Customer Reviews

X-Treme Latin: All the Latin You Need to Know for Survival in the 21st Century

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

 

 

This book would be funny for those just learning Latin because the English translations are funny. For those who know a fair amount of Latin the laughs are doubled as you read the English then work through the vocabulary chosen to express the sentiment in Latin! Contains countless phrases to be turned into t-shirts for your Latin geek friends and relatives

Woe to this world if Henry Beard ever had to get a desk job. He is a brilliant humorist, who, in recent years, has allowed those of us who slogged through Cicero's speeches, Virgil's Aeneid and Caesar's Gallic Wars to enjoy a hearty laugh. X-Treme Latin is the third in the trilogy of Latin for All Occasions and Latin for Even More Occasions. Now, we are finally able to learn some really useful phrases and lines that would have been unthinkable (not to mention unvocabulariable) 21 centuries ago. Where else would you find snow-boarding lingo, country music song titles, and sushi bar discussions - all in Latin. If this is not proof that the language should have been allowed its respectful last gasps, I don't know what is. Of course, those of us who are corporate desk jockeys will also enjoy Caesar's PowerPoint Presentation. Until you see this book, you don't know how you could have lived without it (probably, pretty nicely, but that is really beside the point). Nevertheless, no longer will doctors, lawyers, and the Vatican have the upper hand when it comes to clever retorts in Latin after you read this book.

i found this book very funny my friend memorized a few phrases to use on the teachers he doesnt like and best of all even if they look it up they wont know what he meant... (its complicated... kind of)

Did these other reviewers read the same book? It consists of very tired uhmm ... "jokes," which you have to know Latin for in order to get the "hilarious" translations. Translating something lame into Latin does not make it funny! The only tidbit I found amusing was on p.15, the Latin for 'If you can read this, I lost my trailer,' which would be pretty funny to have in South Carolina. As for the rest of this yawnfest, the only Latin you need to know is 'caveat emptor'.