etc.

If you are, as I am, an armchair linguist, a lover of the English language, an owner of at least three different editions of the Oxford English Dictionary, then this just might be the book for you. If you have, as I have, picked up each of those editions on any regular basis, purchased each new volume of any single style guide in the past, and ever been accused of being a grammar nazi, then this is probably the book for you. And if you have ever wondered, as I have, when two times ten is twenty-two and three times ten is thirty-three and four times ten is forty-four (etc.), why one times ten is eleven and not onety-one, then this is definitely the book for you. Bryson doesn’t clear up any major linguistic conundrums, nor does he solve any long-standing etymological debates. What he does do is expose some of the quirks, quibbles and aberrations of the English language (and there are many) and arm you with enough interesting factoids to jumpstart a waning conversation, if your brain can absorb it all. It’s a pleasurable read, meticulously researched but not bogged down by tiny-print footnotes on each printed page. For those who are left with the munchies for more, there is a select bibliography at the end.