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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Game of Words |
| The Game of Words: The Remarkable Exhuberance of the English Language by Willard R. Espy |
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Willard R. Espy's genius volume has finally been republished! There is every sort of word game, wordplay, pun, poem, letter game, puzzle, and logological fun to be found here, sprinkled liberally with Espy's unrivalled wit. Explore ABC language, acrostic verses, alliteration, anagrams, Anguish Languish, Parody, Chain Verse, Clerihews, Chronograms, Cryptograms, Epigrams, Euphemisms, False Rhymes, Franglish, Headline Hunter, Hidden Words, Higgledy-Piggledies, Lipograms, Isosceles Words, Homonyms, Pig Latin, Pidgin English, Malapropisms, Oxymorons, Palindromes, Riddles & conundrums, Spoonerisms, Tom Swifties, Word Games for Parties, and much much more! If you only ever by one book on wordplay, make this the one.
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language |
| The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language: Second Edition (Hardcover) by David Crystal |
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This book has become a publishing phenomenon. It is thoroughly researched, impeccably presented, and well-organised. The content of every page is illustrated in full colour with appropriate photographs, tables, charts, maps, graphs, and diagrams, making the book easy to read. It covers the history of English, vocabulary, and grammar, to spoken and written English, and English in use. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in language, words, linguistics, and related areas. The plentiful visual aids combine with anecdotes, quotations, and well written text to produce a highly accessible and truly stimulating textbook. (Softcover edition.)
Read full review article of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language here. |
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary |
| The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce |
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A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Ambrose Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our wilful failings and excesses to shine forth. This is the most extensively annotated edition of a work by Bierce ever published, and the first edition of The Devil's Dictionary to provide detailed bibliographical information on every entry. It will be celebrated by wits and word lovers everywhere. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) was one of nineteenth-century America's most renowned satirists. The author of short stories, essays, fables, poems, and sketches, he was a popular columnist and wrote for several San Francisco and London newspapers during his forty-year journalism career. David E. Schultz is a technical editor. This book was first compiled as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and reissued under the author's preferred title five years later. Employing a terse, aphoristic style, Bierce lampooned social, professional, and religious convention, as in his definitions for bore - "A person who talks when you wish him to listen"; architect - "One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money"; and saint - "A dead sinner revised and edited." Many of the entries include "authenticating" citations from spurious scholarly sources.
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Devil's Dictionary |
| The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce |
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Bierce's satirical and cynical wit shines through in his infamous dictionary. History, n. an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all two. Self-Esteem, n. An erroneous appraisement. These caustic aphorisms, collected in The Devil's Dictionary, helped earn Ambrose Bierce the epithets Bitter Bierce, the Devil's Lexicographer, and the Wickedest Man in San Francisco. First published as The Cynic's Word Book (1906) and later reissued under its preferred name in 1911, Bierce's notorious collection of barbed definitions forcibly contradicts Samuel Johnson's earlier definition of a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. There was nothing harmless about Ambrose Bierce, and the words he shaped into verbal pitchforks a century ago - with or without the devil's help - can still draw blood today.
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Story of Webster's Third |
| The Story of Webster's Third: Philip Gove's Controversial Dictionary and Its Critics by Herbert C. Morton |
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The publication of Webster's Third New International Dictionary in 1961 set off a storm of intense controversy in both the popular press and in scholarly journals due to widespread disagreements about the nature of language and the role of the dictionary. This is the first full account of the controversy, set within the larger background of how the dictionary was planned and put together by its editor-in-chief, Philip Babcock Gove. This is a human story as well as the story of the making of a dictionary. The author skilfully interweaves an account of Gove's character and working habits with the evolution of the dictionary. In spite of its rocky initial reception, Webster's Third is now widely regarded as one of the greatest dictionaries of our time. Contains the tale of "dord," the mysterious ghost word!
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play |
| The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play by Willard R. Espy |
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This book is arranged into 366 daily doses of wordplay, designed to last you through the year. The problem is that it's too easy to get addicted and read ahead of your daily allowance! Espy is among the most creative and wittiest writers to play with the English language. This volume is the best material distilled from two almanacs by this author; one reader recalled his memories of "sitting in bed with the flu and reading through both books in three days, giggling and chortling and slack-jawed with amazement the whole time." The book covers everything from acronyms, anagrams, puns, and puzzles to univocalic writing, acrostics, palindromes, and pangrams. You will not be disappointed.
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Dictionary of Wordplay |
| The Dictionary of Wordplay by Dave Morice |
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How many different ways can you play with words? More than 1,200, according to Dave Morice in what he claims is the first Dictionary of Wordplay. Everyone's heard of the rebus and the palindrome, but what about the megallege and the word worm? In an informative and frisky introduction, Morice describes the history of wordplay including the golden age, which started around 1960 and continues to this day. This is a quirky reference book, great to dip into, and packed with amazing wordplay: everything from anagrams, bananagrams, and flip-flop definitions to Kangaroo words, no-word alphabets, stinky buzzwords, truthful numbers, and zazzifications!
