Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson

Bryson makes a study of the English Language entertaining and easy to understand. He points out small histories and foibles in chapters with their own theme; accents and dialects, the difference between spelling and pronunciation and word games to name a few. The book is just in depth enough for a curious mind rather than a linguist, though it throws up question after question. Whether spelling follows pronunciation or vice versa seems to be a chicken and egg problem.

I find the same problems as I did with Neither Here nor There in that I find Bryson too negative and dismissive. Particularly here when he is talking about amateurs who dedicated years of their lives to investigating or cataloguing some part of English. They obviously made enough of an impact to be remembered & recognised in Bryson's book yet still he throws negative quips in their direction. The balance between readable informative writing and negativity tips in favour of the latter though, it's well worth a read.