I’ve never been one to constantly be reading. I know many who can get through a book in a couple of hours and never fall asleep during the read, like I do. The latest books I read have been through referral, and that’s definitely the best way to discover new books. I prefer non-fiction, so here are some great books I’ve read recently thanks to friends or others recommending them:

How to Be Like Walt - This is possibly the best biography of Walt Disney I’ve come across. The book pulls together Walt’s life lessons and attributes like imagination, optimism, courage, integrity, and hope for tomorrow, and shows how you can apply his learnings to your life.

Blink - A bestseller about snap judgments and first impressions–and their importance. Blink shows you how the hidden unconscious plays a major role in our decision-making.

Vagabonding - Rolf Pott’s book will change your mindset about independent long-term travel. How to get started, life on the road, travel experiences you may encounter, the joy and self-fulfilling affect of travel. This will give you the travel bug.

One Year Off - Long term travel–with three kids! This is a fun tale of a family who left their jobs and sold everything to travel the world for one year. It’s a fun read and you’ll find yourself smiling throughout.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Mentioned previously by me, an enjoyable lesson in punctuation and grammar, highlighting the sad state of it in our daily life.

The Power of Now - An inspirational and life-changing guide to focusing on living in the moment and simply being present in the Now, not constantly worrying about the future and dwelling on the past, the cause of most of our pain. I’m halfway through and it creates an exciting new possibilities for self-happiness.

You’ll notice I added a Grammar section. I figured if a fourth post about this would appear, it’s only fair.

You may know about my friend, The Grammar Vandal. She’s been all over Boston fixing improperly punctuated signs and correcting carelessly formed words (everyday). Take a look at a sign we both discovered at a new Papyrus store:

It should be ‘every day‘. It is unbelievable that Papyrus’ marketing team would make such a big mistake. I took the liberty of placing a “Panda Says No” sticker from my Eats, Shoots and Leaves book.

The latest news evolves The Grammar Vandal and the police during an effort to correct a street sign that said, “Professors Row”. Take a read and chuckle.

Singular they
Today we had a bit of an argument, which resulted in a denial to my request to become a contributer to her grammar blog. The debate was over the word they (or their, them) to be used as a singular pronoun where the article is indefinite. For example, it is argued that saying, “A good student does their homework,” is incorrect and that ‘their’ should be replaced with ‘his or her’. My friend argued that their is for plural use (’The students did their homework’). I struck back with the fact that they is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary as, “[singular] used to refer to a person of unspecified sex : ask someone if they could help.” Usage defines a word and language does evolve (note the addition of ‘ginormous’ to the Merriam-Webster dictionary just this past week).

Multiple grammar and usage guides have accepted this use of the singular use of they. The Cambridge Guide to English Usage says this use of the word avoids sexism, as many choose to say a universal he instead of him or her:

“It avoids gratuitous sexism and gives the statement broadest reference. ‘They/them/their’ are now freely used in agreement with singular indefinite pronouns and determiners, those with universal implications such as any(one), every(one), no(one), as well as each and some(one), whose reference is often more individual.”

Merriam-Webster says, “The use of they, their, them, and themselves as pronouns of indefinite gender and indefinite number is well established in speech and writing, even in literary and formal contexts.” And my point is made.

Side Note >> Kate McCulley, The Grammer Vandal, makes her debut this Sunday (July 15, 2007) in the Boston Globe after cracking down on grammatical errors on Boston’s Newbury Street. In the meantime, take a look at some photos of her findings.

>> For previous posts on grammar, check out the grammar section

I promise this will be my last grammar post! A while ago I was listening to my Sirius radio in the car and this Christian song by Big Tent Revival came on. I looked at the display and saw this: “Two Sets of Jones’“. I could not believe it!

Jones’ is the possessive form, as in, “that’s the Jones’ house.” If there are more than one Jones, you add an es to the end. So if there are two families named Jones you may say, “here come the Joneses!” If one family was coming toward you, you’d say, “here come the Jones.” — Or, it can be argued that it is correct to say “Joneses” if it’s a single Jones family. Names ending in s can cause confusion over pluralizing rules. Both ways for a single family work:

“Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the child’s approach to life. They’re people who don’t give a hang what the Joneses do.” - Walt Disney

Back to this incorrect song title. I could not believe that a song title would be wrong. I immediately called the station and left a voicemail, explaining that the apostrophe makes Jones possessive and that adding an es creates more than one Jones. I said that grammar is one of our most important dying arts. It’s true.

After this call, I never thought anything would be changed since it’s the official title of a song, but, to my amazement, a couple weeks later I hear the song come on and the displayed title on my satellite radio says: “Two Sets of Joneses“!

Take a look at Google’s music page for this song. You will see the official song title does in fact have Jones’.

If you remember my post called Grammar Nazis, you’ll remember I mentioned my friend’s obsession with correct grammar. She put a comma sticker on an ad in Boston.

I have read Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss, a best-selling book about punctuation. It’s quite a lot of fun to read and you finally learn how to correctly use a semicolon! The book has made me a lot more aware of grammatical errors present in our daily lives. My Grammar Nazi friend and I went to Six Flags New England and noted three incorrect signs:

Here, you’ll note that it should be “every time“, as “everytime” is not a word.

“Do-It-Yourself” is correct. Not having a dash after ‘it” is wrong.

Who are in the restroom? Mens are in the restroom!

–No. Men are in there, not mens. It should either be “men” and “women” or “men’s” and “women’s”

The sad part is that no one notices this terrible mistake. My friend has taken her grammar Nazism to the next level and created an exclusive blog devoted to the topic: The Grammar Vandal. She states there that I don’t think hyphens should ever be used (Do It Yourself). That’s incorrect actually. I said that in that case, they could either be used or not. Still, “Do it yourself” is a command. “Do-it-yourself” describes.

Good grammar and punctuation is sexy! If there is one thing that bothers me, it’s blatantly poor grammar. And I’m talking about the obvious stuff.

“Your invited,” said an email I got at work — My invited?

There are online groups and blog posts all about grammar correctness. There are self-proclaimed “Grammar Nazis” that correct incorrect spellings and grammar wherever they are. The Urban Dictionary says it’s:

A person who uses proper grammar at all times, esp. online in emails, chatrooms, instant messages and webboard posts; a proponent of grammatical correctness. Often one who spells correctly as well.

A popular peeve is the use of the non-existent word “alright.” That got to my friend today so she decided to take it to the streets and correct a popular Boston Reebok ad campaign that reads, “RUN EASY BOSTON.”

“Run easy Boston? Should I run an easy Boston? Should I run, and is Boston a promiscuous city?

“Without punctuation, we have nothing.”

So, she placed an adhesive comma in the correct place. Love it.

>> Here’s her rant on public grammatical errors. And, yet another Grammar Nazi.