If you don’t know, The Elements of Style (also known, after its authors, as “Strunk and White”) is the definitive grammar book. First published in 1919, it’s been read by literally generations of writers. I’ve mindlessly skimmed through and pretentiously bragged about owning Strunk and White for years, but I’ve never actually read it cover-to-cover. Having read it, I have to say it’s the only grammar book I’ll ever need.
I love Strunk and White because it’s a combination of concise, straightforward advice and easy to follow rules and reminders. Need to know the difference between “among” and “between?” Did you forget that in summaries, you should keep to only one tense? When your friend asks to borrow your keys, do you loan them to him or do you lend them to him?
By far the best part about Strunk and White is that it’s not just a dry rule book, it’s well written. It’s funny, it’s to the point, and it’s improved my writing just from one read. I could rant and rave about this book more, but I’m just gonna give you some quotes I liked. As an admitted grammar nerd, I’m also using this as a way to sneak in some of my worst pet peeves.
“The dismissive ‘I couldn’t care less’ is often used with the shortened ‘not’ mistakenly (and mysteriously) omitted: ‘I could care less.’ The error destroys the meaning of the sentence and is caress indeed.”
“Try. Takes the infinitive: “try to mend it,” not “try and mend it.” … Try to is precise, and when you are writing formal prose, try and write try to”
See the full list of books that I’ve read for this project here.
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