I just finished Bill Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors, which, like his other books, is entertaining and helpful.
Reading it like a regular book (as opposed to a dictionary) isn't what I'd recommend, as if you spent hours at a time with it you could easily retain very little. What you'd come away with is: If I ever have a question about usage or spelling, I should consult Bill's book first.
With each letter (it is a dictionary, remember), you'll learn things you didn't know, clarify things you were fuzzy on, and realize some things you would've bet your net worth on are incorrect. There are also words, names and places you never heard of, and when you're finished reading at least you can say you've been introduced to them.
Here are some of my favorites:
- admit to is nearly always wrong. You admit a misdeed; you do not admit to it (5).
- aggravate. Strictly, means to make a bad situation worse. If you walk on a broken leg, you may aggravate the injury. People can never be aggravates, only circumstances (7).
- bereft. To be bereft of something is not to lack it but to be dispossessed of it, to lose it. A spinster is not bereft of a husband, but a widow is. (The word is the past participle of bereave.) (37)
- center around. Center indicates a point, and a point cannot encircle anything. Make it "center on" or "revolve around" (64).
- different. Often used unnecessarily, as in "It is found in more than 250 different types of plants." In such constructions it can nearly always be deleted without loss (96).
- effete does not mean effeminate and weak, as it is often used. It means exhausted and barren. An effete poet is not necessarily foppish, but rather someone whose creative impulses are spent (108).
- gamy. Not -ey (135).
- high jinks ( two words) is the usual spelling, though some dictionaries also accept hijinks. The derivation is unknown, but it is not related (or to be confused with) jinx as in bad luck. The word can be used as either singular or plural (159).
- if and when. Almost always unnecessary. Choose one or the other (170).
- jamb. Not jam. A doorpost or similar (183).
- lacy. Not -ey (197).
- major, as in a "major initiative," "major embarrassment," "major undertaking," and so on, remains a severely overworked words, and this brings a kind of tofu quality to much writing, giving it bulk but little additional flavor. Nearly always it is worth the effort of trying to think of a more precise or expressive term (214).
- nauseous is an adjective describing something that causes nausea ("a nauseous substance"). To feel sick is to be nauseated (237).
- originally is often needlessly inserted into sentences where it conveys no additional information, as here: "The plans were originally drawn up as long ago as 1972" (Observer) (250).
- replete is not merely full but overfull, stuffed (291).
- schadenfreude. (Ger.) Deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others; pronounced shah-den-froy-duh (302).
- thinking to oneself, as in "I thought to myself: 'We're lost,'" is always tautological; there is no one else to whom one can think. Delete "to myself." Similarly vacuous is "in my mind" in constructions like "I could picture in my mind where the offices had been" (331).
- vocal cords. Not chords. Vocal cords are so called because of their shape and structure, not because of their tonal qualities (354).
I don't know about you, but I'm fairly good at eliminating excess verbiage when writing (because I usually edit), but when I read Bryson's book, I realize that my speech is a disaster!
