged alphabetically, and looks at words both common (a and the) and uncommon (quoin and ukase) as well as many in between. It includes some place names and proper names, such as those of the muses, and talks about changes to usage over time.

The book is written by an American and mainly discusses American pronunciation, occasionally mentioning how British or Canadian differs. Because the book was written more than thirty years ago, more changes to how language is used have occurred and some of his preferred pronunciations are no longer the common form. I also found that sometimes my pronunciation of a word (as a Canadian) differed slightly from his preferred version, even if he hadn't noted a difference for different English speakers. 

It introduced me to some words that I hadn't known before, and made me think harder about how we say things in different circumstances (i.e. noun versus verb) and contexts (i.e. when followed by a word beginning with a consonant or a vowel)

An interesting book to read in short sections or use as a helpful reference when encountering a new word. I enjoyed the historical changes he discussed for some words and also when he talked about word origins. 

P is for Pterodactyl

Finished July 15
P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter, pictures by Maria Tina Beddia

I heard about this book just before Christmas, but couldn't find a copy then. I recently saw it in a bookstore and couldn't resist. The authors had fund collecting a wide variety of words with silent letters or letters that use different sounds than one expects.
The drawings make it even more fun! See the psychic pterodactyl on the cover? That's just one example of the fun inside. Each letter has a little scene, with a phrase telling a story. And there is often more to discover within that scene.
They include a list at the end of the book that gives pronunciation and definitions for the words used here.

The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium

Finished May 15
The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium: From Joseph P Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordinary People by Philip Dodd

This book was inspired by the curiosity of the author as he tracked down the story of the origin of a wide variety of items to their namesakes. Some of these you may have been aware of, others are less well known. Included here are:
* The frisbee
* The saxophone and other musical instruments
* The jacuzzi
* The biro
* Mesmerism and the guillotine
* The leotard
* Oscars and Tonys
* The dahlia, the freesia, the bougainvillea, the fuchsia, and the magnolia
* The G-spot
* The sandwich
* The Mercedes
* The silhouette
* The foxtrot
* Mavericks
* and, of course, guppys
For some he finds dubious myths about origin, others are well documented. And the reader learns a number of other interesting things along the way.

Bizarre Books

Finished December 10
Bizarre Books by Russell Ash and Brian Lake

This book has been sitting on my shelves for a while, and it was one of the books I'd challenged myself to read in my TBR Challenge this year.
It is essentially a book of lists, some more interesting than others.
There are 16 chapters and many of them have multiple lists.
The book begins with books with unintentional double entendre titles, one I found less interesting than others. Some titles were only here because words in the title had adopted new meanings since they had been published.
The second chapter lists extraordinary author names, and again I found this less interesting. It seems like making fun of people's names, not something I am comfortable with.
The third chapter was again around author names, this time in terms of how they related to the title of the book they'd written. An example is The Cypress Garden by Jane Arbor.
The fourth chapter is sheet music titles, and again a lot of these only sound funny to us now because of a change in time, many of them dating from the 19th century.
The fifth chapter was more interesting to me. It lists books that are extremely specific in the subject they cover. One that struck me was Busted Tractors and Rusty Knuckles: Norwegian Torque Wrench Techniques and Other Fine Points of Tractor Restoration.
The sixth chapter was along the same lines, but scientific in nature. Titles include ones such as The Diseases of Electrical Machinery.
The seventh chapter covers books on dirty topics, mostly around bodily functions, or dirt.
The eighth chapter covers odd books on plants and animals from Bean Spasms to Carnivorous Butterflies.
The ninth chapter covers medical titles, including some fiction titles that sound a bit odd. From The Romance of Proctology to Coma Arousal, these were sometimes amusing.
The tenth chapter included titles involving love, marriage, and sex. It includes titles such as Literature of Kissing and How Can I Get Married.
The eleventh chapter covers odd pastimes from How to Vamp Without Music to Original Tricks with Cigars.
The twelfth chapter covers odd-sounding fiction titles from We All Killed Grandma to The Fangs of Suet Pudding.
The thirteenth chapter covers titles that sound incredibly dull or unlikely such as Songs of a Chartered Accountant or I Was a Kamikaze.
The fourteenth chapter covers religious books such as My Invisible Friend Explains the Bible.
The fifteenth chapter covers publishing curiosities such as unusual bindings, strange dedications, and books that challenged the writer such having all the words begin with a particular letter of the alphabet.
The last chapter takes on odd books about death or beyond. Titles run from Reusing Old Graves to Do-it-Yourself Coffins.
I found the chapters from five on most interesting, and the book over-all mildly amusing.

