"interesting" is the only word I know apparently

[arisha]

Oh man I haven't updated my lists in forever. Books!

Hitching Rides With Buddha: A Journey Across Japan, Will Ferguson
In which the author chronicles (mostly humourously) his attempt to hitchhike from one end of Japan to the other. It's a pretty neat book and would probably make for an interesting introduction to Japanese culture. There were some parts where I disagreed with Ferguson - at some points it seemed like he was trying to pass off culture shock as something one only experiences in Japan, and of course I didn't care for his quick dismissal of J-pop - but I have to admit I loved the passage on Noh and yeah, overall I really enjoyed this book.

Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, Bob Thomas
So a few years ago I read Neal Gabler's fantastic 800-odd-page Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, and every Disney biography I have picked up since has just paled in comparison. Unfortunately that remains true for this, the only biography I've seen so far of Walt's older brother and business partner. Building a Company isn't a bad book, and it included a number of passages that were new to me and really interesting, but I wish it was better organized and more fleshed out so that I could more readily recommend it. Less than a hundred pages into the book and we're already at Disneyland's opening day, what is that?!?

Also omg the last chapters made me so sad it was ridiculous.

In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language, Arika Okrent
My own contact with conlangs is pretty much limited to that month or two in high school where I was sorta kinda learning Esperanto but stopped when I realized it was boring me. I borrowed this book from the library not actually expecting that I would read it. (I know that doesn't make sense. Don't ask questions.) Instead, I whipped right through it and now I'm sad to be done! This is a super interesting book about languages that people have created. Okrent profiles the creators behind the best-known conlangs, gives quick explanations of how the languages work, and discusses the themes that emerge when one looks at the hundreds of conlangs that we know of. There are also really interesting passages that describe certain features of natural languages, emphasizing the fact that words have certain meanings not because of any logical reason, but because that's what we agree that they mean!

Also, as someone who dropped Esperanto because its artifice bored her, I really enjoyed the chapters where Okrent described her experiences with Esperanto culture - and even with the evolution of the language! Of course now it seems obvious to me that if a conlang has speakers, it's going to evolve, but somehow that had never occurred to me before. So interesting!

So yeah - of the three books in this post this one is my favourite, and you should all be nerdy like me and read it because it's awesome. :D

Comments

[billchapman.livejournal.com]

I hope you come back to Esperanto one day. Esperanto speakers (of whom I’m one!) will be celebrating the 125t anniversary of the language in 2012. I hope you’ll join us. Bondezirojn!

Esperanto as a developing language.

[brian-barker.livejournal.com]

Esperanto is indeed a living language.

Your readers might also like to see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
or http://www.lernu.net

Re: Esperanto as a developing language.

[arisha.livejournal.com]

Realizing that Esperanto is a living and evolving language makes me wonder if one day, years in the future, it will have evolved to the point that it will no longer be the completely regular and easy-to-learn language that it is today.

And yeah, Lernu was the site I was using when I was studying Esperanto. It's definitely a good resource!

[lyre.livejournal.com]

Totally want to read that last one! Though of course my library doesn't have it. Grumble grumble...

[arisha.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think my library sucks and sometimes I am reminded that it is not actually that bad. :D

But boo at your library not having such an awesome book!!

[the-wykydtron.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings when I read Ferguson's books, but overall I like the guy and I like his style.

[arisha.livejournal.com]

Which of his books have you read? I know he's written a bunch of Canadiana sort of stuff but this is the first book of his that I've read.

[the-wykydtron.livejournal.com]

Why I Hate Canadians. I found that some of his biases could be grating, and sometimes his super-light-and-breezy style got on my nerves, but overall, it was enjoyable.

[frauleinfrog.livejournal.com]

That last book sounds wicked interesting! I was totally fascinated when I learned during linguistics that there are kids (and probably adults, by now) for whom Klingon is their native language. How awesome is that?