Welcome to Litsy!

Perhaps there is a better way to communicate my feelings about this book… I never physically read an Alexis Hall book until this year. I loved their writing, and had listened to multiple audiobooks of AH books. When I first started reading one of Hall‘s books, I noticed the grammar wasn‘t “correct.” If I had read my first AH book, I may have never read another. I may have never finished that first book.
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This was enlightening, and actually answered some questions a few former colleagues and I have had for close to a decade now about how these great thinkers and intellectuals of old seem to have no sense of grammar rules... BECAUSE THE RULES WE ARE HOLDING THEM TO DID NOT EXIST IN THEIR LIFE TIMES.
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We are turning grammar into gate keeping of language. We are punishing language learners, people who have not had the same education opportunities we have had, or someone using a different way of communicating with the same language. Remember, that in the 19th century, grammar police tried to correct the grammar of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE! There is a time and a place, but neither of those is everywhere and all the time.
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon

Something to think about.
#CecliaWatson #Semicolon #Grammar #GrammarRules #unnatural

This is an incredibly valid and important point!
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #language #politics #SWE #StandardEnglish #dialect

Henry James may have had a point.
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #punctuation #dogma

Apparently, this what German people believe about the semicolon. Meanwhile, apparently in Texas “golly” is the statewide punctuated clause of all sentences.
@julesG @Texreader thoughts?!
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #punctuation #whatishappeningaroundhere

If we hold fast to grammar and the idea that grammar rules have never changed and therefore original intent and meaning can be deduced through written text, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Maine become unconstitutional and cease to exist in modern America. Just think about that for a minute.
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #law #grammar #punctuation #WestVirginia #Kentucky #Maine #WTF

DIAGRAMING SENTENCES IS BULL SH!T?! ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?!
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #SentenceDiagrams #LIES #ALLLIES #WTF

As a general fan of the semicolon (I did not know this was a contentious topic), I‘m excited for this one.
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #audiobook

It was... okay I guess? I had been expecting a more detailed history from conception to the present, and this was more of a meditation once the author got past some 19 century warring grammar guide writers. Which isn't bad, but it also wasn't what I wanted to read.

Been prevented from reading by Adorable Kittens, but this one should be pretty fast.
(cortado with a pinch of brown sugar is my new best friend)

“Starting” (because I actually started it in the store) one of the books I bought on vacation.

Definitely would recommend this to anyone with an interest in grammar, punctuation, or style guides and a little bit of history! It takes a light tone but it's a thoroughly satisfying read. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

The semicolon was born in Venice in 1494.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

This is a fun little book to read. Not just the history of the semicolon, but the history of style and usage guides. For all my fellow #grammarnerds out there! This is one of those rare books that has a 100% rating on Litsy.

A short little #audiobook on the semicolon. Takeaway for me: don't be a grammar snob; grammar rules were created fairly recently and before then punctuation was used artistically in writing.
That said, to me the semicolon is still semi-intimidating! 😅

Is there a way to get any geekier? 😏 I'm always intrigued by the semicolon and in a mood to read about grammar. So far, it's pretty good! #audiobook

“would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proof and tell him or her that I write in a broken down patois ... and when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so that it will stay split” Raymond Chandler

“Punctuation is a gentle and unassuming art, that has long been one of the misfortunes of man” Boston Daily Globe

A highly entertaining history & current use commentary on a punctuation mark that isn‘t for “highfalutin snobs,” but for anyone who loves language. “If we can learn to see past rules as the *only* framework with which we can understand and learn to use language, we might be able to see what purposes rules could *really* serve.” From the badassery of Elizabeth Anscombe, to liquor laws & the death penalty, the semicolon has great stories!

The US Supreme Court has ruled that “punctuation is a most fallible standard by which to interpret a writing.” Taking it even further, courts have opined that “punctuation is no part of the English language.”

It got worse: 3 years later, the parenthesis had gone from Quasimodo to quasi ghost, [being deemed] “nearly obsolete.” The curved marks that humanist thinker Desiderius Erasmus had romantically called “little moons” (lunulae) had crashed down to earth.

Uncertainty, after all, is very human, and can call forth our best human virtues.

A review of his 1904 book, The Golden Bowl, appeared under the heading “A Novel for the Select Few.”

Punctuation has to be judged by how it shapes the text in which it‘s situated. The problem, for writers and readers, is how to go about figuring out whether punctuation is any good or not without the security of a book of rules. It‘s a tough thing to do, to learn to let go of getting answers from stylebooks and to replace that practice with asking exploratory questions about our texts.

Kurt Vonnegut was unequivocal in his last book, advising writers, “Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you‘ve been to college.”

If you had asked me if I would ever read an entire book about a punctuation mark, I‘m quite sure I would have said, “no.” Much to my surprise, however, I have read an entire book about a punctuation mark AND I enjoyed it. The author clearly enjoys language and manipulation of words through clever uses of punctuation. She has done thorough research. The book had me laughing aloud at times. Toward the end, I was a bit less interested.

#Scarathon @Clwojick #TeamSlaughter What a scary book!🤣 For those of you who are language and punctuation wonks- and you know who you are- who read Drexler‘s English as a bit of a palate cleanser between volumes of Proust, this is the book for you. I was fascinated by the stories of the legal battles that turned on a semi-colon; the literary kerfuffles over the punctuation mark that is described as common and posh. Fun read- good as audio!4⭐️

It‘s my Birthday Week! (52 on Friday 🎂) Totally required to pop into one of my favorite indie bookstores.

Those damned Renaissance grammar Nazis!

I like the sound of this book, though; a whole tome on the history of a punctuation mark! ❤;❤

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/08/01/the-birth-of-the-semicolon/

Hahah! It‘s the attention to detail that counts in life! 🤣

Shout out to all you lovely Virgos!

What should you be reading this month?
https://lithub.com/the-astrology-book-club-what-to-read-this-month-based-on-your...