current reading.

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

by Bill Bryson

yes, i am reading linguistics for fun. although this probably doesn't surprise anyone who knows me, and anyone who knows bill bryson knows that if anyone can make linguistics fun, he can. the fact that i think it's fun to begin with should probably not be admitted as valid evidence.

it's also reassuring to me as someone who jumped wholeheartedly into sociolinguistics that bryson doesn't restrict himself to chomsky (who is mentioned a few times), but also puts great stock in the work of william labov from upenn and often quotes the very book that my sociolinguistics prof used as our textbook, even if bryson was writing about 10 years before i would take that course.

the one downside to the book is that while bryson is aware of personal computers, his book does pre-date the explosion of the internet into mainstream global culture, and so some of his predictions about the english language have already been disproven.

it's still a fun book to read. i recommend it to anyone who likes words and wordplay, and even more so if you've seen the word prosperipromenon before.