Woe Is I by O'Conner, Patricia T., 9781594480065
Expand Image

Woe Is I

The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English (Second Edition)

3.87 based on 477 reviews.

Media:

Paperback Book

Our Price:

$7.92 (+ FREE shipping in the U.S.)  

List Price:

$14.00

You Save:

$6.08 (43.43 %)

Product Description

The bestselling grammar book has been updated and revised to include the latest and greatest on the basics and subtleties of English, and features a new chapter on the language of the Internet.

Product Details

  • Media: Paperback Book, 256 pages
  • Publisher: Riverhead Books (Jun. 30th, 2004)
  • ISBN-10: 1594480060
  • ISBN-13: 9781594480065
  • Dimensions: 5.90 x 7.37 x 0.68 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.48 lbs

Product Categories

You might like these titles in Grammar & Punctuation

$10.76 USED

Spanish Verbs Tenses
Richmond, Dorothy Devney / Devney, Dorothy M.

...

$9.27 USED

I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar: A Collection of Egregious Errors, Disconcerting Bloopers, and Other Linguistic Slip-Ups
Nichols, Sharon Eliza

A collection of 200 color photos culled from the popular Facebook group, this...

$8.16 USED

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation [With Stickers]
Truss, Lynne

A bona fide publishing phenomenon, Lynne Truss's now classic #1 "New York Times"...

Customer Reviews

  • Book Rating 2 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Montambeau from Portland, OR | Jun 1, 2008

    I love the topic of grammar, but this book didn't make fun of people enough. It didn't make me feel superior to others because of my grammatical grasp. This is where Eats, Shoots and Leaves really delivered.

    Perhaps I just got turned off by the Garrison Keillor blurb on the cover and never recovered.


     4 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 4 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Patrick from Santa Fe, NM | May 10, 2009

    Curses!

    After hearing the author on NPR hawking her book ‘Origins of the Specious’ (yesterday, May 9th) I went to Barnes and Ignoble the next day (yah, that would be today May 10th) all hot and bothered only to find the book was published last Tuesday (May 5th – so far so good) but not in the stores yet (what?). Curses on both Barnes & Slothble and NPR. Foreplay and then dejectulation. But, and you know’d there’ll be one, I didn’t leave the Patricia T. O’Conner section without some memento of my wasted trip. Now I have to add a new shelf to my library because me don’t not usually read grammar books. I am not sure I want to know about spilt infinities and dangling participles (Can’t you get arrested for dangling a participle in public? I always thought so). Me get self conscious and worried from mistakes. Screw it. The book be funny and semi-clever although she shoulda pick on us a more. Be harsh baby, we can take it. According to her talking on the radio, the new book (could I ever get it) be better. Because we all know hows much fun our mistakes be.



  • Book Rating 2 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Theresa from Thousand Oaks, CA | May 1, 2007

    I was disappointed in this book. It doesn't begin to plumb the depths of language. I found the repeated parenthetical definitions of grammar basics annoying. The list of cliches to avoid was a cliche itself, and the commentary on each was useless.
    I'll stick with Strunk & White for real help with grammar and style--It's a true staple of the writer's reference shelf.

    If you want entertaining discussion on grammar, try Eats Shoots and Leaves instead.


     1 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 5 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Hong Deng from Brooklyn, NY | Dec 11, 2009

    Woe Is I is an absolutely amazing and witty book that I would recommend to anyone who loves grammar or would like to better grasp grammar in an engaging way. After reading 3 of the numerous chapters in English class, I couldn’t resist continue reading this book. The book is well written with 11 chapters that covered all the categories of grammar one could possibly perceive. After introducing its topic, each chapter proceeds with subtitles and paragraphs of explanations and special notes. I really enjoyed reading the examples that are given in the book; they cover all the prevalent mistakes that students and probably everyone make one time or the other. I have always been confused with topics such as when to use which and that and when to use me and I. The book offers very useful tricks: “If you find yourself automatically putting you and I after a preposition, try this: eliminate the other guy, leaving the tricky pronoun (I or me) all by itself.” So if you are unsure whether it’s “the odds were against you and I” or “the odds were against you and me”, eliminate you. Thus, “the odds were against me” sounds more correct than “the odds were against I”.


     1 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 1 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Yuwei from New York, NY | Jan 2, 2009

    This book teaches readers about grammar in a "fun" way, the author uses different techniques to help the author memorize the rules. I think this book would be really helpful to study for the SATs but the only problem is that it is really easy to fall asleep reading this book, even though it was suppose to be fun.
    To me, this book wasn't that good because i am not a big fan of grammar and therefore this was not my type of book. It took a while for me to finish this book because i only read a couple of pages before it gets really boring. But i believe that this book is a lot better than any other grammar books because it was a little more interesting. But other than that, it is a good book to read if you are trying to learn your grammar.



Place Order



$7.92
(Marketplace, Paperback, Used Good)

Labor Day Sale!  4 for $10

Staff Picks

taff picks: New and used, from best-selling titles to best-kept secrets out of the corners of our warehouse, Better World employees share what’s on their night table. > View More Staff Picks (rss)

Aaron's Pick

Holes
by Sachar, Louis

A kid's book that adults can enjoy because of brilliant layered story lines.