The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
by Steven Pinker
499pp, Allen Lane
Guardian review
Times review
ITunes (unabridged) € 25.95
amazon.de €19.89
amazon.co.uk GBP 15.00 (reduced from GBP 25.00) - amazon video
Language Myths
by Laurie Bauer (Editor), Peter Trudgill (Editor), G.B. Trudeau (Illustrator)
amazon.uk GBP 6.49 (4 reviews, 4 stars)
amazon.de €9.99 (2 reviews, 3 1/2 stars)
In this book Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill have invited nineteen respected linguists from all over the world to address these "language myths"--showing that they vary from the misconceived to the downright wrong. more at penguin
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Friday, 26 October 2007
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Books about Britain/Germany
Don't Mention the War: The British and the Germans since 1890
by John Ramsden, May 2006
448pp
Guardian reviews: James Hawes (+), Tim Gardam (-)
John Ramsden's book traces an extraordinary relationship that was central to Europe's 20th century. In 1890, "an Anglo-German war seemed utterly fantastic" - but in 2001, beating Germany 5-1 could turn "perfectly sane people all over England" mad with joy.
Amazon.co.uk paperback GBP 7.69 (hardback: 4 reviews, 31/2 stars)
Amazon.de paperback EUR 13.95 (hardback: 2 reviews, 4 stars)
The back cover reads:
"A century of opprobrium, mistrust and football-terrace rivalry - but it wasn't ever thus. A richly detailed and timely study of Europe's most enduring standoff, Don't Mention the War asks: what is England's problem with the Germans?"
If you want to know the answer, I'm afraid this book doesn' t tell you. John Ramsden avoids giving his opinion overtly, making his point only by his selection and juxtaposition of the facts he has collected. In the introduction, he calls his book "unapologetically empirical, and observational". I guess this is the reason there is no deeper discussion of causes or reasons for the behaviour of British people as described here. Ramsden limits his personal thoughts to the odd aside, quietly added scheinheilig at the end of a sentence, in brackets. (Apparently, he is not too keen on the Guardian's editorial style.) After a description of the famous Fawlty Towers scene, for example, he says John Cleese wanted it "to educate his audience by showing bigotry's ugly face", adding at the end of the paragraph: "It is less clear that British viewers over three decades got that same point". I found this kind of comment a touch irritating. First, claim not to be making a point, then when you do, do it quietly in a single sentence, apparently in the hope no-one will notice, and not backed up by any argument or explanation.
The last lines of the book convey a similarly negative impression of British character: "In 1965 Private Eye's cartoonist Hector Breeze drew a British housewife, comfortably knitting as her husband enters the room dressed as Hitler and giving the Nazi salute. So little has changed that the cartoon is as apposite now as it was forty years ago." It's left up to the reader, as usual, to decide what to make of this.
Dominic Sandbrook of the Daily Telegraph is quoted on the back cover as calling the book "A lucid, funny history of our attitudes to the Germans since the Victorian age". I must say I found it more depressing than funny, describing as it does all the horrible things the British have ever said, written or recorded about the Germans. There are not many light-hearted moments, the only real relief being the story of Bert Trautmann's time at Manchester City. Oddly enough, this football section is the one which makes the British seem the most human.
In the introduction, Ramsden also says that "To cover the German side of the story comprehensively is meat for a different historian", although he will describe German reactions to British opinion. This is understandable, considering that the book is already a long one, but also disappointing, as it makes the Germans into victims, doing nothing but react to British taunts. It would have been interesting to have had more comparison, and backed up my impression that the point Ramsden wants to make is how silly the English are.
A final quibble, but it annoyed me all the way through the book: Ramsden chooses not to put any commas around "though", meaning that I constantly misread it as "thought" or "through", and had to read one sentence in particular three times before I got the point.
This is certainly an interesting book: I enjoyed the sections on Bert Trautmann and Hardy Kruger in particular, having heard them mentioned so many times but being too young to have much idea of who they were. The writing is lively and easy to read, despite what is sometimes potentially dry material. Still, I did not find it an entirely enjoyable book to read, partly because of the depressing (unspoken) conclusion, and partly because of what was not in it. Definitely worth reading, though.
