Book Review

Hullo...here is a little book review that I have done for a book I received from Booksneeze...the book is called Why You Say It by Webb Garrison:

Why You Say It by Webb Garrison is a good resource for the curious minds that enjoy the various strange expressions and words used in the English language. It contains about 600 words and phrases that we use in our vernacular language and summarizes the origin of them. It has almost all of the major phrases that I hear and some that I rarely hear. For example, it has the phrase “Handwriting on the wall” which stems from the writing of condemnation on the Babylonian wall in the book of Daniel. This book as I said satisfies one’s curiosity on word origin. However, it is no Oxford English Dictionary or anything of the like. Webb Garrison does use numerous good resources to enlighten the individual on word origins, and I believe that the material is pretty accurate. It is good book for a quick look up on a word or phrase, but not a research tool. One thing I noticed is that he rarely uses dates for the origins except to say like the word “Pandemonium” was invented by John Milton in his Paradise Lost, but unless one is knowledgeable in high literature and poetry, more research might be required to know when this epic poem was written. Overall, I found the book enlightening, and it contains a good overview on the strange and sometimes nonsensical things we say.