Six Degrees of Separation ~ Eats, Shoots and Leaves

  Eats, Shoots and Leaves
Truss, Lynne "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" - 2005

#6Degrees of Separation:
from Eats, Shoots and Leaves to The Story of English

#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here.

This month's prompt starts with Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

This is the first time since I participate in this challenge that I have actually read the starter book. I remember it as a very funny book about English spelling, grammar and punctuation and the problems of today's generation with it.

When I think of funny and non-fiction and language, Bill Bryson comes to mind. He has written several books about language, "Mother Tongue" probably being the one to start with but "Made in America" and "Troublesome Words" are just as great.
Bryson, Bill "Mother Tongue" - 1990

This reminds me of another funny book about languages, the title itself is already hilarious:
Croker, Charlie "Løst in Tränšlatioπ. Misadventures in English Abroad" - 2006
This is about language and how it can be understood and expressed quite differently in different countries.

And that leads us to another book with the same title, spelled correctly this time:
Sanders, Ella Frances "Lost in Translation. An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World" - 2014
The author collected words from across the globe that cannot really be translated.

We can always try to understand a culture better through their language and that is what the author Yu Hua tries to do in his work.
Yu, Hua (余華/Yú Huá) "China in Ten Words" (Chinese: 十個詞彙裡的中國/Shi ge cihui li de Zhongguo) - 2012
The book teaches us a lot about life in China during the lifetime of the author, born 1960.

Which brings me to another book about China, England and language.
Guo, Xiaolu (郭小橹) "Language" - 2017
This is like a diary of the young girl who comes to England with just a little knowledge of the language.

And we're back in England where Joseph Piercy tells us the story of English.
Piercy, Joseph "The Story of English: How an Obscure Dialect became the World's Most-Spoken Language" - 2012

I think it's interesting that the covers of those books are all one colour, mostly cream-y. The only really colourful exception is Bill Bryson's book but then his books are always quite special.

Look for further monthly separation posts here.