Rating: 
Summary: An anguish to read this book
Review: This book is mostly about errors made by the author's students when he was a teacher. I was a teacher myself, so I guess I can crank out a turkey like this and get paid for the dumb things my students had written. This book is filled with the common errors you would expect from students in any grade level (or from the average person who was educated through the American public school system). Besides students, the author uses other sources to fill the pages, but nothing of historical importance. I ordered this book because it seemed interesting. Within minutes of getting it, I was wondering if it would be worth the effort to return a $6 book.
Rating: 
Summary: Funniest thing in print!
Review: This book makes regular appearences at our house every holiday. Sooner or later someone pulls it off the shelf and starts reading choice bits aloud, and shortly the whole room is rolling on the floor. It's great fun to read by yourself, but for best effect try reading aloud to someone. Our rule is that when someone can't complete a quote because they're laughing too hard, they pass the book to the next reader, and it's rare for one person to keep the book more than about five minutes. Especially recommended for pun lovers.
Rating:
Summary: More of the same
Review: This book was as disappointing as the author's other books I have tried to read. I seem to be continuously fooled by what these books seem to be, or what they cold have been, and am brought up short by what they actually are. In this case, a pedantic jaunt through junk e-mail type one-liners. I hold a college degree, studied English and creative writing, and am not illiterate, as another reviewer claims those who dislike this book must be. Perhaps my expectations are too high...a book should be entertaining?
Rating: 
Summary: Fun but not spectacular
Review: This collection of written and verbal faux pas has its moments of hilarity but it is best read quickly. Like any collection of one-liners a fair number of them miss the mark but taken in rapid sequence the truly funny ones will keep the momentum going during the dry spells. Good enough to glance through or to have lying around a bathroom.
Rating: 
Summary: Loads of Linguistic Levity
Review: Too often those of us who love the English Language put its lexicon up on a pedestal isolated from the world of irreverence or revelry. We view even the most good-natured mocking of it as a sacrilege. Richard Lederer has produced the perfect antidote to such sacrosanct pomposity with his laugh-out-loud collection of confused usage examples. The wise underlining message of this risible read is that the richness of out mother tongue is greatly enhanced by its propensity for malapropisms, mispronunciations, misspeaks, and the melange of other maladies that can and regularly do befall it. His chapter on rewritten history--a compilation of actual student papers' errors--reads like a much more amusing version of the revisionist rants that get taught in too many public schools these days. Lines such as "The Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was called Pilgrim's Progress...Many people died and many babies were born; Captain John Smith were responsible for all this" should rightly make us shutter when found in a post-modern textbook, but merely cause guffaws when taken from student essays. While much can be lost in translation, priceless gems can sometimes be found in inter-linguistic exchanges as this gallimaufry of goofs from other languages amply proves. Cited nuggets include a Roman laundry that blatantly announced, "ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time," or the French hotel--presumably a hangout for swingers--that requests all guests, "please leave your values at the front desk." None seem to top the Japanese motel tailor-made for former President Clinton advising all visitors that "you are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid." Perhaps no aspect of our revered English is as hallowed as the rules of grammar. Violating certain principles (What do yous guys want?) earn automatic and well-deserved odium. Yet even among these dogmatic deficiencies, Mr. Lederer found fodder for merriment. Sometimes the ambiguity of a pronoun can have an unintended, but uproarious impact on the perceived meaning of a sentence. Authentic selections include, "according to the report, a vehicle struck the mailbox as it attempted to get back on the roadway." Pity that the mailbox was so slow moving. Regarding ravenous politicians, we read "after Governor Baldwin watched the lion perform he was taken to Main Street and fed 25 pound of raw meat." Spelling errors and wrong words often go undetected, but in certain instances they can truly change a sentence's intended message. The book quotes an article that read, "during peek season the beach is covered with hundreds of bikini-clad beauties;" people are probably "peeking' during all seasons. Bug spray would be a minor concern to a garden where "the pistol of a flower is the only protection against insects," and it's best to have a holiday dinner out when one hears that "on Thanksgiving morning we could smell the foul cooking." The referenced items above are random choices representative of the many inadvertently funny linguistic mistakes that comprise this rousing work. After finishing "Anguished English" readers should have a duplicitous glow--one part for the mirth that always stimulates a tired soul and the other a renewed respect for our glorious English--a majestic language that is not afraid to laugh at itself.
