The Story of Ain't : America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published, by David Skinner

Never got past page 25 of this book. Booorrrrinnngggg.

Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything, by David Bellos

It took me forever to read this, but it is so well-written and interesting that I couldn't give up on it. Starts with the basics of what defines translation and moves on to different concepts and quarrels within the translating community. Really fun, well-written, and quite a lot of stuff to chew on. It even made me rethink how I understand the story of the tower of Babel! The best part, as far as I am concerned, is his explanation of how the UN translators work, and how the lack of qualified candidates is becoming quite dire. The EU discussion was also fun, though I still don't have a clear picture on how it works: everything is done in all the EU languages? But...but...how??

The Gospel in Brief, by Leo Tolstoy

Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy became interested in 'freeing' the scripture from the layers of religiosity inside of which he felt the Orthodox Church had encased it. So he retranslated and paraphrased the gospels as he felt they should read. This was happening in the midst of the great German discourse on who the historical Jesus really was, so Tolstoy had lots of people to help him over the translation problems since I doubt he learned Biblical Greek and/or Hebrew.

Fascinating that whenever someone decides to do this sort of project, it ends up creating a clearer picture of the person doing it than it does of Jesus.

In any case, I read about 1/3 of the book and the copy I had turned out to be defective--50 missing pages--and I just never got back to it; I sort of feel like I got the gist of it.

Euphemania, by Ralph Keyes

OK, I've read enough language sites to take virtually everything in books like this with a grain of salt. However, this was less academic and more 'fun' in terms of why we euphemize the things we do, and how that has changed over the centuries. That I liked. Also, I liked the random family or in-group phrases that Keyes included.

Say What?, by Gena K. Gorrell

A very quick read, and fun. Definitely aimed at students, and pretty basic information about the history of the English language, but worthwhile as an introduction.

The English is Coming! by Leslie Dunton-Downer

The author is a big proponent of "global English"--the English that is spoken by people around the world. Interesting, fun to think what the language might look like in 20 or 50 or 100 years.

In the Land of Invented Languages : Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language, by Arika Okrent

Words Gone Wild, by Jim Bernhard

Fun, VERY lightweight, but interesting as far as it goes.

Word Origins -- And How We Know Them : Etymology for Everyone, by Anatoly Liberman

Well, not everyone. "Everyone" with a pretty high level of interest in the subject, and above-average intelligence. Liberman is very quick-witted and assumes a basic working knowledge of etymology, which I admit I don't have. On the other hand, towards the end, he mentions that he hopes that his book might be considered as a basic textbook, and for that it would work VERY well--best textbook I think I've ever read start-to-finish. While fairly short, this is a good overview of theory and practice, but if you don't know anything about the Great Vowel Shift in the English language, I'd steer clear.

Righting the Mother Tongue : From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling, by David Wolman

Why are English words so WEIRD and varying in terms of spelling. The author traces the history of the language, but it much more concerned with why everyone gets so worked up about spelling, why there has to be a "right" way to spell things when we invented spelling in the first place as a tool.

This book completely changed the way I look at spelling problems other people have. I've always known Shakespeare "couldn't even spell his own name consistently", but maybe the point really is that he didn't CARE how it was spelled. The point is really to make us able to communicate without misunderstandings. Then people who need to control things got involved and started making rules and ... now we have spelling bees.

All of this is told in easy-to-read chapters that don't talk down to the reader, but also don't require a PhD. in linguistics to understand.

A Mouthful of Air : Language, Languages -- Especially English, by Anthony Burgess

Too dense for me right now.

Not Quite What I Was Planning : Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure : from Smith Mgazine (edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith)

Just as it says, a collection of memoirs--or epitaphs--limited to six words and written by everyone from celebrities to unknowns. Fun. Quick. Humorous and interesting.

Inventing English : a portable history of the language, by Seth Lerer

As the subtitle alludes to, this is the history of English for people who haven't done much reading on the subject. That could mean deadly dull mixed with infuriating for the left-out bits, or--if done by a good writer--it could mean coherent and fun.

Luckily, in this case, it's the second choice. Lerer never rests long enough on a subject, or century, to induce boredom, staying just long enough to explain why this particular development was important, what EXACTLY the change was (how the language existed before and after), and all the while using accessible words and tone. There is no academic apple-polishing here, just good honest explication. For instance, this is the first time I've been able to understand Old English pronunciation words ending in 'e' and those pesky dual 'th' symbols.

Frankly, I was totally on his side because he uses Emily Dickinson as one of his muses in the chapter on the changes the American dialect brought to the language. Yay. And another "yay" for raising the Mark Twain flag later on and crediting him with not just attentiveness to dialect, but also his ability to invent new concept through slang and idiom. There is a sense that he almost feels that Twain was a watershed (my pun) in the development of American English. I heartily agree.