Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English

As the author explains, he does not take issue with the so-called "educated or uneducated" uses of the English language. Between You and I is more concerned with the particular form of English debasement we now have, which might be called the "half-educated" uses of language.

Readers may be surprised to find that much of what they thought was "bad" English is in fact perfectly good, and that what they have learned to think of as "good" English is sometimes ignorant, dishonest or just plain stupid.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Good, but no "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", 2007-01-03
Maybe I'm burned out on the genre. Technically this book is just as helpful as any other of its ilk, but I didn't find it the joy that "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" was.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Easy read, fun, but not rigorous, 2006-11-03
This book was easy to read and quite fun. It has lots of sayings that make you say, "Ah-ha" when you realize something you hear all the time is wrong, or at least questionable. Some of the entries have some good research and background. I think everyone would like this book because there is enough variety that every person will find some phrases they also think are barbaric and others they'll disagree with the author about (oops, ended my sentence with a preposition, I think...). So lots of debate topics available and it will make you think.

However, the book is a bit shallow; some of the reasoning and "background" on some of the phrases seems suspect; it is certainly not a rigorously researched book and by no means complete or authoritative. It reads as if it was written by someone who knows English well, has some pet peeves, and is probably right about a lot of things, but didn't put a whole lot of effort into research for the book. I found _Eats, Shoots, and Leaves_ to be even better than this book. Wittier, if nothing else. Still, this book is fun and very quick read. Worth it if you don't pay full price and definitely worth it if you can get your friends to read it so you can argue with them! :-).


7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Fun, but disappointing, 2006-07-15
I am really disappointed (or appalled) by the fact that this guy does not appear to have any understanding of the cause of the problem he used as the title of his book! When kids would say "Jim and me went to the mall," around the 70s when it became popular to have children attend school without actually teaching them anything, teachers started correcting them, "'Jim and I', not 'Jim and me'!" without teaching them anything about why "Jim and me" was wrong. They had no choice but to "learn" that it is wrong to say "Jim and me," and that "Jim and I" must always be used instead. No one taught them that it is just as wrong to use "Jim and I" after a preposition, as it is to use "Jim and me" as the subject. There isn't the slightest question as to why people go around saying "between you and I" today, but the author of this book writes that he doesn't really know quite how this has happened. Incredible.


1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Useful, but could be easier to use, 2006-02-24
I found the book quite useful because I was guilty of quite a number of the mistakes that the author points out.

I would have found the book easier to "use" if the author had clear "right" and "wrong" examples for each case. I guess I'm used to "... for Dummies" books, but at times I had to re-read an example to make sure I understood which case was right, and which wrong.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

between you and i, 2005-08-24
the book was good that i would like to read it again because i told my teacher about it and she want me to do a research on it

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