Rating: 
Summary: Oh so necessary.
Review: The thing I like most about this book - apart from it being a fantastic resource - is its tone. In Junk English, Ken Smith takes all the things you secretly dislike and slams them - but with the subtlety of a truly insightful, and obviously talented, writer.I think if this book had "profundized" any further, it would no longer suit its intended audience, as Mr. Smith states so himself in his opening message: "This book is a broad overview of an encyclopedic subject. Much had to be pared away... My intent was to keep this book small and handy so that it would be useful to a spectrum of people, for Junk English will not go away until all of us recognize it." The experts in psychology and semiotics have far less of a need for this book than the person trying to decode the text on their credit card bill. A very necessary book!
Rating: 
Summary: We're a Dying Breed
Review: This book is a fascinating and hilarious and at the same time somewhat melancholy examination of where our language is heading and what our culture has done to it. The "militant grammarians" among us, who daily bemoan the casual butchering of linguistic precision, will gasp with wonder and relief that we are not the only ones who notice these barbarities. Our second reaction, however, is to realize that though we may think we know our language well (and we probably do, compared to our peers), we don't know it nearly as well as we should, or as well as Ken Smith does. We'll see examples in this book of lexical misdeeds that we ourselves commit on a regular basis, and we'll fret, "How can I continue to call myself a stickler for grammar when my perspicacity is not perfect and complete?" The third reaction, I think, is depression. Smith is certainly right about Junk English, its origins and its consequences. But who cares? Aside from those of us who pay attention (and we're a precious tiny little minority), accuracy in written and spoken English is declasse. I often feel that advertising, PR propaganda, political reportage, and corporate communications are written largely by morons for other morons, so everyone's satisfied. What is to be done? Smith isn't trying to provide a solution to our language's ills, but his focusing on the problem does raise the question. My mild criticism of the book consists in Smith's apparent lack of patience with whimsy, colloquialism, and artistic embellishment. Sometimes, when we neglect to use the most economical or efficient word, we do so on purpose -- to use the "au courant" argot of a specific constituency, to dress up a sentence for the simple love of language, or just for fun. Junk English seems to be more about using words and phrases without a thorough understanding of their meaning or implication -- but this book occasionally steps beyond this into written inefficiency. Writers who are concerned about getting caught themselves in the morass of Junk English, however, should keep a copy of this book around. After you finish a draft, flip through its pages and see if anything you've done is named there.
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