Picture Courtesy Author
Book: ENGLISH BITES!
Author: MANISH GUPTA
Published By PENGUIN INDIA
Year of Publication: 2012
MRP:250/-
Story: I was afraid to review this book with my limited
vocabulary. I was worried that Manish Gupta would come down on me for not
garnishing it well with power words. Thus, my review starts (or is ‘begin’ a more
suitable word here?) with the last paragraph of this book.
Here the author speaks in first person with his readers, “I
hope you agree that this saga will continue and I will discover more
interesting anecdotes, stories, observations, trivia and mnemonics to bring out
another book for you. I also hope that some of the lessons from my endeavors, in
a small way, will help you achieve your aims objectives, All the best with your
language adventures!”
This story is about you, me and every other Indian who lives
and learns a foreign language for survival and for having no other option. It
is about our society that gives out jobs on the basis of how fluent you
are in English and not just how good you are in your field of work. Look around,
there are multiple examples and if you find none pick up to read ENGLISH BITES.
Characters: The main character is that of the author who
speaks loud and clear about his rag to riches story where riches mean
proficiency in English Language.
Writing Style: One could feel the awkwardness with which the
subject was dealt initially to express the discomfort with the language and slowly eased out to an effortless flow.One gets used to the sharing of new words and the bottom of each page. Also looks forward to little pictorial inputs too.
Conclusion: This is a clearly a book for students,
educators, writer, parents with young children and people who have a never
ending affair with English Language. This is not an easy book to read. It is
not meant for frivolous, time pass readers or for readers who are looking for
a simple heart-warming story. Oh, yes it
has a story and many inter connected plots. However, the theme is all powerful
and encompassing. Pick it up ENGLISH BITES! to improve English language in a way that your syllabus never allowed you in School. Pick it up to live the
language and connect it with your own life in engaging ways.
Quote Unquote from ENGLISH BITES!: “I had grown up believing
that starting a sentence with ‘and’ was nothing short of a serious crime and,
of course commas were never to be used before the seven coordinating conjunctions
(and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet). These days, puritans have grudgingly accepted
sentences that commence with ‘and’ as well as the authors who construct
them. And there are new rules for
placing commas before coordinating conjunctions.”
Thank you~
