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Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks | Keith Houston
16 posts | 9 read | 22 to read
“An absolutely fascinating blend of history, design, sociology, and cultural poetics—highly recommended.”—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings A charming and indispensable tour of two thousand years of the written word, Shady Characters weaves a fascinating trail across the parallel histories of language and typography. Whether investigating the asterisk (*) and dagger (†)—which alternately illuminated and skewered heretical verses of the early Bible—or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet, Keith Houston draws on myriad sources to chart the life and times of these enigmatic squiggles, both exotic (¶) and everyday (&). From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs, figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush cross paths with marks as obscure as the interrobang (?) and as divisive as the dash (—). Ancient Roman graffiti, Venetian trading shorthand, Cold War double agents, and Madison Avenue round out an ever more diverse set of episodes, characters, and artifacts. Richly illustrated, ranging across time, typographies, and countries, Shady Characters will delight and entertain all who cherish the unpredictable and surprising in the writing life.
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Hamlet
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Pickpick

I quite enjoyed this book, especially because of the history it touched upon. We zoom from the Library of Alexandria to Bell Labs in the U.S., from medieval scriptoriums to 20th C newspaper offices, from the birthplace of the typewriter to the office where the first email jumped from one computer to another. It‘s a rewarding journey, well researched. He could delete the entire last chapter & improve the book, in my opinion; the rest is great fun.

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trueisa4letterword
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I look forward to the chapter on the sarcasm mark.

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swynn
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Pickpick

This is a collection of short, popular histories of selected typographical marks: the pilcrow, the interrobang, the "octothorpe" (it's a *pound sign*, dagnabbit), the manicule, also &, @, *, -, -- (er, "the dash"), and a history of irony marks.

Like most detailed nerdery, it's more fascinating than you'd ever have guessed (

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swynn
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"The Latin backstory is provided by Paul Saenger, an authority on the introduction of spaces between words and the practice of silent reading that followed."

Paul Saenger is my brand-new role model: I too aspire to be an authority on the spaces between words and silent reading.

(Note to self: can I get credit for life experience? Inquire.)

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Suzze
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Early birthday gift from my son and family! Tink doesn‘t really care. #catsoflitsy

CoffeeNBooks Beautiful cat! 6y
rabbitprincess Shady Characters was such fun! I need to get my own copy of The Book. 6y
98 likes1 stack add3 comments
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nanoauthor
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Pickpick

A fun city adventure and a finished book!

#philly #travel #kinda?

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nanoauthor
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Reading + tea with a friend who's visiting California. Getting ready for an San Francisco adventure tomorrow!

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stuartjrodriguez
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When you work at a bookstore, you have to work hard not to spend all your money on the cool books you find. Sometimes, though, you just have to.

5 likes2 stack adds
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nanoauthor
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Did some reading at the barn last night while my sister took care of a horse. Perks of being at home are lots of cats to take pictures with.

#catsoflitsy #currentread

9 likes1 stack add
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zurazureen
Pickpick

interesting history of the common punctuations we see but didn't know the name and story behind it

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rabbitprincess
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My top 20 books of 2016, in rough chronological order. Every quarter, I pick the best books of the past three months and two other noteworthy books to get a top five. These are my four sets of top five. Non-fiction, particularly involving language, was the big winner this year. Onward to 2017!
#seasonsreadings2016

20 likes1 stack add
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jpmcwisemorgan
Mehso-so

This is not a book to read in a single sitting, unless you're REALLY into punctuation. If you are, you might be able to read this in one go. I enjoyed learning about pilcrows and the like, and the quest for a punctuation mark for irony/sarcasm was enlightening. I'd really like such a mark to be used consistently. This is an interesting book that I'm sure grammar and English language nerds will find something to love.

21 likes2 stack adds
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jpmcwisemorgan

I'm having a hard time imagining a "swirling melee of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century punctuation" and what to know if it was some sort of free-for-all in which punctuation was used interchangeably or what??? Also, if there's a definitive source on something, then why is another source being written?

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jpmcwisemorgan

Some of the books I had a hold on decided to become available at the same time. This means I need to read them all right now. Thank goodness it's a #readathon. And thank goodness for discovering that the pilcrow is the "quintessential shady character"!

19 likes2 stack adds
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Tanner
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I am such a freaking nerd...

LauraBeth I'm stacking it 🤓nerds unite! 7y
Tanner @LauraBeth Yay! It's not just me! 7y
brilliantglow Ohhh but this looks just as interesting as his new book "the book"! 7y
See All 7 Comments
Tanner @brilliantglow OMG, how did I not know about that one‽ Thank you - it is now going on my Must Have list! 7y
brilliantglow @Tanner I only found out about it a month or so ago and that was my exact reaction lol I can't wait to pick up copies of both books. I might have my brother do it with his discount. 7y
Tanner @brilliantglow Oooh, nice to have access to a discount! 7y
brilliantglow @Tanner yes, but doesn't beat the $5 you paid for Shady Characters lol 7y
21 likes3 stack adds7 comments
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jesslovestype
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Some #textonly (text mostly) UK covers that are far superior to their American counterparts. 📚 #booktober