Five Germanys I Have Known / Fünf Deutschland und ein Leben (translation)
by Fritz Stern, 2006
amazon.co.uk GBP 7.12 (paperback), 1 review, 4 stars
amazon.de EUR 11.45 (paperback), 1 review, 4 stars
amazon.de (German hardback, translated from English) EUR 29,90, 2 reviews, 4.5 stars
Short Observer review (David Hare's book of the year 2007)
Arte review of the German translation
Tagesspiegel review of German translation
In this fascinating memoir, Stern looks back over the "five Germanys" his generation has seen—the Weimar Republic, Nazi tyranny, the post-1945 Federal Republic, the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic and, lastly, the reunited Germany of the present.
Fritz Sterns Erinnerungen sind weise, entschieden im Urteil, subtil. Sie sind vor allem das Werk eines leidenschaftlichen Bürgers und Demokraten. Fünf Deutschland und ein Leben legt grandios Zeugnis ab von der Überzeugung, daß die Geschichte uns eine Lehrmeisterin sein kann für ein moralisches Leben als Bürger und als Mensch. Die "deutsche Frage" wirft ihren Schatten auf die moderne Welt: Wie war es möglich, daß eine so zivilisierte Nation für das schrecklichste Verbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts verantwortlich wurde? In diesem Buch, einer einzigartigen Verbindung aus Erinnerung und Geschichtsschreibung, betrachtet der große Historiker und Friedenspreisträger Fritz Stern die Frage durch das Prisma seines eigenen Lebens. Er verwebt historische Meistererzählung, scharfsinnige Analysen und dramatische Episoden seiner Lebensgeschichte zu einem unvergeßlichen Portrait jener fünf Deutschland, die er selbst miterlebt hat: Weimar, das "Dritte Reich", Bundesrepublik und DDR, das vereinigte Deutschland nach 1989. Seine Freundschaften mit deutschen Intellektuellen und Politikern haben ihm besonders tiefe Einblicke in die Grundlegung der liberalen Demokratie eröffnet. Doch Stern zeigt auch, daß die unruhige deutsche Geschichte politische Lektionen für die Bürger überall bereithält - vor allem für solche, die der Gefahr der Tyrannei entgegentreten wollen.
by John Ramsden, May 2006
448pp
Guardian reviews: James Hawes (+), Tim Gardam (-)
John Ramsden's book traces an extraordinary relationship that was central to Europe's 20th century. In 1890, "an Anglo-German war seemed utterly fantastic" - but in 2001, beating Germany 5-1 could turn "perfectly sane people all over England" mad with joy.
Amazon.co.uk paperback GBP 7.69 (hardback: 4 reviews, 31/2 stars)
Amazon.de paperback EUR 13.95 (hardback: 2 reviews, 4 stars)
The back cover reads:
"A century of opprobrium, mistrust and football-terrace rivalry - but it wasn't ever thus. A richly detailed and timely study of Europe's most enduring standoff, Don't Mention the War asks: what is England's problem with the Germans?"
If you want to know the answer, I'm afraid this book doesn' t tell you. John Ramsden avoids giving his opinion overtly, making his point only by his selection and juxtaposition of the facts he has collected. In the introduction, he calls his book "unapologetically empirical, and observational". I guess this is the reason there is no deeper discussion of causes or reasons for the behaviour of British people as described here. Ramsden limits his personal thoughts to the odd aside, quietly added scheinheilig at the end of a sentence, in brackets. (Apparently, he is not too keen on the Guardian's editorial style.) After a description of the famous Fawlty Towers scene, for example, he says John Cleese wanted it "to educate his audience by showing bigotry's ugly face", adding at the end of the paragraph: "It is less clear that British viewers over three decades got that same point". I found this kind of comment a touch irritating. First, claim not to be making a point, then when you do, do it quietly in a single sentence, apparently in the hope no-one will notice, and not backed up by any argument or explanation.
The last lines of the book convey a similarly negative impression of British character: "In 1965 Private Eye's cartoonist Hector Breeze drew a British housewife, comfortably knitting as her husband enters the room dressed as Hitler and giving the Nazi salute. So little has changed that the cartoon is as apposite now as it was forty years ago." It's left up to the reader, as usual, to decide what to make of this.
Dominic Sandbrook of the Daily Telegraph is quoted on the back cover as calling the book "A lucid, funny history of our attitudes to the Germans since the Victorian age". I must say I found it more depressing than funny, describing as it does all the horrible things the British have ever said, written or recorded about the Germans. There are not many light-hearted moments, the only real relief being the story of Bert Trautmann's time at Manchester City. Oddly enough, this football section is the one which makes the British seem the most human.
