Rating: 
Summary: A fun romp through the history of the alphabet.
Review: Cohesively and convivially written as a review of the roots of our modern alphabet, "Alpha Beta" is a pleasure to read. The author infuses the work with his enthusiasm for the alphabet both in its role as a technology and as a cultural icon. The transmitted wisdom on the origins of the alphabet and the latest evidence from the archeologist's brush & trowel are presented with well narrated places, events, and participants.The author clearly has his favored theory on the evolutionary origins of A-to-Z and the single criticism I can level at the book is it's exclusive presentation of the Proto-Sinaitic path of development from Ancient Egyptian. Some background on other possible lines of descent would have made the work stronger by their refutation. The book is packed with interesting details and unexpected ripple effects regarding alphabet usages. The Hebrew alphabet's success in promulgating monotheism is examined as an important effect of the adoption of alphabets. The conditions under which some alphabets "like to buy a vowel" and others do not are also explored. This is a highly enjoyable read - both entertaining and educational - which I can heartily recommend.
Rating:
Summary: A fun romp through the history of the alphabet.
Review: Cohesively and convivially written as a review of the roots of our modern alphabet, "Alpha Beta" is a pleasure to read. The author infuses the work with his enthusiasm for the alphabet both in its role as a technology and as a cultural icon. The transmitted wisdom on the origins of the alphabet and the latest evidence from the archeologist's brush & trowel are presented with well narrated places, events, and participants. The author clearly has his favored theory on the evolutionary origins of A-to-Z and the single criticism I can level at the book is it's exclusive presentation of the Proto-Sinaitic path of development from Ancient Egyptian. Some background on other possible lines of descent would have made the work stronger by their refutation. The book is packed with interesting details and unexpected ripple effects regarding alphabet usages. The Hebrew alphabet's success in promulgating monotheism is examined as an important effect of the adoption of alphabets. The conditions under which some alphabets "like to buy a vowel" and others do not are also explored. This is a highly enjoyable read - both entertaining and educational - which I can heartily recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Parson's Egg
Review: I found this book quite informative and intriguing in parts but it also included some very dodgy logic and a style of English which makes USA Today read like Shakespeare. I found Man's central hypothesis that the Roman alphabet is the most efficient way of transferring the spoken word to written format hardly credible. His analysis of Chinese and the merits of Chinese characters versus the alphabet is facile and the Japanese language is not given a mention. However, neither are Arabic nor any of the Indian languages, so I suppose speakers of those languages should not feel discriminated against. More irritatingly, the extermination of the Mayan written heritage by the Spanish might suggest to some (but not to John Man) that efforts to diffuse the Roman alphabet in Central/South America were not totally meritorious. Man certainly has collected some interesting snippets of knowledge about how the Roman alphabet developed but too often the ideas are not fully developed, or the train of thought sputters out midway. The whole book would have been better in the hands of a Simon Singh or Simon Winchester, where the intellectual rigour could have been maintained without the silly anecdotes about the author's childhood experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite interesting indeed.
Review: I was indeed quite surprised to find so many negative comments about this book from other readers' reviews. Indeed personally I found this book quite interesting, just to mention how the author proposed the interesting theory of the evolution of the character "a" in the chapter of "Letters in the Wilderness". And I like the chapter of "Into Sinai" which proposed another theory of how a biblical figure (Mose) was created. I have no way to tell if his theories are with or without facts, but it's interesting to read.
Rating:
Summary: An Unconventional and Stimulating Look at Expressing Ideas
Review: If you are like me, this book will surprise you. I expected something like 26 chapters with each saying something about each letter of the alphabet and its origin. Instead, the book tries to find the earliest precursors of the modern alphabet, and connect the dots from there to the use of modern languages on the World Wide Web. In doing so, the book relies on a combination of interesting conjecture, reviews of well-established but little-known scholarship, and cutting-edge, in-process research that will be new to most readers who are not in linguistics. In reading Alpha Beta, the insights you get will be different from what you expected. An alphabet works well because it fits a lot of languages equally poorly. As such, it is a form of "fuzzy logic" that mathematicians love. Korea has developed the alphabet that is most closely connected to its base language. Most alphabets succeed because of the military and commercial strength of the culture that favors them, rather than how good they are. The mixtures of ancient alphabets, languages, and religions are much more complex than you probably ever imagined. The process of taking an oral tradition, and making it into a written one is also powerfully explained (as happened with both the Bible and Homer's masterpieces). I graded the book down because it tended to tell me more than I wanted to know about how each of the cultures evolved, and less than I wanted to know about the details of how an alphabet's creation solved specific language problems. After you finish this book, think about what the potential benefits could be of reforming the alphabet to eliminate more of the confusions inherent in expressing English. What would make it easier to be precise in this language, while making the language easier to learn? Make your point clearly!
Rating:
Summary: An Unconventional and Stimulating Look at Expressing Ideas
Review: If you are like me, this book will surprise you. I expected something like 26 chapters with each saying something about each letter of the alphabet and its origin.
