The Word Snoop
I’ve never found a book on etymology or language in general that I haven’t loved at first sight, but this one should appeal to even those among us who aren’t completely obsessed with words. The Word Snoop includes great explanations of why English is so complicated and unusually arbitrary-appearing in its grammar and spelling and discusses the evolution of the alphabet, silent letters, the history of punctuation with examples of global usage (e.g. how a period looks in Hebrew or Japanese), and tons of assorted fun facts. I am happy to report that I now know exactly what pangrams, lipograms, backronyms, and oronyms are and have been brushing up on my Pig Latin of late as well.
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