Defining the Wind

Finished May 20
Defining the Wind by Scott Huler

Huler was fascinated when he encountered the Beaufort Scale in his dictionary, finding the terminology poetic and wanting to learn more. (The book cover is actually an image of that dictionary page.) So he went searching for Beaufort, wanting to know more about the man behind the scale and what inspired him.
But he also looked into the wind directly, travelling on a sailing ship, visiting a wind tunnel, and looking into meteorological history. He found out a lot about Beaufort and his influence on both wind measurement and modern nautical procedures. Since Beaufort kept extensive diaries, there is a lot of personal as well as professional information known about the man. He also shows us the development of wind measurement, with discussion on all the different measurements before and after the Beaufort Scale, discovering that the Scale itself has changed over time.
The chapter that I enjoyed the most was Chapter 8 A Picture of the Wind: Poetry, the Shipping Forecast, and the Search for the North Shields Observer. I think I enjoyed this one because of its literary and cultural focus and its taking the reader back to what drew Huler to do this research in the first place, the language used in the dictionary version of the Scale. He introduces us here to more interpretations of the Scale, through picture books, art, and music that add to its draw. He also completes the search for the man who wrote the words used, the North Shields Observer.
Well worth reading, this book both educated and entertained, and now I'm waiting for my music CD containing the Beaufort Scale to arrive!

The Pun Also Rises

Finished March 22
The Pun Also Rises: how the humble pun revolutionized language, changed history, and made wordplay more than some antics by John Pollack, read by Pete Larkin
This is more than just a history of puns, it is a history of language, a history of humour, and shows that social changes over the centuries around this form of humour. Puns are rich in the use of language and that is both the appeal and the fun of them. But because they play with language, puns are also seen as a threat by some. They've definitely been used subversively and politically and have been a tool of social and political change. They are also a great tool for literacy and language learning. A few puns are included here, but the book is more about the history. Having a punster for a father, I've grown up with puns, and found the book very interesting.

The Wonderful O

Finished March 19
The Wonderful O by James Thurber
This is a classic I hadn't come across before, and I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. Parts of it seemed to ramble off the narrative.
The story is that a pirate with a map meets up with another pirate with a boat and crew and they sail to the island of Ooroo where there is supposed to be treasure buried. The map they have doesn't have the location of the treasure, so they ransack the island looking for it. The captain of the boat hates the letter O and gradually tries to rid the island of it, either by taking the Os out of words, or getting rid of the things and animals that have the letter O in their names. There are good islanders that plot to defeat these evil man, and a bad islander (a lawyer of course!) who plots against his fellow islanders. There are 4 words that contain the letter O and that are important words for the islanders. They must find them all.
I found the book interesting and it reminded me of another book I read (that I enjoyed more) called Ella Minnow Pea.

Fun Word Book

Finished November 4
Ounce Dice Trice by Alastair Reid, drawing by Ben Shahn
I had bought this book for a gift, but I'm finding it so nice, I might have trouble giving it up.
It is a lovely book celebrating words and the sounds they make. From words that sound like what they describe to words the give you certain feelings, you really look at words more closely. There are some lovely circular garlands that lead you through several interesting words back to the beginning. There are lists of words to name different things and different lists of counting words.
This is a great book for any age person who likes words.

Nonfiction Quickie

Finished July 28
The Whatchamacallit: those everyday objects you just can't name (and things you think you know about but don't) by Danny Danziger and Mark McCrum
This very cool book was recommended by a coworker. I found terms I knew well, and many that I did not. Examples of use or detailed descriptions are given, and many entries also include related terms. My favourites include:
* tmesis (the separation of parts of a compound word by the intervention of one or more words, such as abso-bloody-lutely)
* tittle (the dot on top of the lower case i and j)
* pulicue (the distance between the forefinger and thumb when extended)
* phosphene (sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina rather than light itself) [This happens to me when I cough in the dark and I never knew it had a name!]
* noclilucent (particular and unusual high cloud, seen only in the evening)
* desire line (path more people want to take, despite any existing roads, walks, or tracks).
As you can see from my list, the subjects are varied and yet I find this sort of thing fascinating.

The Wonder of Words

Not Finished!!
Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinatins Thereof: Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences: With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory by Roy Blount Jr.
Okay, the reason I didn't finish this book is because it is the kind of book that you dip in and out of, that you savour in small bites, that you want to write in the margins of. And so, of course, I have put the book on my wishlist (and if I haven't got it by my birthday, I shall treat myself!).
I should have known by the wonderful title that I would feel this way about the book, but when, by page seven, he was complaining about the combination very unique, he had me.
A treat for all of those who love words, this is an absolute treasure of a book.