Rating:
Summary: Loads of Linguistic Levity
Review: Too often those of us who love the English Language put its lexicon up on a pedestal isolated from the world of irreverence or revelry. We view even the most good-natured mocking of it as a sacrilege. Richard Lederer has produced the perfect antidote to such sacrosanct pomposity with his laugh-out-loud collection of confused usage examples. The wise underlining message of this risible read is that the richness of out mother tongue is greatly enhanced by its propensity for malapropisms, mispronunciations, misspeaks, and the melange of other maladies that can and regularly do befall it. His chapter on rewritten history--a compilation of actual student papers' errors--reads like a much more amusing version of the revisionist rants that get taught in too many public schools these days. Lines such as "The Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was called Pilgrim's Progress...Many people died and many babies were born; Captain John Smith were responsible for all this" should rightly make us shutter when found in a post-modern textbook, but merely cause guffaws when taken from student essays. While much can be lost in translation, priceless gems can sometimes be found in inter-linguistic exchanges as this gallimaufry of goofs from other languages amply proves. Cited nuggets include a Roman laundry that blatantly announced, "ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time," or the French hotel--presumably a hangout for swingers--that requests all guests, "please leave your values at the front desk." None seem to top the Japanese motel tailor-made for former President Clinton advising all visitors that "you are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid." Perhaps no aspect of our revered English is as hallowed as the rules of grammar. Violating certain principles (What do yous guys want?) earn automatic and well-deserved odium. Yet even among these dogmatic deficiencies, Mr. Lederer found fodder for merriment. Sometimes the ambiguity of a pronoun can have an unintended, but uproarious impact on the perceived meaning of a sentence. Authentic selections include, "according to the report, a vehicle struck the mailbox as it attempted to get back on the roadway." Pity that the mailbox was so slow moving. Regarding ravenous politicians, we read "after Governor Baldwin watched the lion perform he was taken to Main Street and fed 25 pound of raw meat." Spelling errors and wrong words often go undetected, but in certain instances they can truly change a sentence's intended message. The book quotes an article that read, "during peek season the beach is covered with hundreds of bikini-clad beauties;" people are probably "peeking' during all seasons. Bug spray would be a minor concern to a garden where "the pistol of a flower is the only protection against insects," and it's best to have a holiday dinner out when one hears that "on Thanksgiving morning we could smell the foul cooking." The referenced items above are random choices representative of the many inadvertently funny linguistic mistakes that comprise this rousing work. After finishing "Anguished English" readers should have a duplicitous glow--one part for the mirth that always stimulates a tired soul and the other a renewed respect for our glorious English--a majestic language that is not afraid to laugh at itself.
Rating:
Summary: Anguished 12 year old
Review: We bought this book for our 12 year old son. After reading the first few pages together he went on to finish the book in a couple of days and then re-read it another time or two( laughing all the way). Ben now quotes from the book at regular appropriate (and inappropriate) times and plans to read the rest of this series just as fast as we can order the books.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and Fun!
Review: Without a doubt if you were to pick up this book, it would definately be for the chapter of the History According to Student Bloopers. Some of the funniest bits of comedy you will come across in a long time. Who could forget such non-sensical thinking from students such as "Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English." Or "Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this." Just a great read and even funnier when read out loud to a few of your friends. Aside, there is the popular court case transcriptions of stupid lawyers who are too busy analyzing words and not realizing their lack of common sense. There are other funny, funny chapters that will have you rolling. Its actually tough to read in one sitting because you will be too busy laughing (and the author advises you should not read it all at once). A classic in the degradation of the English language and one you will read over and over with a chuckle every time!
Rating:
Summary: Simply hilarious
Review: You may have read a chapter of "Anguished English" already, as part of the famed chain e-mail and internet joke "History according to Students" or something like that. Well, the rest of it is just as funny: Anguished English is just plain hilarious.
There is no excuse for not reading (or not liking) this book. If you don't find such loony gems as "Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper" funny, you need to have your head examined.
The funniest book on English there is. Read it. And then read the sequels...
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