Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and other Typographical Curiosities - Hardcover

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9781846146473: Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and other Typographical Curiosities

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184614647X ISBN 13: 9781846146473

Publisher: Penguin Books

Every character we write or type is a link to the past, and in today's writing- be it printed, electronic or handwritten - this history stares right back at us. Take the pilcrow: present at the birth of punctuation, its story encompasses the ancient Greeks, Charlemagne, medieval writing, England's greatest twentieth-century typographer and several brushes with extinction before its most recent revival in word-processing software. This book brings together many more intriguing examples of symbols old - and new ;-), well-known @ and obscure recounts the unexpected, colourful and sometimes outlandish stories behind them. The magnificent cast of Shady Characters reflects the changes in written commence action through the ages, charting how punctuation has adapted to each new technological innovation and how the ways we express ourselves are constantly evolving. Together they form a rich, entertaining and surprising history of the written word and our continuing attempts to shape it.

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About the Author:

Keith Houston is the author of Shady Characters and the founder of shadycharacters.co.uk. He lives in London.

Review:

“If Eats, Shoots & Leaves whetted your appetite on the subject of punctuation, then you have a treat in store. Shady Characters is an authoritative, witty, and fascinating tour of the history and rationale behind such lesser known marks as the ampersand, manicule, the pilcrow, and the interrobang. Keith Houston also explains the octothorpe―otherwise known as the hashtag―and and my final comment on his book is #awesome.”
- Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad

“Make no mistake: this is a book of secrets. With zeal and rigor, Keith Houston cracks open the &, the #, the † and more―all the little matryoshka dolls of meaning that make writing work. Inside, we meet novelists, publishers, scholars and scribes; we range from ancient Greeks to hashtagged tweets; and we see the weird and wonderful foundations of the most successful technology of all time.”
- Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

“Funny, surprising, and, of course, geeky.”
- Michael D. Schaffer and John Timpane, Philadelphia Inquirer

“Might make you look at books... in an entirely new way.”
- Andrew Robinson, Nature

“Houston...is a tireless researcher and an amiable teacher.”
- Jan Gardner, Boston Globe

“A pleasurable contribution to type history, particularly for readers who haven’t considered the ampersand in any detail.”
- Carl W. Scarbrough, New Criterion

“Fascinating.”
- Rob Kyff, The Courant

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