Word Nerd

Books about words!
Updated September 19, 2022
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Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
Kory Stamper
Paper Book
Do you have strong feelings about the word "irregardless"? Have you ever tried to define the word "is"? Brimming with intelligence and personality, this vastly entertaining account of how dictionaries are made is a must-read for word mavens. Many of us take dictionaries...
Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Games, Grammar, and Geek Underground
John D. Williams Jr.
Paper Book
Beginning his career on a lark as a freelance contributor to SCRABBLE News, John D. Williams fell down a rabbit hole inhabited by gamers, geeks, and the grammar police. For twenty-five years, as the executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association, Williams served as the official...
A World Without "Whom": The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age
Emmy J. Favilla
Paper Book
"A provocative and jaunty romp through the dos and don'ts of writing for the internet" (NYT)--the practical, the playful, and the politically correct--from BuzzFeed copy chief Emmy Favilla. A World Without "Whom" is Eats, Shoots & Leaves for the internet...
The Mother Tongue
Bill Bryson
Paper Book
"Vastly informative and vastly entertaining...A scholarly and fascinating book." --Los Angeles Times With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language.  From the first descent...
Words on the Move: Why English Won't—and Can't—Sit Still (Like, Literally)
John McWhorter
Paper Book
A bestselling linguist takes us on a lively tour of how the English language is evolving before our eyes -- and why we should embrace this transformation and not fight it Language is always changing -- but we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created...

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