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Language and the Internet |
| Language and the Internet by David Crystal |
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David Crystal examines the phenomenon of language use online in his book Language and the Internet. Is the Internet bad for the future of language? Will creativity be lost? Are standards diminishing? Crystal, in his thoroughly readable style, addresses all of these questions from a linguistic perspective. Crystal devotes two chapters to discussing features common to most Internet communications. He follows with separate chapters discussing email, chatgroups, virtual worlds, and the Web, and concludes with a look at the effects of the Internet on language as a whole. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in linguistics, and is written sufficiently accessibly to be enjoyed by all.
Read full review article of Language and the Internet here. |
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Introducing Linguistics |
| Introducing Linguistics by R. L. Trask and Bill Mayblin |
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This title comes from the popular Introducing series famous for its unique use of visual material to present often quite difficult subjects in an understandable way. Cartoon-style graphics combine with charts, photographs, speech bubbles, and chunks of text to introduce the basic ideas in linguistics in a very digestible form. Introducing Linguistics will be ideal for anyone starting a course in the subject, or considering doing so. With fewer than 180 pages, this book does not take long to read. But its brevity is a virtue, for its accessible, visual style is aimed at readers with little or no knowledge of the subject. If you don't know what linguistics is or would like to find out which areas interest you most, then this would be a great place to start.
Read full review article of Introducing Linguistics here. |
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation |
| Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation: US Edition by Lynne Truss |
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This is by far the wittiest and most exciting book about punctuation that we have ever seen. Indeed, it could well be described as a real laugh-a-minute page-turner. Lynne truss is a writer and broadcaster with a passion for punctuation pedantry. Does the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you see signs for "Banana's" or "Video's"? Do you feel like screaming when you see notices like "Giant Kid's Playground", or laugh to yourself at "Mind You're Head" warnings? If so, you are not alone. You share this frustration with Truss, and the legions of sympathisers flocking to buy her book. This light-hearted look at the history and use of punctuation is sure to be enjoyed by all. (US Edition.)
Read full review article of Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation here. |
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation |
| Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation: British Edition by Lynne Truss |
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This is by far the wittiest and most exciting book about punctuation that we have ever seen. Indeed, it could well be described as a real laugh-a-minute page-turner. Lynne truss is a writer and broadcaster with a passion for punctuation pedantry. Does the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you see signs for "Banana's" or "Video's"? Do you feel like screaming when you see notices like "Giant Kid's Playground", or laugh to yourself at "Mind You're Head" warnings? If so, you are not alone. You share this frustration with Truss, and the legions of sympathisers flocking to buy her book. This light-hearted look at the history and use of punctuation is sure to be enjoyed by all. (British Edition.)
Read full review article of Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation here. |
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language |
| The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language: Second Edition (Softcover) by David Crystal |
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This book has become a publishing phenomenon, popular with language-lovers, writers, students, and teachers. It has a vast content of thoroughly researched, impeccably presented, and well-organised material. The content of every page is illustrated in full colour with appropriate photographs, tables, charts, maps, graphs, and diagrams, making the book easy to read. Crystal covers everything from the history of English, vocabulary, and grammar, to spoken and written English, and English in use. This volume will appeal to almost anyone with either a professional or recreational interest in language, words, linguistics, and related areas. The plentiful visual aids combine with anecdotes, quotations, and well written text to produce a highly accessible and truly stimulating textbook. There is simply not a bad word to be said about it. (Hardcover edition.)
Read full review article of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language here. |
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Making the Alphabet Dance |
| Making the Alphabet Dance by Ross Eckler |
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This is a most mesmerizing book on wordplay. Ross Eckler examines such eternal logological favorites as anagrams, palindromes, and word squares, as well as words that play in other ways. Here are words with all letters in alphabetical order, novels written without the letter "e," and dozens of ways to transform one word into another. Is a mammoth compendium of letterplay and wordplay, all compiled by the editor of Word Ways (since 1970), the international journal dedicated to recreational linguistics.
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Wordplay |
| Wordplay: A Curious Dictionary of Language Oddities by Chris Cole |
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This is a book of statistics, tables, and charts of wordplay. But it is far from dull. There is every conceivable type of word puzzle and letterplay between the covers of this volume. For example, Cole makes it easy to discover what the shortest word is that begins and ends with the same letter, for each letter of the alphabet. What is the longest common word containing most consecutive letters in the alphabet after C? You can easily look up the answer: "disenfranchising" What word repeats S most? The answer: possessionlessnesses. For a word or a puzzle fan, this is a must. There is much more than raw word data, though; you will find pronunciation guides, etymologies, definitions, histories, and several self-contained essays on a wide variety of wordplay subjects. A must for any word lovers bookshelf.
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| Fun-with-words.com > General Wordplay Books > Between You and I |
| Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English by James Cochrane |
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Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English covers roughly two hundred words, phrases, and expressions that are frequently misused, mispronounced, or misspelled. It explains the correct usage and gives real-world examples from people who really should know better: writers, journalists, broadcasters, and other public figures. The book is arranged alphabetically, with a couple of paragraphs describing each entry and the common error attached to it. Includes frequently confused words, redundant expressions, irregular plurals, and misunderstood clichΓ©s. There is an introduction written by senior BBC television and radio journalist John Humphrys.
Read full review article of Between You and I here. |
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