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Average Rating:  out of 5 Reviews
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Price: $12.95
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Sale: $6.45
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Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780714846354
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Teresa Monachino
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Publisher: Phaidon Press
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Dewey Decimal Number: 428.00207
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Publication Date: 2006-07-01
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Reading Level: 128
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Description: This lively and informative new title was originally inspired by the author's Italian mother and her struggles with the vagaries of the English language. Over the years the author has tried to correct her attempts and explain why the word she has chosen is incorrect, only to be baffled herself by the lack of logic within those explanations. English is full of contradictions and peculiarities (not counting such dull grammatical inconsistencies as 'i before e except after c', which are really no fun at all) and hoodwinks us into believing one thing while meaning something quite different. In English, all is not what it seems and with this book the author has brought these illogical oddities to the fore. Questions of spelling, pronunciation or the blatantly nonsensical are illustrated through clever visual representations that are created entirely through artfully manipulated typography. This playful and sometimes hilarious text sorts the homonyms from the heteronyms and introduces the 'antigram' (demonstrating how the swift shuffle of certain letters can create words that entirely contradict the first: honestly becomes on the sly, earliest becomes rise late and, fabulously, Elvis = lives!). Monachino goes on to demand an explanation from all those tricky little words that are spelt the same and pronounced the same, but yet have utterly different meanings, while highlighting a few of life's petty pleonasms and showing off some quite excellent tautologies. A gaggle of one-word oxymorons shines the spotlight on words that harbour contradictory words within them and the final section provides a note on inadvisable hyphenation, which is a useful disco-very, but perhaps not the best place to beg-in. Because of the linguistic nature of this title there will be a American English edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Intelligent !!! |
Date: 2008-08-31 |
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Details: This book will make you smile from beginning to end. The wit throughout the pages is fabulous. As a designer, the simplicity and beauty leaves me astounded, and as a reader, I wish it would go on and on and on... |
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Review Summary: lovely little book |
Date: 2007-05-26 |
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Details: as a designer and typophile, i love this book. this book is perfect for young (or old) designers that love typography! |
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Review Summary: Is it an attempt to be like the hit, Watching words move? |
Date: 2007-04-11 |
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Details: Easy to go through, pleasant in certain areas, witty in other, funny a couple of times, and makes you think about a thing or two in our daily language that we just take for granted.
You'll finish it within minutes. The pages design and layouts were done in such a way that I felt was very much inspired by the classic book 'watching words move' by Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar.
After you're done keep it on your coffee table, it will entertain your guests for sure, at least. |
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Review Summary: Enjoyable and Fun |
Date: 2007-01-17 |
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Details: I enjoyed this short book. I was given it as a gift by a friend of mine because I am an English major. I enjoyed the book. It is meant as something to be interesting, make you think. Just because it is plain does not make the pages any less interesting or funny. I thoroughly enjoy this rather plain but fun book. It's a conversation starter if nothing else.
Yes, it is a simple book and it may even be considered to be too plain, but I liked it. If you are a fan of the construction of the English language, you might get a kick out of this book. |
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Review Summary: For semantic mavens only |
Date: 2007-01-09 |
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Details: The Editorial Reviews: Book Description above will give you a pretty good idea about the contents of this word-play book. Divided into these chapters: Contradictionary, Antigrams, Ambitexterity, Pleonasties, Antagonyms, Oxycretins and (sic)Note. Each gives examples of the (delightful) obfuscation the English language springs on the unwary and will probably take you less than ten minutes to read the 144 pages.
OK, I spent less than ten minutes reading it but surely the visual presentation will keep me occupied for longer? If only. Nearly all of the pages are designed in a very minimalist way, one typeface (17 point Gill Sans I fancy) and mostly in this size. Because so many of the examples are a word or two on each page there is plenty of empty space throughout the book. As the author is a designer I would have thought this would have been the ideal editorial format to have the contents displayed in a much more creative way. Herb Lubalin would have had such fun!
This is really the kind of item that a trendy ad boutique would give away as a Christmas keepsake to its clients rather than a book to buy.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
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