Customer Reviews

Ampersand

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

And You Thought You Knew About the "and" Symbol!

Quirky lexiconographer and language fanatic Craig Conley pays homage to the oft-forgotten and overlooked symbol of the word "and", the lowly ampersand, in his entertaining and fascinating book Ampersand.

Filled with quotes, hilarious illustrations, historical tidbits, poetic usage and literary theory, Ampersand fills a gap in a true bibliophile's library--you know, the hole where utterly original, unusual and arguably trivial books are supposed to go.

About the sinuous ampersand, did you know that?:

* Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott's epic poem "Omeros" features an ampersand-shaped rectal thermometer in Hell

* The ampersand is the "single features most useful to examine first when looking for writers' handwriting idiosyncrasies, or when comparing two examples of writing to check whether they are in the same hand" (Peter Beal, A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology)

* In his poem "Meditation Celestial & Terrestrial", Wallace Stevens links heaven and earth with an ampersand

* The ampersand was the first ligature to win the game of Twister

* In olden times, children learning to write their alphabets would always end with the ampersand

Funny, absorbing and informative, Ampersand is a 93-page book that belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves etymology and curious tomes. And it's a safe bet that Ampersand would be a great gift for book lovers, too, since it's the only book (that I'm aware of) that is devoted entirely to &.

All hail the ampersand!

-- Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book

This book was a gift for my brother-in-law and he loved it. The book turned up in great condition and was suitably packed to ensure it wasn't damaged. It turned up much quicker than I expected, especially to close to Christmas. I think it took a week to 10 days to arrive - not bad for US to Australia. If you are interested in the history of the ampersand and other interesting trivia about it, this is definitely the book to get.

Really lacking content. I was under the impression that it was going to be a study on the history of the ampersand. However, it just is a fact per-page on the ampersand through out time. I got more out of Wikipedia then this book. Don't waste your time or money.