the genius of language

That is the name of the book I am reading right now. Well, one of them, anyway. I haven't blogged much because I have been doing research for my Capstone. While doing research, I keep coming across books that look interesting. This one, The Genius of Language, is a collection of fifteen writers reflecting on their mother tongues. The second essay is by Amy Tan, who I always enjoy reading. She is of course musing on growing up bilingual Chinese and English. She says, " I tend to be suspicious of any comparisons between the two languages. Typically, one language - that of the person doing the comparing- is often used as the standard, the benchmark for a logical form of expression. And so the language being compared is always in danger of being judged deficient or superfluous, simplistic or unnecessarily complex, melodious or cacophonous." I like this quote because I hear people trying to compare languages all the time. However, there is no baseline or normal language - except the one the speaker knows.

On my bedside right now:
Harry Potter #5 - I'm on 711 of 870 - I just need to finish it!
Charlaine Harris - Living Dead in Dallas. Reading the books because I've watched all the videos and waiting for season 3 to come out and having withdrawls!
Gabaldon - breath of snow in ashes - I am determined to finish these most recent two books in the series - I miss Claire and Jamie et al
McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - think I blogged about this a few back. Haven't gotten any farther in it - trying to juggle too much
More tales to Tremble By - Am I afraid?
Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing - in my spare time I will be creating wonderfully entertaining travel tales and publishing them for big profit. I just picked up this book at B & N with a gift card.
Francine Prose - Reading Like a Writer - another book that's gonna help me be a fancy writer. HAH - haven't started it yet
A.J. Jacobs the Know-it-all - I started this over a year ago and I want to finish
Diamond - Guns, Germs and Steel - It looks sooooo interesting. People write books like this just for me! Can't wait to read it.
101 most influential people who never lived - started it over a year ago. Funny and entertaining.
There is also a stack of magazine articles and my Italian book.
Oh yeah - and the library books - Adam's Tongue and the Roots of Language by Bickerton (research related, of course)

Forgot to mention, the other day I read a book called English as a Second Language which sounds like one of my research books, but is actually a fiction book. It is the story of an American woman who goes to England to go to grad school. Took me one day to read. It was a delightful escape. It is now in the for sale pile.

Gotta go read!