In the introduction, Ramsden also says that "To cover the German side of the story comprehensively is meat for a different historian", although he will describe German reactions to British opinion. This is understandable, considering that the book is already a long one, but also disappointing, as it makes the Germans into victims, doing nothing but react to British taunts. It would have been interesting to have had more comparison, and backed up my impression that the point Ramsden wants to make is how silly the English are.
A final quibble, but it annoyed me all the way through the book: Ramsden chooses not to put any commas around "though", meaning that I constantly misread it as "thought" or "through", and had to read one sentence in particular three times before I got the point.
This is certainly an interesting book: I enjoyed the sections on Bert Trautmann and Hardy Kruger in particular, having heard them mentioned so many times but being too young to have much idea of who they were. The writing is lively and easy to read, despite what is sometimes potentially dry material. Still, I did not find it an entirely enjoyable book to read, partly because of the depressing (unspoken) conclusion, and partly because of what was not in it. Definitely worth reading, though.
Five Germanys I Have Known / Fünf Deutschland und ein Leben (translation)
by Fritz Stern, 2006
amazon.co.uk GBP 7.12 (paperback), 1 review, 4 stars
amazon.de EUR 11.45 (paperback), 1 review, 4 stars
amazon.de (German hardback, translated from English) EUR 29,90, 2 reviews, 4.5 stars
Short Observer review (David Hare's book of the year 2007)
Arte review of the German translation
Tagesspiegel review of German translation
In this fascinating memoir, Stern looks back over the "five Germanys" his generation has seen—the Weimar Republic, Nazi tyranny, the post-1945 Federal Republic, the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic and, lastly, the reunited Germany of the present.
Fritz Sterns Erinnerungen sind weise, entschieden im Urteil, subtil. Sie sind vor allem das Werk eines leidenschaftlichen Bürgers und Demokraten. Fünf Deutschland und ein Leben legt grandios Zeugnis ab von der Überzeugung, daß die Geschichte uns eine Lehrmeisterin sein kann für ein moralisches Leben als Bürger und als Mensch. Die "deutsche Frage" wirft ihren Schatten auf die moderne Welt: Wie war es möglich, daß eine so zivilisierte Nation für das schrecklichste Verbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts verantwortlich wurde? In diesem Buch, einer einzigartigen Verbindung aus Erinnerung und Geschichtsschreibung, betrachtet der große Historiker und Friedenspreisträger Fritz Stern die Frage durch das Prisma seines eigenen Lebens. Er verwebt historische Meistererzählung, scharfsinnige Analysen und dramatische Episoden seiner Lebensgeschichte zu einem unvergeßlichen Portrait jener fünf Deutschland, die er selbst miterlebt hat: Weimar, das "Dritte Reich", Bundesrepublik und DDR, das vereinigte Deutschland nach 1989. Seine Freundschaften mit deutschen Intellektuellen und Politikern haben ihm besonders tiefe Einblicke in die Grundlegung der liberalen Demokratie eröffnet. Doch Stern zeigt auch, daß die unruhige deutsche Geschichte politische Lektionen für die Bürger überall bereithält - vor allem für solche, die der Gefahr der Tyrannei entgegentreten wollen.
Monday, 24 September 2007
Books about the English language
Spellbound: The Improbable Story of English Spelling: The True Story of Man's Greatest Invention (or: Spellbound: The Surprising Origins and Astonishing Secrets of English Spelling)
James Essinger, 224 pp, 2006
A good-humored buoyant style helps make this examination of the origin and current state of English spelling a pleasure to read
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.49 (6 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de € 10.95
The Unfolding of Language. The Evolution of Mankind's greatest Invention
by Guy Deutscher 360pp, William Heinemann, 2006
Investigation into the evolution of language in general.
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.de €13.90
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.74 (1 review, 5 stars)
The Stories of English
by David Crystal 608pp Allen Lane History of English (inc. dialects)
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.49 (3 reviews, 5 stars)
www.amazon.de €15.73
The Adventure of English
by Melvyn Bragg 354 pp, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004
History of English
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.74 (11 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de € 15.00 (2 reviews, 5 stars)
I have this: it's informative and quite interesting, but the writing style is rather repetitive. (Perhaps it was dictated? It gets a little irritating sometimes.) Mr Bragg doesn't claim to be an expert on language, and isn't, but has read up well on the subject. Still, there seems to be a suggestion that English is a superior language and was thus destined to survive.
