Customer Reviews

How to Build a Better Vocabulary

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I originally bought this book at a library used book sale some time ago and figured it might come in handy sometime. When I finally got around to reading it, I couldn't put it down. It is replete with effective ways of learning new words, recognizing how groups of words are related, and how to remember their meanings. But they make it fun with mini history lessons, tales of Greek gods and heroes, and humorous anecdotes of students' malapropisms as well as detailed etymologies.

This terrific tome would make an ideal prep for the GRE or any standardized vocabulary test.

There are also sections on common Latin, French, Italian, German, & Spanish phrases & expressions.

This is way more than an antiseptic, desultory, unrelated listing of vocabulary words. I learned a great deal from this book and I considered myself to have a pretty good vocabulary before I read it. Enjoy!

This is the most incredibly wonderful book written on the subject of words. The approach is not like wordlists but is full of stories and anecdotes. This book is an eyeopener for the wonderful world of words.

A must for anyone interested in words at any level.

I got this book while preparing to take the GRE. Their choice of words and their explanations are very good. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who does not just want to cramme the words for an exam. If you love english, you will love this book.

Nurnberg and Rosenblum did a fine job putting together this book of vocabulary words. The different chapters focus on various themes or groups of words, including some from mythology. Some rather obscure and challenging terms are included, and I particularly liked that aspect of this publication. If you're looking for an entertaining vocabulary building book that includes more words than other competing items, then this is the ideal vade mecum for you.

I bought this book when I was in college many years ago, probably to improve my score on a standardized test. Through this book I fell in love with words. It brought them to life. I learned that many words are simply a combination of easily learned prefixes, suffixes and roots. Knowing a few word components and I could decipher thousands of words that otherwise I would not know. I have bought many copies and given them away. I am back to buy a few more, one for my use and others to pass on. My original copy has become so worn and old the pages are brown and falling out, scribbled with notes and my own neologisms. This book played a part in my deciding to become a lawyer. Buy it even if you hate lawyers! It may change your life in some way also.

This is without a doubt the best vocabulary book ever written. I disagree with the review entitled "Just Don't Buy This Book." That reviewer must have read a different book.

The book makes learning words fun by providing interesting and at times amusing stories that capture the meaning and derivation of words. The authors take you back and show you how the words came about. Significantly, the author's get their information across in an interesting way that made it hard for me to put the book down.

Examples are taken from many different areas so that readers are shown that they have only to go to current newspapers and view the sports, business, politics or the arts to immediately see how the words in this book can be found in everyday literature.

I am now on my second copy since the first one fell apart after many years hours of use.

I highly recommend this book and only wish that I had come across the book sooner. The book is written in such a way that it could be used productively for self study, in grade school, high school or at the college level. If this last claim seems outrageous, try the book first at your local library before buying. You will be amazed!

I used this book 10 yrs ago, when I was in India, while preparing for GRE. GRE students typically go for the Norman Lewis book which I feel is too thin on substance. This book ( Rosenblum) is fantastic, but may be a lot of archaic words need to be pruned, but hey the book was never written from a GRE test-takers point of view. Great Price.

I actually looked up the words in this book online for extra sentences and i did find them being used in the new yorker, ny times, among others so they really aren't archaic. I just read a newsweek article on "Mr. Bean's" new movie and when they mentioned "we had to jettison the ...." i knew what they were talking about thanks to this book.
I like the way it groups stuff together to allow you to learn the words.
I'm a college student who doesn't have time for lots of things so i needed something that isn't boring and this books seems to serve the purpose.

I bought 3 vocabulary books for study during summer. Among those 3, this book has the worst quality. the words in this book are too old (1950s) Maybe my grand father found this book was useful in that days. But not now!. And the examples and explanations are so weak that these words don't make any chunk as they insist! Moreover, this book has unreasonable higher price than other vocablary books. the paper is so low quality . And the letters are too small to percieve. You might regret if you buy this low quality book. I recommend to buy "1100 words you need to know". That was really helpful.