We may be entering a golden age for books about reading, writing and language. As the author of the book "Writing Tools,"
I feel a special responsibility to call attention to other useful works
about our wonderful craft. Rather than look at these texts as
"the competition," I see them as cornerstones of a cathedral we are
building together. I see us as a community of writers working
together in the public interest.
So, I call your attention to
"When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It: The Parts of Speech, for Better and/or Worse." The author is a triple-threat guy, Ben Yagoda, a man who has built a
reputation as an outstanding journalist, author and teacher.
Check out his first paragraph:
In the end, it came down to two potential titles. Number one, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It. Number two, Pimp My Ride. I have to admit that I carry a torch for number two -- which alludes, of course, to the popular MTV series in which a posse of automotive artisans take a run-down jalopy and sleek it up into an awe-inspiring vehicle containing many square yards of plush velvet and an astonishing number of LCD screens. Leaving aside the fact that it would have lent a faint aura of hipness to a book otherwise sorely lacking in street cred, Pimp My Ride illustrates a deep and wonderful truth about the parts of speech: they change like the dickens. Pimp -- a noun meaning a procurer of prostitutes -- turns into a transitive verb, meaning, roughly, "to make pimp-worthy." And the intransitive verb ride becomes a noun, meaning that in which one rides.
I haven't finished the book yet, but I recommend it to you on the basis
of this paragraph alone. It has the spirit I love most in books
about writing and language: a wide-ranging curiosity about how writers
make meaning, flavored by the delight that comes any time we play with
words. The chapter titles, all abbreviations, carry forward these
effects:
I. Adj.
II. Adv.
III. Art.
IV. Conj.
V. Int.
VI. N.
VII. Prep.
VIII. Pron.
IX. V.
Ben's book is 241 pages and is published by
Broadway Books, a division
of Random House. I'll report to you from time to time on Ben's
insights and conclusions.
