Book Review: The Glamour of Grammar

What do you do about grammar? If you're like most people, you were assaulted with nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives amongst others in elementary school. Me, I would never have survived the standardized tests without multiple choice. Even School House Rock never helped me. The way that our teachers taught it was boring and confusing. Until high school, I always guessed at anything more than a noun and a verb. In high school, it only got a little better, VERY LITTLE. And then there was diagramming sentences...we won't even go there!

 

When I was given the opportunity to review "The Glamour of Grammar" by Roy Peter Clark, I jumped on it. I enjoy reading with a passion. I always have a book with me, even in my iPhone. I also wanted to brush up on my grammar skills for when Monster starts school.

 

The day I got the book in the mail, I was excited. Who can be excited about a grammar book? Yep, that would be me, I'm a nerd! I started reading it that day, not knowing what to expect. What I found was a huge sense of humor combining the classical grammar rules. This was grammar like I've never seen it. There was comedy, wit, and sarcasm all combined in a book about grammar. There were many times I found myself laughing out loud, literally, reading this book.

 

Mr. Clark brings a whole new life to a subject usually approached with a groan by people. I found myself opening the book at every opportunity, if even for a couple of paragraphs.

Mr. Clark outlines the proper use of certain words, for example the difference between lie and lay. He also outlines the proper use of punctuation, "Use the semicolon as a 'swinging gate'." He also suggested something that I used to do when I was younger, read the dictionary for fun and learning. During the summer months, my parents never took me to the library, so we had to settle for reading what was in the house. Since I was the only one that read a lot, I ran out of books quite fast. The encyclopedias were quite interesting at times.

 

Overall, I LOVED this book. It's also a great point of reference if you need to go back and research a certain point. I've bought a copy for my Kindle so that I can have it for reference, and also it became a favorite quite fast. I would recommend this book to anyone that has a child struggling with grammar, and also the college student wanting to write better papers. Heck, I would recommend this book to any avid reader as you will enjoy the wit that comes with learning something new. I bet you there's something in this book that you did NOT know yet!!!

*This book was provided free of charge for this review, it in no way affected my views on the review*