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Two at one blow
Dec. 28th, 2009 08:02 pmThis weekend turned out to be chaotic, hence the lack of updates. But I've now finished not only Woe Is I, but also another book that I got for Christmas. More on that momentarily.
I was expecting something like Lynne Truss's great Eats, Shoots & Leaves, but Woe Is I turns out to be more of a reference book. It's a pretty good one, though. Very basic, and occasionally the approach is a little more easygoing than I prefer. Its philosophy could be summed up by this sentence from the glossary: "We adopt rules when we need them and discard them when we don't, so the rules are always changing." But it's readable and helpful and, I think, would be a useful desk reference for most people who are trying to learn the ropes of writing, or who need a refresher course now and then. And the example sentences and the chapter headings and subheadings are great (e.g., "Plurals Before Swine," "The Compleat Dangler," "Metaphors Be with You"). Four out of five stars.
And a rare five-star rating goes to Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling, which my parents gave me for Christmas. It's just what it sounds like, and it's hilariously awesome. For example:
"Dr. Frankenstein removed 'bodybuilding' from his Interests."
"Pip became a fan of Mean Girls."
"Scarlett threw a Scarlett at Ashley! Fan yourself, heave your bosom at, rustle your petticoat, or do something else."
And so on. I could quote this thing all day. In fact, I'll probably be quoting it every now and then for a while, here and at Dickensblog, just because it's too much fun to keep to myself. (I was going to say "for the foreseeable future" instead of "for a while," but Woe Is I says not to. It says you can put a preposition at the end of a sentence, however.)
A word about the star system: I'm not really comparing the books against each other, but against themselves. Thus, I'm not trying to say that Sarah Schmelling or Patricia T. O'Conner is a better writer than Edith Wharton -- just that I happened to like their books a lot, whereas I didn't think The Reef was among Wharton's best. It's a very subjective system . . . but then, reviews and ratings generally are subjective, I guess.
I'm now reading A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L'Engle.
I was expecting something like Lynne Truss's great Eats, Shoots & Leaves, but Woe Is I turns out to be more of a reference book. It's a pretty good one, though. Very basic, and occasionally the approach is a little more easygoing than I prefer. Its philosophy could be summed up by this sentence from the glossary: "We adopt rules when we need them and discard them when we don't, so the rules are always changing." But it's readable and helpful and, I think, would be a useful desk reference for most people who are trying to learn the ropes of writing, or who need a refresher course now and then. And the example sentences and the chapter headings and subheadings are great (e.g., "Plurals Before Swine," "The Compleat Dangler," "Metaphors Be with You"). Four out of five stars.
And a rare five-star rating goes to Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook by Sarah Schmelling, which my parents gave me for Christmas. It's just what it sounds like, and it's hilariously awesome. For example:
"Dr. Frankenstein removed 'bodybuilding' from his Interests."
"Pip became a fan of Mean Girls."
"Scarlett threw a Scarlett at Ashley! Fan yourself, heave your bosom at, rustle your petticoat, or do something else."
And so on. I could quote this thing all day. In fact, I'll probably be quoting it every now and then for a while, here and at Dickensblog, just because it's too much fun to keep to myself. (I was going to say "for the foreseeable future" instead of "for a while," but Woe Is I says not to. It says you can put a preposition at the end of a sentence, however.)
A word about the star system: I'm not really comparing the books against each other, but against themselves. Thus, I'm not trying to say that Sarah Schmelling or Patricia T. O'Conner is a better writer than Edith Wharton -- just that I happened to like their books a lot, whereas I didn't think The Reef was among Wharton's best. It's a very subjective system . . . but then, reviews and ratings generally are subjective, I guess.
I'm now reading A Severed Wasp by Madeleine L'Engle.
