A decent little book on the origins of the alphabet, the first half being about the global question of how the Latin script developed from hieroglyphics via cuneiform, Phoenician, Greek and etruscan, and the second half taking each letter individually. I’ve read several books on this topic so not much was new to me; the information is very much presented for the non-specialist, and readers may well wonder what the sounds were precisely that were represented by the Semitic letters aleph and ayin ( and ); Davies makes no attempt to bring in the details of phonetics. It’s also a bit of a shame that he misses out any discussion of the lost letters of the English alphabet – he does at least meantion yogh and wynn (ȝ and ƿ) but not thorn or edh (þ or ð), which is an educationaal opportunity missed – or of any other Latin-based languages. One would get the impression from the book that the English version of the Latin alphabet is the only one currently in use.
From the Heart of Europe
Books, politics, languages and life
I just recently read -The Last Unicorn.- I suspect it might be a ‘YMMV’ book, but I will say that if it’s the sort of thing you’re susceptible to, it will explode in your mind like crystals of pure wonderment. Beagle’s language, on a sentence-by-sentence level, is incredible. If I had to offer any criticism, I’d say that the first half of the book lands a bit more of a punch than the second, but that’s about the worst I can say.
I have never really been able to get into -Lord Valentine’s Castle,- though I mean to, and have tried before. I might just be more inclined to SIlverberg’s brisker work.
There is a raw passion and verve to Howard’s original Conan stories that elevates them, I think, above so much of the other stuff he wrote… there is also a reflective melancholy that has not been captured in any translation of the character to film. He doesn’t have the sly playfulness of, say, Fritz Leiber, or the flexibility of Leight Brackett, but he was working a few years earlier than they did. Conan stories can make great apertifs (or digestifs, as you prefer) interspersed with longer readings.
Any recommendation of -Lies- from me would have to be suspect. I do think I can safely assure you that it’s a heartbreaking, bittersweet tapestry of life itself and that you’ll promptly re-name your children after the main characters. Also, any copy of the book will cure gout with a touch and can transmute lead into gold once every 24 hours. The eBook version, in any language, has a special feature where 1 in 50 lucky readers will be transported to the Death Zone on Gallifrey and get a chance to play the Game of Rassilon.
(Actually, silly as I find this whole sort of poll in general, I had no idea -Lies- had made the list until I saw it here. I am pleased, for what it’s worth.)