The Mother Tongue

I learned a lot about the history of the language and a lot of fun trivia. Made me appreciate North American english more and not care as much about spelling and strict grammar rules. Bryson is witty and provides moisture to what could seem like a dry subject. However, spots remained dry and the book is very dated (stats from the 1980's, and talking about the Soviet Union and typewriters in the present tense!).

This book has some interesting trivia (although, from reading other reviews, some of the most interesting bits aren't even true). Unfortunately, the usually hysterical Bryson has approximately two funny lines. He also adopts a sort of know-it-all tone for most of the book, which is incredibly irritating to hear for 245 pages. One passage that particularly confused me was the following: "The day after he was elected president in 1988, George Bush told a television reporter he couldn't believe the enormity of what had happened. Had President-elect Bush known that the primary meaning of 'enormity' is wickedness or evilness, he would doubtless have selected a more apt term." Now I'm no Bushie, but I would like to meet ONE person who uses the word 'enormity' in reference to its "primary" definition. I'm usually a huge Bryson fan, but I was incredibly disappointed by this book. Like I said, it had some interesting tidbits, but from the other reviews on this page, I'm stuck being annoyed at the long-winded parts and wondering if the best parts were factual at all.