Here’s a list of 1001 books that forms suggested reading for eveybody in their lifetime.

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/2222

There are two ways to review a book: critically and descriptively.

A descriptive review has a lot of quotes from the book and your impressions about the book while a critical review carries your opinions about the book.

A balanced review would be a mix of both.

Before reviewing a book, it is necessary to read it carefully.

While reading, you may mark some important passages to be quoted. You may also gather your impressions about the author’s view. Most people give a summary of the book when asked to write a book review. A better way to approach this task would be to first give an introduction of the author and genre to which the book belongs( fiction, historical, biographical etc). You may then proceed to talk about the way the book is organised into chapters or subdivisions in the case of non fiction. In the case of fiction, this would be your chance to talk about the plot, theme, characters, sub plots, settings, dialogue and other elements.

One way to make your book review unique is to add your thoughts on the subject matter of the book and to comment on the way the topics have been dealth with.

You may go through www.amazon.com to see several reviews of different books.

It is important to identify the purpose of the book as envisaged by the author and give your opinions as to whether you think the author achieved his purpose.

Check out this alarming fact!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-language19sep19,1,1715782.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

William Caxton introduced the printing press around 1400.In the prologue to the first book to be printed in England, The Recuyell(compilation) of the Historyes of Troy, he reflects on his experience in the translating business. He met Lady Margaret, the sister of King Edward IV, and happened to mention what he had done.She gave her critique and thus became the first English copyeditor.

IGNOU offers a certificate course in copyediting and proofreading, which is of 6 months’ duration. Details are available on the site: http://www.ignou.ac.in

Symbiosis Distance Learning Programme offers a 1 year Post-Graduate Diploma in Instructional Design. The site is http://www.scdl.net/pgdid.asp

Being an accredited proofreader and belonging to a socity for proofreaders and editors sure helps:Check out http://www.sfep.org.uk/pub/faqs/fproof.asp

This is a  cute cat macro available on www.lolcats.com

Lolcats are image macros combining photographs of a cat with a humorous and idiosyncratic caption. The name “lolcat” is a compound word formed from lol and cat. Lolcats are the latest craze!

Visit these bright and cheery sites to know which books on English grammar I’m dying to read, but I haven’t gotten hold of yet:

 http://www.grammarphobia.com/books_woe.html

http://www.grammarphobia.com/books_words.html

About the author: Patricia O’ Conner

While she was working at the New York Times, Jane Isay, then the publisher of Grosset/Putnam, asked Patricia O’ Conner to write a lighthearted grammar book. Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English was published in 1996 and was a national bestseller; Pat appeared on Oprah to talk about the book. Woe is I is an unusual book: a grammar guide which is highly entertaining. Using such chapter headings as, “Comma Sutra: the Joy of Punctuation,” and “Plurals Before Swine: Blunders With Numbers,” the author teaches the rules of grammar with wit and humor.

Patricia left the Times the following year when Isay, now the Executive Editor of Harcourt Brace’s adult trade division, asked Patricia for a book about writing. Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing was published in October, 1999, to rave reviews from readers and critics alike. Words Fail Me features the same delightful style as Woe is I, and contains invaluable help for writers looking to polish their style. Patricia is known for her ability to take what some would consider a very dull subject — grammar rules, for instance — and make it sound like the most fascinating thing in the world. She is fond of puns, and loves to read most anything — as long as it is well-written, of course. When she’s not writing, you can find her working in her garden, spending time with her husband, or curled up with a good book.

What are Pat’s pet grammar peeves?

First, using “I” when “me” is correct. Here’s an example: “Dad took Freddie and I skiing.” It’s a common mistake, but if you want to be correct, just mentally eliminate the other guy: “Dad took … me skiing.”

Second, confusing “its” and “your” and “whose” (possessives) with “it’s” and “you’re” and “who’s” (contractions). Here the apostrophes stand in for missing letters, so if the word is short for “it is,” go for “it’s; if the word is short for “you are,” go for “you’re”; if the word is short for “who is,” go for “who’s.”

Third — and this isn’t actually a grammar problem — I cringe when I hear or read non-words like “irregardless.” And I shiver when I come across bloated, empty language, as in “The parameters of his fiscal dynamic were negatively impacted by his involuntary separation.” In other words, “He was broke after he was fired.”

Pat’s favourite novelists:

There are so many wonderful novelists that it’s hard to choose. I admire all the big guns, of course: Tolstoy, Flaubert, Austen, Trollope, George Eliot, Henry James, Mark Twain, Proust. The modern novelists I like best are William Trevor, Saul Bellow, Muriel Spark, Zora Neale Hurston, Dawn Powell, P.G. Wodehouse, Barbara Pym, Kingsley Amis, E.F. Benson, Graham Greene, Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kazuo Ishiguro, Anthony Powell. Great storytellers, every one.

Source: http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/dec99/oconner.htm

A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

“Why? Why are you behaving in this strange, un-panda-like fashion?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda walks towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

 For those of you who didn’t get the joke, the essence of the joke lies in the comma after Eats in “Eats, shoots and leaves.” This single comma changes the meaning of the whole phrase. Shoots now takes on the sinister form of shooting, and therefore the reference to eating, shooting( bullets) and leaving. If it had been punctuated correctly, It would have read “Eats shoots and leaves”! As in Eating (bamboo) shoots and leaving.

Author Lynne Truss has selected this phrase as the title of her book on punctuation. I highly recommend this book coz it’s a fun approach to punctuation and there is a lot of humour in it.

A malapropism is the use of an incorrect word sounding similar to the word a person originally wished to use. The word malapropism has been derived from English Literature. The famous playwright, Sheridan in his play The Rivals in 1775 introduced a character known as Mrs. Malaprop who would use incorrect words that sounded similar to the word she originally wished to use. The result was a hysterical comedy.

The name is derived from the French mal à propos, which means inappropriate (we also have the word malapropos in English) Here are some classic examples of her malapropisms.

•  “…promise to forget this fellow – to illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.”
     [obliterate]
   

• “O, he will dissolve my mystery!”
     [resolve]
   
• “He is the very pine-apple of politeness!”
     [pinnacle]
   
• “I have since laid Sir Anthony’s preposition before her;”
     [proposition]
   
• “Oh! it gives me the hydrostatics to such a degree.”
     [hysterics]
   
• “I hope you will represent her to the captain as an object not altogether illegible.”
     [eligible]
   
• “…she might reprehend the true meaning of what she is saying.”
     [comprehend]
   
• “…she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of Nile.”
     [alligator]
   
• “I am sorry to say, Sir Anthony, that my affluence over my niece is very small.”
     [influence]
   
• “Why, murder’s the matter! slaughter’s the matter! killing’s the matter! – but he can tell you the perpendiculars.”
     [particulars]
   
• “Nay, no delusions to the past – Lydia is convinced;”
     [allusions]
   
• “…behold, this very day, I have interceded another letter from the fellow;”
     [intercepted]
   
• “I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him;”
     [desisted]
   
• “His physiognomy so grammatical!”
     [phraseology]
   
• “I am sure I have done everything in my power since I exploded the affair;”
     [exposed]
   
• “I am sorry to say, she seems resolved to decline every particle that I enjoin her.”
     [article]
   
• “…if ever you betray what you are entrusted with… you forfeit my malevolence for ever…”
     [benevolence]
   
• “Your being Sir Anthony’s son, captain, would itself be a sufficient accommodation;”
     [recommendation]
   
• “Sure, if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!”
     [apprehend, vernacular, arrangement, epithets]

Source: http://www.fun-with-words.com/mala_malapropisms.html