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Shady Characters: The Secret Life Of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks (2013)

by Keith Houston(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0393064425 (ISBN13: 9780393064421)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: This book is not only written by an enthusiast, it's brilliantly designed, with embossed covers, intelligent two-color printing, both footnotes and endnotes well used and accessible, and first-rate typography in general, all illustrating the underlying theme of excellence in the aesthetic craft of transmitting information through text. So why did it leave me so flat? After several months, I still can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the tone, a kind of gee-whiz let's-all-learn-together assumed naïveté. Maybe it's the author's fascination with what seem to me unserious attempts at nouveau punctuation such as the interrobang and sarcasm marks. Maybe I'm just a stuffy old snob. I think I should say that if you're interested in the history and theory of punctuation, you sho... moreuld read this book, and leave it at that.
review 2: This was my "break" book at work, so it only got read when I actually found time for it. That's not to say it wasn't interesting - but it is a rather dry subject (not quite a page-turner, though the section on sarcasm has some suspense - and I'm not being sarcastic). I'm always fascinated by these types of language books; I read one on fonts a couple of years ago that still resonates (I look at logos a little differently now). And, it's fascinating to find how things have changed (or not changed) over the thousands of years since we started writing things down. less

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