When I saw this book was coming out, I knew I had to read it and am so glad that I did. There were so many things in there that I hadn't thought about for so long, like the joke about the kid who tries to spell fish and comes up with ghoti. I had to stop and think when the author said there are seven different ways to pronounce ough.

I loved reading the history of the different people who are trying to simplify our spelling. Then, of course, men arguing over whose spelling would be better. I really loved all the political cartoons mocking President Roosevelt. Good political cartoons are extremely undervalued.

This is an amazing book!!!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

Like most non-native speakers, I can attest that English is hard. Why can’t you not just write it like it sounds? This hilarious book provides some answers, from the history of the language to its uses and some misguided attempts to simplify its spelling. Impeccably researched, it is packed with fascinating historical facts, including some alphabets created to try to make it more accessible and easier to learn. I could relate to the parts that dealt with the difficulties faced by foreigners, and it is spot on. Many of the questions raised here don’t have a definite answer, just educated guesses, but that’s not the point. A few chapters seemed a little dry for me, but in general it was very entertaining. It is also very funny (the famous songs transcribed using some of the writing systems analyzed in the book were especially witty). The author’s predictions of what the future holds are fascinating, especially considering how much we rely on autocorrect these days. Now, if I could figure out how to spell "analyze"…
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Dey Street Books.

As a former English major and current Librarian, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've always been so fascinated by language and how it has changed and evolved throughout time. I had no idea that well-known scholars made sincere and researched arguments about the value of a "simplified" language. What the world might look like today if they had succeeded!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

this was so fun!!! I feel like it was tailor-made for me.
Gabe Henry combines a niche slice of humor with witty writing and some fun bonus content at the end of this book. I read an advanced ebook copy and can tell that this is going to be beautiful in its finished, physical form—from the formatting of the ebook, it looks like this will have call-outs/quotes/pictures that make "enough is enuf" a contender for my coffee table.
such a fascinating, forgotten piece of history

I LOVED this book! I am not a nonfiction person by any means, but I have a partner who is constantly questioning and struggling with spelling, and why things are spelled the way they are. I asked for this galley almost as a joke, to get some answers to his questions that seemed crazy, but I got SO much more. I loved seeing the samples of old writing, the different ways of spelling, knowing how much of our language today is just a weird culmination of everyone trying to figure out what in the world English should be. HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interested in etymology, orthography, advertising, writers, activists...You know, I think there are bits of this book that could hook almost anyone. Excited to get my hands on the physical copy at release!

This is not a book intended to be read in a sit-down, mug of hot chocolate, cozy blanket way. It is not even a non-fiction copy to pull out at a dull dinner party in hopes of impressing the dental assistant next to you. I believe that this book would be best packaged as a coffee table book, and that unless you often battle with your internal grammar Nazi on whether to correct your aging father's use of "insted" or the like, you don't particularly need to read this. This is not to say I didn't learn anything, and so, if you are interested in joining the ranks of people who learn of simplified spelling, then let it simmer in the back of their mind for fear of social ridicule if you attempt to partake in the movement, go right ahead. Perhaps, tho, there r other topikz that would b a beter use of brain space.