Friday, January 25, 2013

Book: The Fight for English

Another excellent book that I read over winter break was The Fight for English: How Language Pundits Ate, Shot, and Left by David Crystal. As you might guess from the title, the book is a response to Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves and her "zero-tolerance" approach to punctuation. David Crystal, unlike Truss, is a linguist, which means he has a deep appreciation of language change, something that Truss and her fellow pundits cannot abide. If you are looking for a fun-to-read book that covers the history of English grammar, spelling and punctuation, Crystal's good-hearted and humorous book is a great choice!