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
John McWhorter 327pp, Heinemann, 2003
History of language in general
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk GBP ?? (3 reviews, 3 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de € 11.50
A History of the English Language
by Albert C Baugh, 464 pp, 2002
A comprehensive exploration of the linguistic and cultural development of English, from the Middle Ages to the present day
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 15.99
www.amazon.de/ € ?? (4 reviews, 5 stars)
Beyond Words: How Language Reveals the Way We Live Now
John Humphrys, 2006, 256 pp
John takes a sharp look at phrases and expressions in current use to expose the often hidden attitudes that lie behind them
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.49 (1 review, 5 stars)
www.amazon.de € 12.60
Lost for Words: The Mangling and Manipulating of the English Language
John Humphrys, 2005, 352 pp
The decline of the English language
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.74 (17 reviews, 3 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de € 12.31
She Literally Exploded: The "Daily Telegraph" Infuriating Phrasebook
Christopher Howse, Richard Preston, 2007, 144 pp
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 5.03 (3 reviews, 2 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de € 9.99
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by Lynn Truss, 2003
Punctuation, funny
books.guardian.co.uk
books.guardian.co.uk
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 3.99 (169 reviews, 3 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de/ € 7.95 (8 reviews, 3 stars)
I have this. Despite some of the acrid reviews, it is an amusing book you can read in the bath without falling asleep. It even teaches you some of the basic rules of British English punctuation.
Between You And I: a little book of bad English
by James Cochrane, 2005
books.guardian.co.uk/
www.amazon.de €11.50
www.amazon.co.uk GBP ?? (5 reviews, 3 stars)
Mind the Gaffe: The Penguin Guide to Common Errors in English
by RL Trask (Penguin, £6.99) , 2002
How to write simply and effectively
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.de €12.31
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 5.99 (2 reviews, 3 1/2 stars)
The Fight for English: How language pundits ate, shot, and left
David Crystal, 2007
Debate on punctuation, spelling and pronunciation
www.amazon.de € 11.50
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 4.89 (2 reviews, 3 stars)
Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon the English Language
by Richard Lederer, 192 pp, 2006, Wyrick & Co, U.S., revised ed.
A wide-ranging anthology of rib-tickling bloopers
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 4.79
www.amazon.de € 6.49 (10 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English
by Patricia O'Conner, 256 pp, 2003, Riverhead Books (USA)
Lighthearted, witty instruction on the subject most of us dreaded in school--grammar
www.amazon.de/ € 16.50 (43 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
The Elements of Style
Strunk & White, 4th ed. 1999, 105 pp
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 4.49 (16 reviews, 5 stars)
www.amazon.de € 9.45 (30 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language
David Crystal, 2002, 336 pp
Common structures that unify English across the world
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.49 (2 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.de € 12.45
Words Words Words
David Crystal, 2007, 224 pp
A celebration of what we say and how we say it.
www.amazon.co.uk/ GBP 6.74 (2 reviews, 4 stars)
www.amazon.de € 14.23
By Hook or by Crook: A Journey in Search of English
by David Crystal, 336 pp, 2007
Entertaining travelogue mapping language
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 11.04 (2 reviews, 4 stars)
www.amazon.de/ € 26.80
Mother Tongue
by Bill Bryson, 1991
A witty, irreverent but very useful account of the peculiarities of the English language
www.amazon.de € 12.95 (7 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 6.74 (45 reviews, 3 1/2 stars)
I have this. It's a funny book, with nice anecdotes and good examples of anagrams, etc. If you know anything about languages, or can speak German, it is potentially extremely irritating, Take a deep swig of wine, relax and ignore the glaring errors, and you'll have a good read.
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester 260pp, Oxford, 2003
History of OED
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.de € 20.01 (1 review, 5 stars)
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 5.99 (3 reviews, 4 1/2 stars)
A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 8th edition
by Eric Partridge, edited by Paul Beale 1,400pp, Routledge, 1984
Definitive work on slang and unconventional English
(or concise version, 1/4 of price quoted here)
books.guardian.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk GBP 95.00 (1 review, 5 stars)
www.amazon.de € 197.50
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