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A review by katie_herzing
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris
5.0
This review appeared here: https://becomingperfectlymyself.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/102-between-you-me/
I found this book looking for another book about English and grammar on Amazon. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen is the grammatical memoir of a copyrighted from The New Yorker. I learned about Noah Webster, and Benjamin Franklin's weird plans for deleting j's and other important letters.
The making of a dictionary (or a speller as they were once called) is a messy business. Apparently, you make a lot of people unhappy. Especially editors! I was relating this story about Franklin, the vanishing j's, and Webster, and she replied, "Webster should never have been allowed to write a dictionary!" WOW! Excuse me, I didn't know it was such a controversial topic!
Later chapters related the differences between a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash. I think those are -, --, and ---. Or maybe not. I still don't really understand what they look like or how to use them. All I know is that I, personally, use a lot of dashes, and now I think I'm using them incorrectly.
The last chapter about pencils might be my favorite. It had me laughing out loud! No. 1 verses No. 2 ... the author prefers a No. 1, but they are very hard to find.
Loved this book!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for both prose and interesting information.
I found this book looking for another book about English and grammar on Amazon. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen is the grammatical memoir of a copyrighted from The New Yorker. I learned about Noah Webster, and Benjamin Franklin's weird plans for deleting j's and other important letters.
The making of a dictionary (or a speller as they were once called) is a messy business. Apparently, you make a lot of people unhappy. Especially editors! I was relating this story about Franklin, the vanishing j's, and Webster, and she replied, "Webster should never have been allowed to write a dictionary!" WOW! Excuse me, I didn't know it was such a controversial topic!
Later chapters related the differences between a hyphen, an en dash, and an em dash. I think those are -, --, and ---. Or maybe not. I still don't really understand what they look like or how to use them. All I know is that I, personally, use a lot of dashes, and now I think I'm using them incorrectly.
The last chapter about pencils might be my favorite. It had me laughing out loud! No. 1 verses No. 2 ... the author prefers a No. 1, but they are very hard to find.
Loved this book!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for both prose and interesting information.