Customer Reviews

Cuss Control: The Complete Book on How to Curb Your Cursing

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ooh, this book made me cringe. I recognized myself more times than I cared to. I bought this book for the specific reason to help me curb my cursing and not only did it curb it, it has pretty much eliminated it.

Mr. O'Connor does an excellent job keeping the reader's attention. I appreciated his explanation of the two types of cursing: causal and casual. I have been able to eliminate casual cursing from my vocabulary and for the most part do very well with causal cursing even to the point of hopping around shouting 'shoot, shoot, shoot' when I stumped my toe recently.

I wish this book were required reading in public schools. My son's junior high is rife with colorful language. I know his language must have been just as bad as everyone elses. I had him and his buddy read through the book, and even through faked shocked giggles at the list of 'dirty' words the book got the point across to them and I've noticed that their language has cleaned up. I've even seen a dramatic decreases in the "Oh Gods" and "Gods" they say. They both said the book made a point of letting them know how ignorant they looked when their language was peppered with foul words. No, I didn't get them to read all the book but enough to make a difference.

Who am I? Well, suprisingly enough, a middle class college educated housewife with a strong religious backing who had found her language filled with the 'f' word and the cursing habit seemed ingrained and hard to break. Until I read Mr. O'Connor's book. Cringe, cringe, cringe....but it was worth the squirming hard look at myself to break this habit. I have been relatively curse free now for three months. The lessons learned in this book are not easily forgotten!

Cuss Control literally had me rolling on the floor. It is a combination of education and tear jerking laughs. It is the kind of book that you think will be a preacher, but in reality the author is subtle in his teaching method, but extremely effective. He teaches so you want to learn and he has a real knack for making you want to "tame your tounge." After reading cuss control I feel like I am a lot more aware of how I affect others in conversation and I am also a lot more aware of how others affect me with their swearing.

I first learned about this book when I saw the author (and two imposters) on the game show "To Tell the Truth". One of the panelists, comedienne Paula Poundstone (besides picking the wrong guy as the REAL James V. O'Connor), seemed to have a problem with the very idea of people encouraging others and themselves to clean up their language. After all, she curses and even allows her children to curse. Well, Paula, I think even you might enjoy this book if you actually read it. Far from advocating censorship, this book can be a valuable help to those who want to curb something that is as much a bad habit as smoking. Plus it is very entertaining, even hilarious in some places.

O'Connor is assuredly no stick-in-the-mud. There are probably more bad words used in this book than in 95% of the books out there, but they are there to make a point. When you read how these words are used, you can see how ridiculous they really sound. Plus, he gives many ideas for word substitutes, but he goes beyond that. Differentiating between "casual" and "causal" cursing, he suggests that it is easier to get rid of casual swearing. As for the causal, he attempts to attack it at the root, which is often anger and frustration, and points out that an attitude change is what is needed. If nothing else, this book makes you more aware of your use of language and how it affects you at work, at home, and, yes, in traffic. I know a guy who read this book and his cursing was curbed almost immediately because he was more aware and alert to it. (What, do you think I'm talking about myself? Hey, someone who knows me might be reading this right now, so keep your doggoned mouth shut!)

I bought this book because it received high ratings in one of my magazines: sort of half as a joke and half because I did feel like I was cussing too much.

This book was hilarious and not at all preachy. He used humor very effectively for deterring cussing. He's right, when you think about what you are ACTUALLY, literally saying...a lot of cuss phrases sound really stupid.

The personal narratives were also really effective. Not only did you see how this kind of negativity hurt others but sometimes...when you actually see the cussing in print it's embarrassing. What I am saying is, when you read it you realize that you may be being a little irrational.

A great book...a humorous look at working towards a behavior change. Good fun.

This is not your typical self-help book but it is an educational tool. It is written in laymans terms so that everyone can benefit from its eye-opening concepts. This book also contains real interviews with all types of people from all walks of society. Each interview reveals a shocking tale of personal insight which is not only entertaining but also life changing.

Dagnabbit! Americans cuss too much. Or so is the finding of James V. O'Connor in his new book "Cuss Control." Actually not all Americans routinely turn the air blue with profanity, take the Lord's name in vain, pepper their sentences with the f-word as adjective, adverb and noun, or use the s-word for anything mildly disagreeable. Half of Americans polled don't cuss at all--at least not so that anyone else can hear them.

And that's a problem, isn't it? We have two Americas--one that thinks it can wear t-shirts to the ball game that would have gotten them arrested 15 years ago and another that keeps cable TV out of the house precisely so their kids don't grow up hearing those expressions.

O'Connor wants reform, and he wants it now. He knows that people aren't going to stop 100 percent of their swearing, and he doesn't advocate that, but he wants swear words restricted to their legitimate function--outbursts in the face of intolerable frustration and pain. He wants to outlaw "casual" cussing and put as much of a damper as possible on "causal" cussing. Instead of the sort of words we hear on NBC, O'Connor suggests expletives like "Man O Man," "Son of a Gun," "he got the tar knocked out of him," and so on.

Even better, says O'Connor, would be to remove the verbal heat that makes cussing and pseudo-cussing a necessity. If we would all cool down a little, our language wouldn't have to be so imprudent. Leave to work 15 minutes earlier and you won't be so tempted to flip off the guy who cut you off on the freeway. Put off going to the dry cleaners until tomorrow and you won't call the person who cuts in line at the supermarket a dirty name (well, not so she can hear, anyway).

O'Connor's ideas are useful, though at times a bit pollyannish (for the ultimate ugly 12-letter word he suggests as a substitute "buttercutter" because it scans the same). Ultimately, of course, O'Connor is right--if we could live together in a more civil way, we would keep a civil tongue. As such, "Cuss Control" is about half linguistics, half etiquette--and all useful.

A surprisingly entertaining read with a lession for all of us.If you want to clean up your mouth-or clean up your act-I strongly recommend Mr. O'Connor's highly original book.

O'Connor does a great job of providing tips on how to curb your propensity to swear, and he does it in a very amusing way. The chapters are quite clever -- I spent a weekend with my family and everyone who picked up the book to "look at it" spent a few hours reading through it. It's almost unheard of for all of us to be drawn to the same books! I remember seeing the author on Oprah -- and was surprised to learn that even she says she needs help in this department!

I think this might be a good book to have colleagues at work read, especially in a high pressure environment.

I was in the bookstore yesterday and the title of this book caught my eye. My first thought was "Why the @*!# should I control my cursing? That's when it struck me that my language has gotten a bit um...colorful lately and I bought the book. I'm happy to say that it's entertaining, clever and it makes it's case. Will it make me curb my salty tounge in the future? Well, for a little while anyway, yes.

I laughed when I got this book from a friend because I did not realize how much I was swearing. I was just getting used to using profane language and sometimes I would catch myself when I was in front of kids. It was starting to become too casual and not just reserved for when I was really mad. However, my friend noticed and got me this book. I read it and found it to be quite helpful in that it gets you to think about the circumstances that you start to swear and tells you to be conscious of not using "bad" words. I have cut back my cussing to now just when I need it for dramatic emphasis.