I am sure that author Lynne Truss never guessed that her recent
book Eats, Shoots
&
amp; Leaves; The Zero Tolerance Approach To Punctuation would be
the major best seller that it is.
I am sure that author Lynne Truss never guessed that her recent book Eats, Shoots & Leaves; The Zero Tolerance Approach To Punctuation would be the major best seller that it is.
According to Publisher’s Weekly: “This spirited and wittily instructional little volume is not a grammar book. Employing a chatty tone that ranges from pleasant rant to gentle lecture to bemused dismay, Truss dissects common errors that grammar mavens have long deplored.”
If you rush down to the library to check out one of the copies owned by the Santa Clara County Library System you will find yourself on a fairly lengthy waiting list. But I am happy to tell you that the Morgan Hill Library has many alternatives which will entertain you while waiting for a copy of Truss’s book.
Speaking Freely; a Guided Tour of American English from Plymouth Rock to Silicon Valley by Stuart Berg Flexner and Anne H. Soukhanov provides a sweeping look at the variety and richness of American English. Chapters cover the language of geography, sex, crime, cyberspace and many other subjects. We discover the origin and meaning of words and the cultural conditions that produced them.
Never Enough Words: How Americans Invented Expressions as Ingenious, Ornery, and Colorful as Themselves by Jeffrey McQuain gives another spin on the evolution of American English from revolutionary times to today.
Crazy English; the Ultimate Joy Ride Through Our Language by Richard Lederer is full of stories, poems and quizzes which will confirm the statement in the title: English is crazy. The author also wrote Anguished English, Pun and Games and Sleeping Dogs Don’t Lay, all of which can be found at the Morgan Hill Library.
Why do we say “down the hatch” “pleased as punch” “spill the beans” “make no bones about it” or any of the thousands of cliches we use in English? We have many books on cliches and their origins, including Betty Kirkpatrick’s Cliches; Over 1500 Phrases Explored and Explained or Have a Nice Day-No Problem! by Christine Ammer.
There are books about proverbs. Proverbs are expressions like “early to bed, early to rise …” or “a picture is worth a thousand words” Proverbs are Never Out of Season; Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age by Wolfgang Mieder or the Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs compiled by Rosalind Fergussen are two examples of books of proverbs available at the library.
There are books about slang. Fresh Fly Flavor; Words and Phrases of the Hip-Hop Generation by Fab 5 Freddy, (I need this book just to understand the title), Juba to Jive: the Dictionary of African American Slang, High and Inside: an A to Z Guide to the Language of Baseball by Joseph McBride, and the list goes on.
So don’t be “a bump on a log,” “come on down” to the Morgan Hill Library, and “keep your fingers crossed” that you’ll find just the book or CD or video that “tickles your fancy.” “Needless to say,” everyone is welcome.
And, if you don’t have a library card “don’t miss the boat,” we can make one for you “quick as a flash” and “on the spot”. “Enough is enough.” I wouldn’t want to be accused of “beating a dead horse.”
Questions and suggested topics for At the Library, which appears in Tuesday editions, should be directed to Nancy Howe, community librarian, at nh***@**********************ca.us or by calling 779-3196. The Morgan Hill Library, located at the corner of Peak and West Main avenues next to City Hall, is open every day but Sunday.
