Customer Rating: 
Summary: Nice read - maybe not the book for those who know some Latin or French
Comment: This book covers a range of words that tend to get misspelled or misused in English publications. Many of them are words of French or Latin origin, which makes them a problem only for those who did not have to take one of these languages in school. The last chapter in the book is dedicated to punctuation - and that one is really helpful for any reader.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and entertaining
Comment: I bought the book for my husband and he says he really likes it. I can't offer a personal opinion though.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bryson's the best
Comment: This is a great book for anyone who loves the English language. It should be a useful reference for writer's, but is also a great 'coffee table book' for those of us who are fascinated to learn there is no 'n' in restaurateur; the official length of an Olympic sized swimming pool; whether a word ends in "-ible" or "-able" or any number of other fascinating right and wrong usage of the language. It is a serious book done in the inimitable Bryson style.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Valuable Reference & Entertaining Read
Comment: Those familiar with Bryons will not be surprised by his quips and endless curiousity of the arts and sciences. Dictionary is a handy tool for the professional writer, yet it offers a funny insight into the muddle of the English language. Referencing nearly every authoritative work on the subject, he manages to offer a condensed, user-friendly guide that presents the most common mistakes and pitfalls facing writers. I would say the book is geared toward journalists, and consistent throughout is a "less is more" mentality, but this practice could easily be applied to writing in a number of different disciplines. I submit that it is worth the investment to buy and keep as a reference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: useful but not amazing
Comment: For starters, this is a reissue of "The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words" from 1984, which Bill Bryson was permitted to edit and amplify. The book was published again with his revisions under the current title in 2001.
Bryson is a fine writer, and enormously learned: he seems capable of writing literately about anything! And though the book would be a welcome addition to anybody's reference library, I don't regard it as anything special.
You should be warned that many of the terms -- and, well, linguistic disputes -- that Bryson discusses are meant chiefly, I think, for writers and editors. If you're in high school or just starting out in college, I think you might find much of this book's contents needlessly arcane.
For example, have you ever been confused about the difference between "who's" and "whose"? This book won't help you. Yet it has an entry on "razzmatazz" vs. "razzamatazz," if that happens to be a pressing concern of yours, or if you're unaware of what a desk dictionary is.
Need a review of "rise", "rose," and "risen"? You're out of luck, but Bryson does provide a separate entry that informs you that the title of Joyce's 1939 novel "Finnegans Wake" contains no apostrophe.
A lot of the rest of the book seems downright unfriendly towards those who are still learning. For example, the entry on "its" vs. "it's" begins, "The distinction between these two ought not to trouble a ten-year-old." Or howabout: "If you don't know it already, note now that there is no 'n' in 'restaurateur.'" A good deal of Bryson's writing here suffers from this haughty tone.
If you are a EFL or a ESL student, this book is not suitable for your needs either, most of its entries being far too recondite for anything save a very advanced user to care about.
Additionally (p. 28), Bryson warns you that his book "is primarily intended for users of British English." Predictably, then, many of his solutions and suggestions employ British spelling or punctuation, something that might well confuse a beginner.
Lastly, I'm a bit astonished that the "list" is not more complete: lists of commonly confused words are easy to come by (most dictionaries seem to have one in the back), and I'm surprised Bryson didn't incorporate more of them. Offhand I can think of several befuddling duos that didn't make the grade.
You'd think that if a guy was going to put together an entire BOOK of commonly confused words, he'd make sure that he threw in everything but the kitchen sink, but this is not the case. But, no. The definitive collection still remains to be written.
Summary: Nice read - maybe not the book for those who know some Latin or French
Comment: This book covers a range of words that tend to get misspelled or misused in English publications. Many of them are words of French or Latin origin, which makes them a problem only for those who did not have to take one of these languages in school. The last chapter in the book is dedicated to punctuation - and that one is really helpful for any reader.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable and entertaining
Comment: I bought the book for my husband and he says he really likes it. I can't offer a personal opinion though.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bryson's the best
Comment: This is a great book for anyone who loves the English language. It should be a useful reference for writer's, but is also a great 'coffee table book' for those of us who are fascinated to learn there is no 'n' in restaurateur; the official length of an Olympic sized swimming pool; whether a word ends in "-ible" or "-able" or any number of other fascinating right and wrong usage of the language. It is a serious book done in the inimitable Bryson style.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Valuable Reference & Entertaining Read
Comment: Those familiar with Bryons will not be surprised by his quips and endless curiousity of the arts and sciences. Dictionary is a handy tool for the professional writer, yet it offers a funny insight into the muddle of the English language. Referencing nearly every authoritative work on the subject, he manages to offer a condensed, user-friendly guide that presents the most common mistakes and pitfalls facing writers. I would say the book is geared toward journalists, and consistent throughout is a "less is more" mentality, but this practice could easily be applied to writing in a number of different disciplines. I submit that it is worth the investment to buy and keep as a reference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: useful but not amazing
Comment: For starters, this is a reissue of "The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words" from 1984, which Bill Bryson was permitted to edit and amplify. The book was published again with his revisions under the current title in 2001.
Bryson is a fine writer, and enormously learned: he seems capable of writing literately about anything! And though the book would be a welcome addition to anybody's reference library, I don't regard it as anything special.
You should be warned that many of the terms -- and, well, linguistic disputes -- that Bryson discusses are meant chiefly, I think, for writers and editors. If you're in high school or just starting out in college, I think you might find much of this book's contents needlessly arcane.
For example, have you ever been confused about the difference between "who's" and "whose"? This book won't help you. Yet it has an entry on "razzmatazz" vs. "razzamatazz," if that happens to be a pressing concern of yours, or if you're unaware of what a desk dictionary is.
Need a review of "rise", "rose," and "risen"? You're out of luck, but Bryson does provide a separate entry that informs you that the title of Joyce's 1939 novel "Finnegans Wake" contains no apostrophe.
A lot of the rest of the book seems downright unfriendly towards those who are still learning. For example, the entry on "its" vs. "it's" begins, "The distinction between these two ought not to trouble a ten-year-old." Or howabout: "If you don't know it already, note now that there is no 'n' in 'restaurateur.'" A good deal of Bryson's writing here suffers from this haughty tone.
If you are a EFL or a ESL student, this book is not suitable for your needs either, most of its entries being far too recondite for anything save a very advanced user to care about.
Additionally (p. 28), Bryson warns you that his book "is primarily intended for users of British English." Predictably, then, many of his solutions and suggestions employ British spelling or punctuation, something that might well confuse a beginner.
Lastly, I'm a bit astonished that the "list" is not more complete: lists of commonly confused words are easy to come by (most dictionaries seem to have one in the back), and I'm surprised Bryson didn't incorporate more of them. Offhand I can think of several befuddling duos that didn't make the grade.
You'd think that if a guy was going to put together an entire BOOK of commonly confused words, he'd make sure that he threw in everything but the kitchen sink, but this is not the case. But, no. The definitive collection still remains to be written.
Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right Reviews: Page 2 of 4
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