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Words Fail Me
 
 

Words Fail Me (Hardcover)

by Teresa Monachino (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.95
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Words Fail Me + Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite + It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Phaidon Press Ltd (12 Jun 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 071484635X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0714846354
  • Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 11 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 213,183 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #54 in  Books > Humour > Limericks
    #62 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Phonetics & Phonics
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Product Description

Review
'A book that gently subverts and questions the art of expression...filled with gentle humour and genuinely interesting anachronisms of the English language, all set in Monachino's Immaculate typography.'

Product Description
This lively and informative new title was originally inspired by the author's Italian mother and her struggles with the vagaries of the English language. Over the years the author has tried to correct her attempts and explain why the word she has chosen is incorrect, only to be baffled herself by the lack of logic within those explanations. English is full of contradictions and peculiarities (not counting such dull grammatical inconsistencies as 'i before e except after c', which are really no fun at all) and hoodwinks us into believing one thing while meaning something quite different. In English, all is not what it seems and with this book the author has brought these illogical oddities to the fore. Questions of spelling, pronunciation or the blatantly nonsensical are illustrated through clever visual representations that are created entirely through artfully manipulated typography. This playful and sometimes hilarious text sorts the homonyms from the heteronyms and introduces the 'antigram' (demonstrating how the swift shuffle of certain letters can create words that entirely contradict the first: honestly becomes on the sly, earliest becomes rise late and, fabulously, Elvis = lives!). Monachino goes on to demand an explanation from all those tricky little words that are spelt the same and pronounced the same, but yet have utterly different meanings, while highlighting a few of life's petty pleonasms and showing off some quite excellent tautologies. A gaggle of one-word oxymorons shines the spotlight on words that harbour contradictory words within them and the final section provides a note on inadvisable hyphenation, which is a useful disco-very, but perhaps not the best place to beg-in. Because of the linguistic nature of this title there will be a American English edition.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth a read, 25 Nov 2008
By Mr. M. G. Robinson "michoo" (united kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
as a skint student i felt this book for a start was over priced for its small content, in many cases 1 word per page, however i was intrigued by the title as no boubt you are..

I wasnt quite sure what to expect, dissapointed at first i began to flick through the pages not really paying attention to its content, as i began to read an understand the meanings i found myself fascinated by the simple ideas regardin anagrams, or breaking up words to reveal contradictory words. for a small book, i find it the most picked up and talked about of my collection.

Worth a read.. and worth every penny..
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5.0 out of 5 stars A Pocket Full of Treats, 25 April 2007
By DAHHEF (London, UK) - See all my reviews
As soon as this delightful little book emerged from its packaging, I delved straight into it and finished it in the same sitting. It's that good. And it's worth several re-reads, probably never getting outdated.
Very similar to 'Watching Words Move' - except that it not only looks at how typography can become imagery (McLuhan's idea that logos are not words but images) - but it also goes a little further and a lot deeper. Monachino explores the hidden ironies found within words that betray the essence of their meaning. (E.g. why do we say that noses 'run' but feet 'smell'? Why does the word 'believe' contain the word 'lie'?) All this is done using a plain font, a blank background, and the basic colours of red, black, and white.
It's too clever for words - just one long "Ah!" session from start to finish.
Should appeal to anyone interested in graphic design, anyone interested in language, or anyone with a sense of humour.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars For semantic mavens only, 28 Sep 2007
By Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
The Book Description above will give you a pretty good idea about the contents of this word-play book. Divided into these chapters: Contradictionary, Antigrams, Ambitexterity, Pleonasties, Antagonyms, Oxycretins and (sic)Note. Each gives examples of the (delightful) obfuscation the English language springs on the unwary and will probably take you less than ten minutes to read the 144 pages.

OK, I spent less than ten minutes reading it but surely the visual presentation will keep me occupied for longer? If only. Nearly all of the pages are designed in a very minimalist way, one typeface (17 point Gill Sans I fancy) and mostly in this size. Because so many of the examples are a word or two on each page there is plenty of empty space throughout the book. As the author is a designer I would have thought this would have been the ideal editorial format to have the contents displayed in a much more creative way. Herb Lubalin would have had such fun!

This is really the kind of item that a trendy ad boutique would give away as a Christmas keepsake to its clients rather than a book to buy.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.
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