Best for: People who love words. So, you know, ALL OF US. In a nutshell: Mirriam-Webster Dictionary lexicographer Kory Stamper shares a behind the scenes look at what goes into that tome so many of us take for granted, the dictionary. Worth quoting: “The fact is that many the things that are presented to us as rules are really just the of-the-moment preferences of people who have had the opportunity to get their opinions published and whose opinions end up being reinforced and repeated down […]
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
Yay for dictionaries! This book is funny and smart and so geeky and I loved it. I want to be Kory Stamper’s bff. “We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets. We dress it in fancy clothes and […]