I bet if we all agreed to it, it could be Friday right now.

[lotus0kid]

So, I'm currently inching through Made in America: an Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson. I'm learning lots of interesting stuff. Like, you know the phrase "stiff upper lip?" Of course you do. Guess what- Americanism, coined in 1815. Earlier I read Bryson's Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

Linguistics ♥! Reading this is sort of making me want to rush out and buy Made in America immediately. (Have you read The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher? It's been a few years since I read it, but I remember enjoying it a lot.)

[lotus0kid]

You would probably like Made in America, though admittedly there are a lot of anecdotes, at times to the point where I'm kind of like, "Can we get back to the language now?" But they're all interesting and related and stuff. (I have not- I think I'm going to be taking a break from non-fiction after I plow through the Bryson, but I'll keep that in mind!)

[visiblemarket]

I just finished "Freedom", by Jonathan Franzen, entirely on Leslie Knoppe's recommendation. I can definitely see why she wanted to talk about Patty, at least. I think I hve Mother Tongue, although I never got around to reading it.

Heh, they're both most likely references to this, which I had heard before but had no idea was a Marx brothers thing. ETA: aha, I knew I'd seen it somewhere else.

Let me know how you like Breakfast on Pluto! I kind of love it. For its cheerfulness in the face of crazy awful things that happen.

[lotus0kid]

Hee, I don't actually know what Freedom is about, guess I'll have to look it up sometime. Mother Tongue is quite cool- much less of a slog than Made in America (which is kinda weird since the former is about the whole history of English while the latter is just the American part).

Hm. Well, not as good as a Discworld ref in Heroes, but not bad I suppose.

Heh, yes, Breakfast on Pluto is very good for positivity in the face of very bad things. I'm not sure how much I really like it overall, but I've still got the behind-the-scenes featurette and the commentary to check out.

[visiblemarket]

Freedom is about...honestly it's a matter of what isn't Freedom about. It's like, 21st century America and the death of idealism and modern music and environmentalism and it's this big mess of post-modern neurosis but set in the Midwest (mostly), with some stop overs in DC (which I didn't like because I'm protective and no one else seems to like the place). Patty's kind of a central character, a basketball player turned suburban housewife who has an affair with her husband's best friend and other stuff happens, but its nowhere as Desperate Housewives as it sounds. And I mean it's good, it's just oh so very full of plot. I also just read Visits from the Goon Squad, which I bought based on title alone, and it actually has a lot in common with Freedom but I liked it better. I recently realized it's by the same author who wrote The Invisible Circus, which was...intresting to know

[gingerberrysnap]

I have this Forgotten English Word of the Day calendar at work, and I think I annoy the crap out of my co-workers running around with it all the time, quoting no longer used English, and reading the little blurbs underneath.

[lotus0kid]

Hee, for every word still in regular use there are a dozen words that, for no real reason beyond luck, that have been passed over. If I had Mother Tongue or Made in America with me, I could name some.

[fadeintodawn]

The book sounds fun! I love language facts, and Bryson is always a good choice.

[lotus0kid]

It's pretty cool, though very anecdote-rich, sometimes a little overly so. Bryson is a little hit or miss with me- I haven't disliked any of his books so far, but he doesn't quite manage to grab me the way Mary Roach does.