Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English

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Summary: A non-traditional grammar book
Review: Unlike the traditional grammar book, this book is not really organized by topic, and does not cover every aspect of a particular topic (e.g. tense). The book focuses on interesting and common grammatical mistakes. It is not a book that gives a lecture on grammar. Instead, it is a book that clarifies grammatical questions that have confused many of us. It is not intended for beginners.

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Summary: Wow!
Review: Until you see it, you won't believe how helpful and funny ths book is. I learned more grammar in a week from "Woe Is I" than I did in twelve years of public school and four years of college. It's the best grammar book I've ever read.

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Summary: Very helpful...
Review: I picked this book up on a whim, hoping that it would help clear up any little grammar mistakes i might be making. I was very surprised when i started just reading throught it like a regular book and found myself laughing at some of her little jokes. Not only was it amusing enough to keep my attention, but i found it very useful and found some mistakes that i'd been making for a looooonnnng time that had gone unchecked. If you need help with grammar, but hate learning grammar...buy this book...you'll laugh while you learn!

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Summary: A really helpful book
Review: I can't tell you how much this book has helped me. It's the only grammar book I know of that's really in plain English. You don't have to know any technical terms to understand it. Instead of using a word like "gerund," for example, Ms. O'Conner might say "an ing-word like sleeping." It's also funny, believe it or not. I never expected to laugh out loud reading a grammar book.

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Summary: silly in seattle
Review: Dearest Reader in Seattle - 9/25/98 The correct German idiom for "Woe is me" in Hochdeutsch is "Es tut mir weh" - not "Weh ist mir." DUH! Based on your incorrect or slangy usage of German, I ignored your advice. I bought this book for two of my friends!

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Summary: A Fowler for the Twenty-First Century
Review: I'm a big fan of Fowler's "Modern English Usage," not the recent third edition, which takes too many liberties with the English language, but the classic first two editions, especially Gowers's 1926 revision. I believe that both H.W. Fowler and Sir Ernest Gowers would enjoy the wit of "Woe Is I" and agree with its recommendations.

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Summary: Woe is the reader who takes this seriously
Review: While this is an entertaining book, it should not be taken seriously. Anyone who follows the author's advice will end up sounding poorly educated. Her advice is sometimes clear and can cut through a great deal of nonsense. At other times, she is dead wrong. If you follow her advice, you will sound ignorant. My guess is that the author's democratic approach to language and grammar has gotten the best of her. Grammar rules, if truly arbitrary, ARE nonsense, and should be ignored. Most English grammar rules, though, are NOT arbitrary. They are based on the rules of Latin and also on how the language has been used by the most literate speakers and writers English has produced (Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc.). To "dumb down" grammar so that the norm is based on what the least literate among us do, no matter how many people may do so, is to vulgarize a most beautiful language. The reader should decide if he wants to follow the English of the educated or the ignorant. If you want a book on grammar that can be trusted, I suggest that you get a copy of Fowler's Modern English usage (third edition). It has been the standard for generations.

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Summary: Both useful and a good read!
Review: I didn't know a grammar book could be such a good read! It's a page turner! O'Conner covers problems that aren't handled in other books of this genre. The grammar problems she deals with range from usage I knew (but can now use with more confidence) to usage I wasn't sure about (but didn't know who to ask) to usage I had been mishandling (but never knew it). A useful index means that though I read the book in just two sittings I can look up problems in later years.

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Summary: Good fun and good advice in one package.
Review: I write a lot in my work, and I find that many of the usage issues I face on a daily basis can be quickly resolved by reference to this work. Then the only problem is that I want to keep reading, and I end up chortling in my office and getting stared at quizically by my office mates. Give it a try, and enjoy!

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Summary: A Reference book that makes you smile...
Review: Who would of thought that a book like this could be fun to read? I read this book long ago, but still enjoy looking back upon it. Definately a good choice (along with "Words Fail Me").