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Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation - John Seely
by julwhite
This review is of the paperback book "The Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation" by John Seely. Indeed, I'm a little nervous of reviewing the book and then making some of the grammar and punctuation mistakes which are referred to in the book! Apologies in advance for any such errors!
The book is laid out in the form ... of a dictionary, as the title suggests, with explanations for all the various different writing terms, and examples of how they should and shouldn't be used. There are around 300 different "headwords" or subject types, and I soon found that the book became indispensable when faced with a query over word usage for example.
Before the main part of the book, there is an introduction which gives a brief guide to how the book works, and also how the English language works. It talks about how subjects, verbs, objects and so on, are used within sentences, and how they are formed. I would imagine that this would be very useful for someone learning English, given the unique way our sentences are sometimes formed.
Occasionally I found the definitions to be a little too detailed and confusing, with all the technical terms used, such as a predicative adjective. However, it's essential that these terms are included, but I did find sometimes a little more explanation would be helpful in clearer terms. Overall however, I didn't find this too much of a problem, and it was always good to have a basic over-view of a query I might have.
The book is quite small and light-weight, which does mean that it's easy to transport around with you, which might be useful if you're away and writing a formal report for example. The downside of this is that maybe the book could have been a little longer, with clearer definitions, if more space had been available.
In terms of who the book is aimed for, I'd have said that older children only would find it very accessible, but it's ideal for A-Level students, university students, or those writing reports for business or learning English as a second or additional language. Certainly a wide scope, and detailed enough to be useful for professional writers.
This is the second edition of the book, published by Oxford University Press in 2009. The ISBN of the book is 978-0199564675 and the book is just under 200 pages long. It retails for 5.99 pounds, but at the time of writing, Amazon are charging 3.41 pounds for the book including postage, which is a really good price. Second hand copies are available on sites such as eBay and Amazon, but by the time postage is added, they're normally about the same price as on Amazon's site.
Overall, I found this a useful book, especially given the low price-point on Amazon, which makes it really accessible. You might not use the book a great deal, but it's a handy resource to have available, especially if you do lots of writing, or need your writing to be of a high quality for formal submission for example. Sometimes maybe a little over-complex perhaps, but still recommended.
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Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future - Michael Okuda
by Jake Speed
Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future was compiled by Michael Okuda and first published in 1994. It has been updated a couple of times and my edition is the 1999 one, which I believe is the most up to date version available. The book is essentially a Star Trek A-Z with passages about all the characters, planets, aliens, ... ships, episodes, films and some of the gadgets of the Star Trek universe plus, of course, many, many colour photographs. If you've ever wanted to know more about Betazoids, Jem'Hadar, Warp Drives, Romulans, Klingon Opera, and other geeky trivia then you will probably find it here. The book concentrates on the Star Trek 'canon' - just the television shows (up to the fifth series of Voyager) and the feature films (my copy goes up to Star Trek: Insurrection) and although there are a few bits on the animated series, the cartoons, novels and games are largely left out. This didn't particularly bother me as I've only ever watched the films and television incarnations of Star Trek. The pictures and illustrations are excellent and the great thing about illustrated books and guides is you can dip in and out as you please. This one, which was apparently used by people working on Star Trek to help them become more familiar with the universe of the show, is pretty good as far as these things go.
I think anyone with a weakness for Star Trek will enjoy this book a lot although your eyes may glaze over once or twice on the countless ship classifications and some of the more obscure and arcane inclusions. I've always personally quite enjoyed the fact that Star Trek science is often a bit dubious and that the characters have the most ridiculous things to say ('Captain, I'm detecting a gravometric flux wave distortion!' etc) at times is part of the fun for me so I liked the fact that this volume isn't too obsessed with Star Trek technology and constantly trying to explain it as if it was real. Many bits and pieces here are interesting though with many background details about the origins of things that ended up in the series. The book explains that 'M Class' Planets in Star Trek are ones suitable for carbon based lifeforms, which most people interested in ST know already, but then lists all the other Starfleet terms for varying planets and tells us things like the fact that Gene Roddenberry used the 'M' as a tribute to his wife Majel.
The book goes into tremendous detail trying to establish Star Trek timelines and while I'm not hugely fussed by minor chronological or continuity contradictions some of the stuff is entertaining enough, like the attempt to logically slot the ill-fated Captain Pike into the history. 'We conjecture that Captain Pike commanded two five-year missions of the Enterprise before Kirk's tenure at the helm, and that Captain Robert April commanded a five-year mission before Pike. This is reasonably consistent with a commissioning date of 2245.' The extra material added for this later version of the Encyclopedia is placed in a section at the end rather than merged into the book in alphabetical order. I believe this was done as a cost cutting exercise but you get a lot of material here which covers the end of the Deep Space Nine series. This is a welcome addition as Deep Space Nine was an excellent show at its best and had a huge and often very dark story arc that is fun to look back on as a whole. The series had some interesting supporting characters too and the profiles are generally good.
I think the fun thing about the book is the way that it encompasses the Star Trek universe and the laws, races, worlds, and geopolitical situations they created. You see how this has been both a strength and weakness of Star Trek. There is a set universe for any new Star Trek endeavour to be part of but it does also leave them open to the charge that they never really do anything new and shake things up much. The last couple of Star Trek television series were recycling plots and baddies and becoming far too familiar at times. I don't really care how many classifications of ships there were or what Captain Picard's favourite type of biscuit was or something but really obsessive Star Trek fans will enjoy the endless font of arcane trivia on offer here and more casual fans like me who just generally like watching the films and television shows whenever they pop up will find a lot to read and have fun with the character and episode guides. At over 400 pages this is a big volume with masses of material to browse through at your leisure and the extensive range of images and illustrations are great fun. The last time I checked you could buy this fairly cheaply online too which is another plus.
The insights into the future depicted in Star Trek are fun and allow you to build up a picture of perhaps why the show succeeded. It presented an optimistic vision of the future (in contrast to the gloomy dystopias of the seventies) where poverty, disease and war have been eliminated and the human race has united as one to explore space together. They've even formed a union with other races and worlds, a sort of purer and less crooked intergalactic European Union if you want. One thing I really love about the future depicted by Star Trek is that money has been abolished so people do things not for financial reward but simply because they want to. Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future is an attractive volume on the whole that anyone interested in Star Trek should be happy to add to their book shelves. There is a wealth of information and many enjoyable images and the book seems quite reasonably priced and available too at the time of writing. Overall, I would give Star Trek Encyclopedia a Warp Factor of seven out of a possible nine.
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The Official DSA Guide to Driving: The Essential Skills - Driving Standards Agency
by ady85
I have been driving now for over seven years and am currently training to become a Driving Instructor and purchased this book several weeks ago to assist with my home study for my exams.
It's easy to assume, when first viewed, that this book is aimed at new or learner drivers as the way things are explained is in a very ... basic, clear way with very short mini paragraphs throughout the book, detailing every minor detail of driving, but I have to admit, as I read this book I was learning how to become a better driver.
Although you may feel as though you are a very safe, compitent driver, this book allows you to discover minor little adjustments to your style of driving to make you just that little bit safer, to be more economical and to allow you to have a better understanding of driving on our roads.
The advice is in 'plain english' so you certainly do not need any vehicle knowledge to read or understand this book and there are plenty of images to assist with understanding certain aspects, especially in regards to pedestrian crossings and manoeuveres.
From advice on junctions to manoeuvring, from breaking down to driving taxis, this book really does go into detail of everything you need to know to become a great driver, whether you are a learner, a new driver, an experienced driver or an instructor, I gurantee you will learn from reading this book.
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