For years, I’ve been fascinated with the concept of translation. Can two words really mean the same thing? If the translation dictionary says one Russian word can mean convenient and comfortable, or one French word means earn and win, how can you ever really know what someone means?
A Linguistic Theory of Translation, by J.C. Catford, didn’t solve the issue, but it cleared up some of the practical steps along the way, and it made me want to read more.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. Seriously? Are they positive there aren’t really 24 or 27? Are the sure that they couldn’t be condensed to 18?
The fact that these are the main questions in my mind after reading the book—as opposed to questions like, “Will this work?” and “How can I implement this in my company?”—probably indicates its effectiveness more than a longer description.
Working with Words belongs on the shelf with dozens of other language-teaching books that may have a new twist to the presentation but say the same thing. It’s not bad if you’ve never read anything else on the subject, but if you have, then you’ve already read most of this as well.
A Study of Phonetics, by Peter Ladefoged, is one of the best books I’ve found in linguistics. It’s non-pretentious, understandable, practical, and thorough. I used to refer to it often, but I’ve given away three copies, and I need to replace it again.
Course Design isn’t a bad book, meaning that it’s readable and I agree with most of it.
Still, I have trouble recommending it wholeheartedly for two reasons. First, if you haven’t been a teacher, you’re not likely to appreciate the advice. It’s not bad advice, but the authors don’t go out of their way to convince you to hearken. Second, if you have been a teacher, you probably already have figured out most of their tips, and you’d be better off spending your free time reading a great novel.
It’s not a bad book, but I’m not sure who it’s for.
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth is oversimplified to the point of condescension. There are a few insightful parts, but it shows an overall lack of appreciation for literature and church history.
Alder and Van Doren’s How to Read a Book treats the subject more thoughtfully and thoroughly.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting and the follow-up, What to Expect in the Pre-school Years are the best books around on preparing for parenthood. They’re readable, to-the-point, and only occasionally preachy or condescending to male readers who want to be involved in their kids’ lives.
If you’re familiar with the basic principles of microeconomics and investment, Dollars and Sense won’t help you. It’s a basic primer on financial management for people who don’t know anything about it, and who would rather give away money than become rich.
As a financial idiot, I appreciated it more than the Rich Dad/Poor Dad stuff that implies failure to become rich is the result of moral or intellectual deficiencies.
I was introduced to Jan Vansina through a professor was one of his disciples. According to both the professor and Vansina’s Living With Africa, Vansina’s work led to a revolution in historiography and the introduction of oral traditions as serious historical sources.
Oral Tradition as History is his treatise on how to apply historical skepticism to oral traditions, how to differentiate truth from fiction in folklore, and other such skills.
While reading them, it was difficult for me to see the truth because Vansina’s ego got in the way. Now, Vansina’s personality has faded from my memory more quickly than his ideas, and I’ll admit that his ideas encouraged me to evaluate hearsay and tradition more objectively. However, I still think that most of his “revolutionary” concepts consisted of taking common psychological sense and well-tested historical methods and applying them to stories that you read from a transcript instead of stories that you read in a book. Maybe that counts as “revolutionary”, but in the way applying a manufacturing technique from one product to another product is revolutionary; not in the way that inventing the assembly-line was revolutionary.
Genre Analysis is a little book with a cover and title designed to lure in as few readers as possible.
It’s too bad, because it’s a very good book for anyone interested in linguistics, teaching language, sociology, anthropology, or “people groups”.
For the “people group” clique, especially, he should be required reading. He approaches the same question a lot of the anthropologists and sociologists target—“What makes one group different from another?”—but from a sociolinguistic angle illuminates the topic like a well-places spotlight illuminates a sculpture.
Swales seems to have little pretension, and doesn’t allude to the fact that his analysis could reach far beyond what his unsexy title implies. More power to him!
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| Auto on Junot Diaz | |
| Car on Chuck Palahniuk | |
| Automobile on Larry Crabb | |
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| climach on Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenk… |
