Tag: books

Books

Okay, I’ve fallen far behind in my goal of reading a book a month, but I will be making up for in shortly.  I leave on my vacation which will include a lot of down time that I can spend reading.  I have my Confessions book (look right) that I will finish then I will start the Beekman Memoir (which Rickie bought for me) “The Bucolic Plague”.  I LOVE THESE GUYS.  I really would enjoy being their friend.  :)  If you haven’t seen their show (The Fabulous Beekman Boys) on Planet Green, you have been missing something great.  Check it out when you get a moment!  It’s my new obsession.  You remember how much I loved “Little People Big World”… well, it’s the same thing with this show and these guys!

I’ll update my blog with reviews of both when I get back from vacay.

Oh, and of course, I’ll include some photos from the vacay as well!

The Best Book Ever

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.

My Weekly Update??

Why can’t I remember to blog more often? I’m kind of lazy about it. I’ve tried to make more of an effort. I think I’m worried that I won’t have anything interesting to say. Is it actually necessary to have something interesting to say on a personal blog site?

Ok, so here’s what’s up recently. This week of work was kind of hellish, many things happened. My boss put in his 2 weeks notice, totally unexpected. I had lots of small issues that came up during the week. It was kind of annoying and it made the week go by sort of slowly. Oh well, it’s over now and this upcoming week will probably be good. There will be a lot of people on vacation which means my life will be a bit less hectic. We have a going away event for my boss on Thursday, which should be interesting.

I’ve found myself watching less and less TV recently. I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it’s because most of the shows I watch are going into reruns for who knows how long. I’m also finding myself spending more time reading and doing things around the house that I would normally put off until the weekend. It’s a good thing, right?

This weekend, my cousin is in town. We’re doing the hang out thing and some shopping. A pretty relaxing weekend actually. It’s interesting how much you can miss talking and visiting with someone. I’ve been reflecting on that more recently. Maybe it has to do with the time of year? Everything that’s been going on the past few months of this year has definitely had an impact on me. I’ve started learning more about who Daniel is.

Ok, we’re done with all this. I will try, I swear, to be more of a constant blogger. Check out my picture blog though, it’s update more often and, like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.