The first half of this book was incredibly strong and well-researched, but I found that Henry's attempts to connect early spelling reform movements to modern day "text speak" and emojis to be a bit of a reach and would have preferred more detail on the early 20th century. Still, an enjoyable book.

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.