Linguists and scholars could nitpick this one to pieces, but as a general history of English for laymen and casual readers it's great. A bit dated, but very well written, funny and entertaining. I have to ding it a bit for it's inaccuracies (especially on languages other than English) but still a delightful read. ( )

Very interesting. Well researched but not overly academic. Classic Bryson ( )

This book confirmed that English is a ridiculously tough language. ( )

I haven't finished it yet. I liked the part about how the English language got this way, spelling, etymology, history, dialects... Really interesting stuff. But i just got to the chapter about grammar and I just want to throw the book out of the window. Bill Bryson has absolutely no knowledge about grammar and acts with an authoritative voice,disregarding very basic concepts,like what present tense is, what it is used for, the difference between present tense and bare infinitive, or between present tense and future tense for the same matter. He doesn't understand the difference between verbs and nouns, and the role they play in sentences.

Quotation: "A noun is a noun and a verb is a verb because grammarians say they are" wow. Awesome logic Brill. Such good arguments. You really convinced me. Of course he doesn't explain why grammarians say they are a noun and a verb, cause he's got no idea.

He makes fun of all the grammar rules, saying how they don't apply to the English language, but then goes on saying how English is sooooo complex and confusing and impossible to make sense of.

Sorry Bill , I think the only one confused here is yourself. Grammar rules make sense. You suck. ( )

Entertaining, informative, occasionally erroneous. I looked into his comment indicating that non-human animals can't choke on food and that this is a price we pay for speech. I found the source in Google books, and discussed it with Perry Habecker at New Boulton - almost certainly false. ( )