-
All books
-
-
-
- The Year 1000 (3)
- By Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger
-
Finished on Feb 3, 2012
-
-
-
-
- 國境之南太陽之西 (4087)
- By Haruki Murakami
-
Finished on Jan 5, 2012
-
-
-
-
- Come On In! (14)
- New Poems
- By Charles Bukowski
-
Reading
-
-
-
-
- 鄉土中國 (92)
- By 費孝通
-
Finished
-
-
-
-
- Spellbound (3)
- By James Essinger
-
Finished on Jun 26, 2011
-
-
-
-
- Mao's China and After (12)
- A History of the People's Republic, Third Edition
- By Maurice Meisner
-
Finished on Apr 13, 2011
-
-
-
-
- Macau (1)
- The Imaginary City
- By Jonathan Porter
-
Unfinished
-
-
-
-
- Justice (228)
- What's the Right Thing to Do?
- By Michael J. Sandel
-
Finished on Nov 18, 2010
-
-
-
-
- Vertigo (18)
- By W G Sebald
-
Reading
-
-
-
-
- Childhood's End (138)
- By Arthur C. Clarke
-
Finished on Oct 12, 2010
-
-
-
I can't call myself a sci-fi fan except the brief period I was quite into 倪匡 when I was 12. I am thus in no place to point out if Arthur Clarke is indeed (one of) the best sci-fi writer.
Yet Arthur Clarke indeed illustrated a vision of how far human being can go (as in 2001, 2010), and how we may en ... (continue) - — Oct 12, 2010 | Add your feedback
-
-
-
2010 Odysse-
y Two Uk -
- 2010 Odyssey Two Uk (152)
- By Arthur C. Clarke
-
Finished on Sep 25, 2010
-
2010 Odysse-
-
-
-
- 2001 (317)
- A Space Odyssey
- By Arthur C. Clarke
-
Finished on Sep 4, 2010
-
-
-
Completely blown away. On a second thought tho, it's entirely bizarre, why a sci-fi written in words (no photos, no illustrations) could be that vivid and beautiful in depicting our Universe? What's more, I'm reading 2001 in the year 2010...
- — Sep 4, 2010 | Add your feedback
-
-
-
-
- 漩渦 1 (238)
- By 伊藤潤二
-
Finished on Aug 4, 2010
-
-
-
-
- MW 1 (86)
- By 手塚 治虫
-
Finished on Jul 14, 2010
-
-
-
-
- Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (24)
- By Bernard Williams
-
Reading since Jun 27, 2010
-
RSS feeds: subscribe to fruit's shelf
Spellbound
1 person find this helpful
The title of the book 'Spell Bound - The Improbable Story of English Spelling' suggests it as a bit nerdy. I couldn't tell exactly why I picked the book from the shelf in the first place but it soon manifests itself to be unbelievably fascinating.
The book is not only about the spelling nor only th ... (continue)
The title of the book 'Spell Bound - The Improbable Story of English Spelling' suggests it as a bit nerdy. I couldn't tell exactly why I picked the book from the shelf in the first place but it soon manifests itself to be unbelievably fascinating.
The book is not only about the spelling nor only the language itself, but a lot of trivial and intriguing stories of history. Like why we have different words for animal (pig) and its meat (pork), why Eng got the simplest grammar system among the european language, the name France/French was actually the name of a Germanic tribe. Of course, by reading the book you understand a lot more about the Eng language and the British history.
The writing style of the writer contributes a lot to the book. As a linguist his English is exceptionally good but not with any intention to make it academic, so the reading is an easy ride. He would also give you some guidance to imagine the historic background as if he knew ordinary readers would encounter what exact difficulties at certain points. I remember when he wrote the large number of dialects in Britain and the great varieties each of them preserved - he asked you to imagine at that time the farthest place most people had been to won't be more than one day's walking distance. Amazing, eh?
(I haven't checked anobii for ages but I feel like writing something for this lovely book!)
Is this helpful?