Welcome to Litsy!

I‘ve listened to a couple of McWhorter‘s Great Courses lectures on language and he‘s always informative and entertaining; like a a nerdy dad—smart but not exactly PC.

The book itself is a collection of theses about the origins of English. Tons of fascinating info but his arguments probably won‘t mean much to someone who isn‘t in or near his field. For me, I have found that I really enjoy things like etymology and other language-related topics.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ After reading - and LOVING - Nine Nasty Words, I‘m diving into linguist John McWhorter‘s backlist. This one takes an in-depth look at English and it‘s myriad quirks. We do some absurd stuff with words and phrasing. He largely compares Germanic versus Semitic languages. Super interesting stuff! McWhorter‘s writing is engaging and fun; narration flawless. “Meaningless do” was a bit repetitive, but I‘m being nitpicky. I learned a lot!

Ok #ReadersGoneRogue @FantasyChick @BookishTrish
Out of these 4.
We got some non-fiction about our language.
Non-fiction about well, fiction (unless you believes myths to be true and I'm open to all options here not offending anyone I hope lol)
Some good fiction about family drama it seems
And poetry.
Huh, fair amount of non fiction coming from the chick that doesn't really like it haha.

I love me some John McWhorter! His Lexicon Valley podcast is great and he makes modern linguistics so much fun! This is what academia should be like!

📚 Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue

🚀Nnedi Okorafor

🇨🇺 One Day At A Time

🍴Okra

#manicmonday #lettero @JoScho

This book about the development of English over time was interesting. However, I did not enjoy this book quite as much as the last book by John McWhorter that I listened to. There is plenty of fascinating information, but some parts came across as overly argumentative and a few aspects seemed a bit repetitive.

#audiobok #nonfiction

I guess The Great Courses series doesn't really count as a book, but I just downloaded a bunch in preparation for driving to work every day. Plus I'm trying to walk at least 30 minutes a day and audible really helps with that.

The one I'm listening to (Language A to Z) isn't in the I'm tagging a book that was mentioned in the intro.

About Book Riot's Annotated podcast.
https://tracyrowanwrites.wordpress.com/2018/04/26/on-being-annotated/

If you really love languages, you‘ll like this. I lost interest about halfway and only finished because it was short.

I 💕 John McWhorter! I love his reading voice and have purchased everything he narrates. Loved this one too- probably the easiest to start with if you want to get hooked on words.

This is where I bailed.

I'm not really sure about this book. I found the first chapter interesting but the second chapter was weird. It seemed to argue that there should be no rules for the English language because language evolves. Hopefully chapter 3 makes more sense and gets back to the actual history which is why I picked up the book in the first place!

So far it's interesting but it takes a lot of focus. Not a quick read.

For the #Readathon I completed four books. My reading time was 11hrs 26m - In addition to completing the above, I also read in 3 other books that I will continue to read during May. I'm happy with where I ended. #deweys24hr
@DeweysReadathon

After having my heart stomped on by Stay With Me (😭) I've landed on this book about grammar in my search for something more lighthearted prior to bed. Party 🎉

I tagged one of McWhorter's books since, as they are not actually books, none the Great Courses material is listed here. And while I am still acknowledging that this isn't a book, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to recommend this to anyone even vaguely interested in language and how it develops and evolves. McWhorter's lectures are laced with humor and pop culture references that make what could be dry subject matter very entertaining.