Instead, the book tries to find the earliest precursors of the modern alphabet, and connect the dots from there to the use of modern languages on the World Wide Web. In doing so, the book relies on a combination of interesting conjecture, reviews of well-established but little-known scholarship, and cutting-edge, in-process research that will be new to most readers who are not in linguistics. In reading Alpha Beta, the insights you get will be different from what you expected. An alphabet works well because it fits a lot of languages equally poorly. As such, it is a form of "fuzzy logic" that mathematicians love. Korea has developed the alphabet that is most closely connected to its base language. Most alphabets succeed because of the military and commercial strength of the culture that favors them, rather than how good they are. The mixtures of ancient alphabets, languages, and religions are much more complex than you probably ever imagined. The process of taking an oral tradition, and making it into a written one is also powerfully explained (as happened with both the Bible and Homer's masterpieces). I graded the book down because it tended to tell me more than I wanted to know about how each of the cultures evolved, and less than I wanted to know about the details of how an alphabet's creation solved specific language problems. After you finish this book, think about what the potential benefits could be of reforming the alphabet to eliminate more of the confusions inherent in expressing English. What would make it easier to be precise in this language, while making the language easier to learn? Make your point clearly!
Rating:
Summary: Those Most Important Symbols
Review: On a visceral level, most educated people understand how important reading and writing are, though it often seems that both are out of vogue as anything more than functional tools these days. Still, no matter how the literary may mourn (and I count myself as one of these), there is something to be said for the simple functionality of these twenty-six shapes that define the "Roman" alphabet. As John Man reminds us, it is this concept of alphabet as a subset of writing--since writing can exist without an alphabet--that allowed civilization to develop in the way that it has.
As a teacher of math and science I have often given more thought to the development of number than I have to the development of the alphabet; and yet, both subjects are equally intriguing and important. Both have contributed to the rise of our modern culture in different and important ways. I am fascinated by many of the things that Man has to say about the development of these important symbols. For example, it is interesting to think about how the leap was made from "symbol as word" to "symbol as sound" which is at the heart of the leap to the alphabet. Then there is the paradigm-shift that has to take place as younger cultures appropriate the concept and develop it. It is an incredible story. And, for the most part, Man tells it well. It seems a little brief at times but it is a good overview of a complex subject that is still advancing day by day. Anyone interested in writing and language would be foolish not to take a look at this most readable book.
Rating:
Summary: Those Most Important Symbols
Review: On a visceral level, most educated people understand how important reading and writing are, though it often seems that both are out of vogue as anything more than functional tools these days. Still, no matter how the literary may mourn (and I count myself as one of these), there is something to be said for the simple functionality of these twenty-six shapes that define the "Roman" alphabet. As John Man reminds us, it is this concept of alphabet as a subset of writing--since writing can exist without an alphabet--that allowed civilization to develop in the way that it has. As a teacher of math and science I have often given more thought to the development of number than I have to the development of the alphabet; and yet, both subjects are equally intriguing and important. Both have contributed to the rise of our modern culture in different and important ways. I am fascinated by many of the things that Man has to say about the development of these important symbols. For example, it is interesting to think about how the leap was made from "symbol as word" to "symbol as sound" which is at the heart of the leap to the alphabet. Then there is the paradigm-shift that has to take place as younger cultures appropriate the concept and develop it. It is an incredible story. And, for the most part, Man tells it well. It seems a little brief at times but it is a good overview of a complex subject that is still advancing day by day. Anyone interested in writing and language would be foolish not to take a look at this most readable book.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: The development of alphabets, and specifically of the western alphabet, is not straightforward. But John Mann makes it even more confusing than the subject is all on its own. Rather than try to make steps and pieces link up in an understandable manner, the author jumps around, adds lots of tangential anecdotes that could be intereting but aren't relevant, and drags things out. I have the sense that what might have made a good magazine article or two have been padded, a lot, to make it book length. The book would benefit greatly from some illustrations and diagrams. There are two appendices, but they aren't referenced in the text and the reader won't even discover them unless you look to see how much farther you have to read. The author, for some reason, has decided that the western alphabet owes its beginnings to the epics of Homer, and proceeds to reassert that throughout the book, although the justification for that assertion never does become clear or strong. Nor does the distinciton between cuneiform and other forms of writing. There are a lot of interesting bits of information in the book, just not put together as well as they should be.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD TOPIC, HAPHAZARD GISTS
Review: The motive of this book is very fine, but its factual presentation is the exact opposite.
Starting with the first chapter, John Man's intention to initiate his audience into the ancient Chinese writings brought confusion to both himself and his audience. Information about the ancient Egyptian writings are not better. They were presented in hazy haphazard manner. It is easy to lose patience with the very first part.
The author had scarcely understood his topic before rushing into teaching his audience.
Nevetheless, I must add that if the needed homework is accomplished, Mr Man would come up with a better book: a very interesting piece. But as regards the current situation, most readers would get lost in this book. It is that confusing!
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