Cover image copied from Amazon.com
I noticed that some of my brilliant friends from college were reading this book, and it sounded interesting, so I decided to take the plunge.
The author has selected 100 words from the English language, and for each word, he takes two to three pages to describe the history of the word and how it has been used, and how its usage has changed over time. It's a very easy book to pick up and read a couple chapters and then put down again. There are many interesting quirks and footnotes in the history of English that Crystal points out. Overall, I'd say this is a book I would highly recommend to any person who finds the English language and its history fascinating (if you aren't one of those people, you might want to try the book anyway...you might discover that its more interesting than you thought!).
Next week: comments about Thomas Jefferson (in light of my recent visit to Monticello) and more thoughts from Francis Bacon and "The Advancement of Learning"
Cheers!
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