Staff Picks: Books

Staff-recommended reading from the KPL catalog.

Don’t Go Their!

We are living in a time when the use of the English language in writing is at a level that could use some improvement. Now comes Charles Harrington Elster with a book that “shows you how to navigate the hairpin turns of grammar, diction, spelling, and punctuation with an entertaining driver’s manual covering 350 common word hazards and infractions, arranged in order of complexity for writers of all levels.” The key word here is “entertaining.”  It’s easy to become engrossed in the 350 “accidents.” Some examples are “Don’t write included with it,” “It’s a safe-deposit box, not a safety-deposit box,” and “It’s fall through the cracks, not fall between the cracks.”  The book is nicely indexed and there’s even a quiz entitled “Are You Roadworthy?” I love the cover.

Book

The accidents of style : good advice on how not to write badly
9780312613006
David D.

Comments

Great post! This looks like a fun read. From Elements of Style to this title, it's entertaining to read examples of how so many of us use language in obviously wrong ways without stopping to think about it. I'll be sure to add this to my list.

By Bill, 10/29/2010

You always pick the good ones! This sounds fun. Having once worked in a bank, "safety deposit box" was and remains a huge pet peeve of mine. People certainly butcher the language sometimes. I would love to read this.

By Mary, 10/30/2010

Recently, the change in time made me think of the following: daylight saving time. NOT daylight savings time.

By Carol Ann Braat, 11/18/2010

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