THE BOOK SLOT: Potpourri

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`Potpourri`
The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations A Dictionary of American Idioms Dictionary of American Slang	200 Percent of Nothing The Mezzanine The F Word

The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations
Charles Harrington Elster approaches pronunciation in much the same way I approach usage. It's a good read and a handy reference volume, though I keep being disappointed by the controversial words that aren't included. Those were probably in Elster's earlier, out-of-print books.

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A Dictionary of American Idioms
I bet every word person has had this experience: Here you are, an expert on the language, and yet sometimes you start to use a common expression and start to doubt yourself. That's why you need a dictionary of idioms. The one I keep on my desk is out of print, but this one gets good reviews.

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Dictionary of American Slang
Everything I said about idioms (above) applies to slang, too.

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200 Percent of Nothing: An Eye-Opening Tour Through
The Twists and Turns of Math Abuse and Innumeracy
I love this book. I studiously ducked math classes in college, but now I'm something of an aficionado, between my intricate Excel spreadsheets and my exasperation at writers who cite "200 percent decreases" and the like. This is a great number book for word people.

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The Mezzanine
I said "potpourri," didn't I? This is not a reference book by any means; it's a novel. But it might be my favorite novel. Nicholson Baker's pages-plus-footnotes-long examinations of the minutiae of everyday life are as fascinating as any conventional novel's plot.

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The F-Word
Why $#@%! not?

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