After recently buying a second bookcase, to accommodate my ever expanding book collection, I thought it was about time to share some of it with you. My current horde ranges from language books and travel guides to cookbooks and comics. Each week I am going to pull a book off the shelf and tell you all about it. This won’t be a standard review though. No star ratings here. Just a simple summary of what the book is about (no spoilers don’t worry) and why I like it. Then you can decide whether you think it should be added to your own collection; or wish list at least…
For my first post I have chosen Lingo by Gaston Dorren. As this weekend marks the 6 year anniversary of when my fiancèe finally decided to settle for yours truly, I thought it would be appropriate to choose a book she bought me for Valentine’s day this year. I always get given interesting new language books as presents. She knows me well doesn’t she?
Lingo – A language spotter’s guide to Europe
This treasure takes a look at the little quirks and eccentricities of over fifty European languages. Each chapter focuses on one language and tells a story of something particularly interesting or different about it. A really great read if you are interested in languages or linguistics like me.
Every chapter is really well written, witty and funny which makes for a very easy read. One major problem I have with some of the other linguistics books that I own, is that they are very complex and scientific. This isn’t really an issue, but it does mean it requires a lot of brainpower to digest everything. This one is a little different because each story is completely self contained and relatively short. So you can dip in and out as you please and even skip to a chapter that takes your fancy. The perfect book for relaxing after a long day or curling up in bed.
At the end of each chapter there are some fun little facts about the English language. Some relate to words that have been loaned from other languages, and how they are connected, or words that simply don’t exist in English at all. I absolutely love this sort of thing and sometimes find myself flipping through to the end of the chapters.
The book is available on Amazon in hardback, paperback, kindle and MP3 CD. The link is for the UK Amazon so if you are in a different region you will need to go to your own version of Amazon to find it.
I hope you have enjoyed my first review. Stayed tuned for the second installment next week!
Ciao for now!
