John McWhorter, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

37. John McWhorter, The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language

A popular non-fiction book about linguistics, particularly how languages change. This book doesn't try to tell the story of any particular language and its history, although it uses plenty of examples (mostly English, though McWhorter seems to speak an enormous number of languages, and knows details about even more), nor does it try to reconstruct the "original language". Instead it is about the way languages change: how words change their meanings, slang, how sounds change, how grammar changes, how creoles and pidgins arise, why people change the languages they use, and so on. This book is compulsively readable, with lots of funny pop-culture references, and the sort of facts and tid-bits that make you want to turn to anyone nearby and say, "OMG! Did you know...".

A great book. Highly recommended, and I'll be checking out McWhorter's new book, about English, soon.

I've been really interested in reading popular-style non-fiction lately. I'm particularly interested in history, but biology, linguistics, astronomy- anything easy to read and interesting would be great. Does anyone have some recs by PoC authors?

Comments

Medicine and biology

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! That sounds great.

My top recs are both by Atul Gawande and use his experience as a doctor to explore larger issues in medicine and other areas. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312421702?ie=UTF8&tag=racmanbro-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312421702) is excellent and Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312427654?ie=UTF8&tag=racmanbro-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312427654) is even... to coin a phrase... better.

I also enjoyed a book on neurology, Ramachandran's Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0688172172?ie=UTF8&tag=racmanbro-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0688172172)

Re: Medicine and biology

[jinian.livejournal.com]

(Ramachandran's Brief Tour of Human Consciousness is also good, but slighter, with goofier jokes than I recalled from Phantoms, and covering much of the same information.)

Re: Medicine and biology

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's good to know.

Re: Medicine and biology

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ooo, thank you! Those sounds like just what I'm looking for.

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

Added to the 'want' list, thank you!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Glad it appealed!

[kate_nepveu]

The new book on English is much less dense and thus a bit of a disappointment after _Power of Babel_, but still good.

http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/2009/01/mcwhorter_english.php

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

That's a bit disappointing, but I'm still excited to read it. Thanks for letting me know!

[kate_nepveu]

Oh, and I forgot, you want to read Neil DeGrasse Tyson: http://www.steelypips.org/weblog/2009/05/tyson_blackhole.php

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thanks for the rec.