Books: The Adventure of English

I do love a good non-fiction read. So much so that when I find one I tear through it so fast that I can't remember a single fact once I'm done. I read John Keay's China: A History on an overnight train to Shanghai and can't remember the name of single emperor. It doesn't help that these intellectual-lite books are written like James Patterson-grade thrillers. No, they're not that stupid, but every chapter has cliff hanger ending that forces you to read on.

I learnt a lot from The Adventure of English, most of which I assume is now bobbing about deep in my sub-psyche, where it will remain until I absolutely need it. Kind of like a dormant super-power, if mildly entertaining conversation were a super power. Actual facts and dates may elude me for ever. What I did learn is the most important lesson of all, that I'm totes right and everyone else is defs wrong.

Bragg's main contention is that English survived and prospered through constant change and adaptation. He follows this with case examples how people tried to arrest the change of English for a variety of reasons; class, power, ensuring their own writing remained relevant. All of them failed. The next age always has its way, and in our case it's a group of fast talking, fast typing fourteen year-old girls.

To cut to the smugness, everyone who ever derided my SMS-ing, MSN-ing, totes talking ways just cinch their linguistic undie-bunch that little bit tighter, because things are only going to get better. Which is to say much worse. Devo. But one thing can all enjoy is that Bring It On 3: All or Nothing, with its deranged SMS nomenclature was way ahead of its time. It also features SOLANGE: