Quirky Qwerty: A Biography of the Typewriter and Its Many Characters [Mass Market Paperback]

Torbjorn Lundmark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2003

This charming book whisks the reader through a fascinating, lighthearted history of an object most people take for granted: the keyboard. Recounting the development of "Qwerty," the modern typing system millions use everyday-named for the first six letters on the keyboard, Q.W.E.R.T.Y.-TorbjArn Lundmark taps out a neat archaeology of each letter and symbol and brings the discussion into the twenty-first century by addressing the role of punctuation in the digital age. Lundmark's vast knowledge, solid research, and friendly, digestible style make this a perfect book for both the casual word-buff and the experienced linguist.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Torbjörn Lundmark, born in Sweden, studied languages at the University of Uppsala and was on the philological faculty at Voronezh University. A professional writer for both children and adults he is also an illustrator and cartoonist.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (August 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142002704
• ISBN-13: 978-0142002704
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,089,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for W, Go to F, April 18, 2002

By 

Adam Kallish (Oak Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quirky Qwerty: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your Fingertips (Paperback)

And you thought that the alphabet is only 26 simple letters. Torbjorn Lundmark, a true hybrid Swede living in Australia with a background in lingustics, and is also an illustrator and cartoonist has taken a well trodden road and made it accessible. Over 170 pages, he deconstructs the development of the typewriter (which may sound dull, but is quite interesting) and reviews not only the 26 letters, but all the supporting punctuation. The history of each letter and where it was born, stolen and reintegrated (usually after some modifications) are little mini odyssey's. The @ symbol was almost extinct until Ray Tomlinson used it to link names to server addresses. There is a very extensive reference section for more exploration. I would highly recommend this book for experienced designers and novices alike.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing amount of information in such a small book, January 14, 2004

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quirky Qwerty: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your Fingertips (Paperback)

This book manages to include, in one little package, material about the history of the letters of the alphabet, the history of the typewriter and its odd keyboard arrangement (as well as other proposed keyboards), the computer codings for various characters, and more. How the author managed such a great information density without becoming unreadable amazes me.

If you have _any_ curiosity about our alphabet, typewriters, or anything related to these, you should read this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars handy reference for word and language geeks, July 22, 2004

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quirky Qwerty: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your Fingertips (Paperback)

This small, easy-to-read, peppered-with-wit book manages to cover just about everything you could possibly want to know about the history of our QWERTY keyboard, who really invented the typewriter, the evolution of our alphabet and the history of such symbols as the dollar sign (and why it's called a "dollar"), the Euro, the pound sign and any other dot and tittle on your keyboard.

Citing historic documents and practices from the Greeks, Semitic tribes, the Irish scribes, Hindu mathematicians, etc., the author gives the reader the "big picture" of the how and why of the symbols we use for math, reading and punctuation.

The book also includes some handy charts of HTML, ASCII and ISO codes for special characters, including key combinations for both PC & Mac.

The chapters are short and to the point. The author uses text creatively, wrapping it around into a design to help bring home a point about a particular symbol's development, etc.

Not exhaustive, but unless you're writing your Master's thesis on this topic, it doesn't need to be - it gives a well-rounded, brief education of the symbols we use every day.