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rupertowen's review
informative
fast-paced
3.0
David writes concisely about the English language and its global impact. For me, part three was the most interesting, but was fairly truncated in its overview, while other sections of the book felt a little frivolous. Some of the earlier sections, such as poetry and wordplay are apropos to most languages, and it felt like surplus filler material to bulk out the book. Sometimes, there are tables included like the trucker CB-10 codes that take up a fair whack of page space, and feel completely unnecessary to the subject matter at hand. However, David has formatted this book to be approached as periodical minutiae without the need to read in sequence. In this way, it felt like a Sunday morning read, along with doing the crossword.
escapeebee's review
5.0
As someone who has both studied English Language in the past, and enjoys reading about it for pleasure this book appealed to me straight away. I found it to be a brilliant insight in to the language with a great, in depth look at all aspects from Old English to modern inventions such as netspeak, in a way that felt accessible.
nickimags's review
1.0
I would definitely prefer to listen to this as an audiobook than read it. Although the few pages I did read were interesting, I haven't been interested enough to pick it up again.
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