Leave it to Bill Bryson to make me feel better about my short comings! I just finished reading The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way and I loved it for a number of reasons. But the most important reason, besides my undying love for Bryson, is because he reveals that a number of words are spelled the way they are today, because people could not spell them properly in their original form. Therefore, I am not a bad speller I am a language innovator, maybe some of my awful spelling will stick and one day I will be quoted as the one who finally made sense spelling in the English language (or maybe not).
In this book Bryson goes over the evolution of the English language, the parts of speech, why we use certain words, and why we spell them the way we do. He points out the origin of certain words, when they came into existence and why we use them. He also discusses the different meanings that certain words have in the US and Britain. The most rewarding aspect of this book is that you realize that English is a living and changing language. Words that you use now can change within a few years, they may not be used at all or the meaning may even change!
Hell, for you Project Runway viewers who are now using Fierce to describe anything that looks good all because of Christian (that little snot) you know what Bryson means!
3 comments:
Seriously- you worked a project runway comment into a book review! Not so FIERCE!
Actually, my brain is just fine, and so is the brain of the writer of this blog (I know him personally, and quite well) - and for the record, I hardly watch any television at all. I have never seen a single episode of Project Runway either for that matter – it’s just not MY thing. However, television is only capable of rotting the brain IF YOU ALLOW IT TO (which you most obviously have - but have no fear....with lots of work and practicing your basics I am sure you have a at least a slim chance of recovery from this infliction).
Otherwise, television can most certainly be enjoyed and can be a PART of one's day and therefore one is free to choose which of these television programs he or she chooses to partake in for personal entertainment (even Project Runway!!). That being said, there are many choices on television that can certainly contribute to furthering one’s knowledge in a plethora of areas….these choices are also available.
As far as entertainment goes, we all have different personalities and therefore different things will entertain different people. Intelligence can be achieved and maintained by those things in life we choose to do OTHER THAN watching t.v. - like read, participate in intellectually stimulating conversation, go to school, etc....(in your case try the latter.....start at kindergarten and work your way up....it's not so bad after all, I promise). As long as we keep our brains well exercised (like the rest of our bodies) it should continue to function just fine.
Someone (perhaps yourself?) who limits ALL of their time to junk t.v. and/or leaving nasty comments on someone’s blog – well, that someone (you?) has made a choice! In making such a choice, you have clearly shown yourself to be a person who is judgmental and unable to see the merit in those things that other people tend to enjoy (like blogging – whether about t.v. or books or both). By making such snap judgments an expressing them in such an insulting manner, YOU Mr. Anonymous, have MADE A CHOICE to present yourself to the readers of this particular blog as being a person of generally low intelligence and lacking of mental capacity – generally possessing an inability to grasp more than what your tunnel-vision fat ass sees by staring at a computer screen all the time. I suggest you get away from the computer, out of your house, away from your television and even the isolation of book reading and make some much needed friends. Perhaps this will help YOU to exercise your brain a little bit more, therefore maybe, JUST MAYBE, expand your mental capacity and in turn EVEN YOU could become less of a closed-minded bitch!
-S
very clever....
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