Through the language glass

This book addresses a fascinating topic, covering the history of linguistic understanding about how language does, or does not, influence thought. In addition, Deutscher clearly enjoys writing - he uses English skilfully, and on occasion playfully as well.

When I randomly picked this one up in the book store I wasn't aware that it's already 5 years old and I also didn't know that I already had heard about half of the book in this episode of Radiolab (yes, this was long before the Lehrer scandal ruined Radiolab for me).

In any case, it's a great book! It gives ample of examples for how language influences our thinking, from color perception to directions. I especially enjoyed the broad range of thinkers introcued who dealt with those topics. Besides the linguistics you'd expect, the bible is just as featured in the bibliography, as are Darwin & Wallace and the stoics & cynics.

Written very approachable with lots of humor I think it's worth a read for everyone only a bit interested in linguistics/philosophy/cultural evolution.

Bah. I thought this would be a more general look at how language affects culture and vice-versa, but it appears to be mostly entirely about "the color question," which annoys me immensely.

I do like how he likens discerning between colors in a language with fewer color terms to discerning between tastes you've never quite had before. "It tastes a little like chicken...?" is the new "Grue."