I recently purchased “Literally, the Best Language Book Ever ” and I love it. As stated in previous posts, I sort of act as the grammar police around friends and colleagues and I think that is really the reason why I love this book. The author lists many phrases and words that we use incorrectly on a daily basis. He doesn’t point these mistakes out in an elitist way, but comes at them from a comedic standpoint. There are parts of this book that crack me up. Comedy isn’t the only thing you will get from reading this book. In all honesty, I have learned quite a bit about the phrases and words that have become common in our everyday language. I have already caught myself breaking some of the rules written about in this book and I aim to be a better user of English grammar.
Below are a few examples from the book. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do.
From Chapter 2: Errors of Redudancy and Repitition – Some of these are awesome. Do you use any of these?
ATM Machine – Brief Summary – Cooperate Together – Postpone Until Later – Qualified Expert – Seriously Consider
From Chapter 4: Contrived Words and Words Used Incorrectly
Ginormous* – “I think we all know ginormous is a combination of gigantic and enormous, which is another way of saying that it’s not a word.”
From Chapter 5: Illogical Words and Phrases – We have some good ones here. Do you use any?
Foreseeable Future - who can see into the distant future? If you can, please tell me the winning lotto numbers.
Help the Problem - who wants to help the problem? Example incorrect usage: “That’s not going to help the problem.”
It Goes Without Saying, But - this is normally followed by someone saying what goes without saying. HA!
There are quite a few more amusing chapters in this book. The author does a great job of throwing in comedy in all of his explanations. It’s a quick and fun read. If you’re looking for something different, I’d suggest you go and pick it up.
* Firefox spell check recognizes ginormous as a real word.
Tags: books