Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives

by Arthur Plotnik, Richard Waterhouse (narrator)

A veritable "tko of terminology," "Better Than Great" is the essential guide for describing the extraordinary -- the must have reference for anyone wishing to rise above tired superlatives.
Deft praise encourages others to feel as we do, share our enthusiasms. It rewards deserving objects of admiration. It persuades people to take certain actions. It sells things.
Sadly, in this "age of awesome," our words and phrases of acclaim are exhausted, all but impotent. Even so, we find ourselves defaulting to such habitual choices as good, great, and terrific, or substitute the weary synonyms that tuble our of a thesaurus -- superb, marvelous, outstanding, and the like. The piling on of intensifers such as the now-silly "super," only makes matters worse and negative modifiers render our common parlance nearly tragic. Until now.
Arthur Plotnik, the wunderkind of word-wonks is, without mincing, proffering a well knit wellspring of worthy and wondrous words to rescue our worn-down usage. Plotnik is both hella AND hecka up to the task of rescuing the English language and offers readers the chance to never be at a loss for words

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Reference, Language, Books About Books

First published June 1, 2011

About the author

Arthur Plotnik is the author of nine books, including "Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style" and two Book-of-the-Month Club selections: "The Elements of Expression" (revised and expanded in 2012) and "The Elements of Editing." Among his many publications are award-winning essays, biography, short fiction, and poetry. He studied under Philip Roth at the Iowa (Graduate) Writers Workshop and worked as editorial director for the American Library Association. He serves on the Board of "The Writer" magazine and lives in Chicago with his wife, the artist Mary H. Phelan.

Reviews

[Olga Godim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about the English language. A small part of it, actually: superlatives. Like many writes, I enjoy playing with the language and I found delight in reading this book. Well, not reading exactly but skimming through its “wallopingly fresh” lists of superlatives. As any dictionary, it serves as a reference, to consult when needed.
Who is this book for? The author answers this question in his charming and funny introduction:

In addressing “you,” I am picturing someone who takes language seriously, even when using it to evoke giggles and gasps. You’re a novelist or a reporter reaching for an emphatic way of saying beautiful or big. You are a critic enchanted by a new work, but last week you used enchanting, haunting, and mesmerizing for the hundredth time. … You are everyperson, wishing to excite others about the things exciting you, or looking to energize such everyday civilities as “Have a ___ trip.”

Plotnik offers his readers a thesaurus of “great” and “fabulous” in a book comprised of over 200 pages. It’s not surprising that a book on such a topic should sing dithyrambs to an adverb, a part of speech most writing teaches condemn as harmful for fiction. The prevalent dictum on the subject is that fiction narrative should be spare, consisting mostly of nouns and verbs. Otherwise it’s called ‘flowery,’ with definite derision in the tone. I think it took gumption for a writing professional to present an opinion contrary to so many MFAs in Creative Writing.

I use tons of adverbs, and to those who still believe the old saw that all adverbs are bad, I say, heed the enlightened language experts: Adverbs are bad when they serve no purpose, when they add nothing but excess baggage to what they would modify. Otherwise, they serve to specify the degree or manner of the named quality, yielding information that is interesting, intensifying, and sometimes fun.
I have tried to use adverbs that energize and sharpen…

I love adverbs and adjectives too; I think of them as little words that add color and taste to a story. So Plotnik is definitely my kind of guy. He not only makes up his own superlatives but also quotes other writers, as well as critics and bloggers, who first came up with a whimsical expression or a funky word. He gives tribute where it’s due:

“If that advice makes your insides do the happy dance, may I suggest a writing book that will really get your belly in a polka.”
-- Bonnie Grove, fictionmatters.blogspot.com Oct 14, 2009

Plontik also quotes one of the most beloved American writers, Mark Twain: “Grief can take care of itself; but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” I’m in full agreement with the sentiment, and I want to share my joy in this book with my friends on GR.
If I had to use one word to describe this little volume, I’d employ one of the author’s superior superlatives: droolworthy!
Recommended to every writer and every language buff.

[Jeff Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than great deals with the problem of over-used words. Tired of great, unbelievable, and sublime? This book will provide creative and sometimes strange alternatives you won’t find in your thesaurus. Plotnik deals with the general problem of praise inflation. Not everything can be great or unbelievable.

“Approaching some two billion appearances in a web search, it certainly has lost whatever specialty it had. If two billion things are special, what’s left to be ordinary?” P. 4

It often reminds me of the Princess Bride, “Inconceivable!” “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.” It may sound good to exclaim and heave importance on whatever you are doing, but a recalibration using this book may give your statements more impact. The author even provides his own version of a thesaurus to help and some concepts that help create your own phrasing.

The book covers 15 categories:
Great
Sublime
Physically Affecting, Mentally, Emotionally, or Spirtually Affecting
Beautiful
Joy-giving
Large
Exceptional
Intense
Delicious
Trendy
Cool
Wicked Cool
Forceful
Challenging belief or expression

I also enjoyed how to create your own superlatives:

Hyperbole: mind incinerating; it puts your atoms in orbit
Personification: eats great for breakfast; reality on a toot; what great aspires to
Litotes (understatement): not exactly nothing; hardly insignificant
Germanism: lock-me-up-and-throw-away-the-key-gorgeous; trim-sail-and-batten-down-the-hatches
Metaphor: a tarantella on the tongue; a fun house; mastondonic; El Dorado
Enallage (shifting a word’s normal grammatical role): great served hot; an eruption of fabulous; a hangarful of happy.
Oxy-moron: damnably good, distressingly handsome
Alliteration: Pillar to post perfect
Irony (opposite meaning): the illest, way sick


Generally the book helps a writer think outside of the box. When stuck, a typical thesaurus can just make your work sounds like the episode of Friends where Joey uses one creating a ridiculous document. However, using this book too much can make you sound old-fashioned, strange, or like Virginia Woolf.

However, the drastically change how I think about word choice. Precision and specificity shows that you are truly paying attention to what someone is saying and how you are responding. It gives the feeling that I am more engaged in what is going on instead of merely dismissing something as awesome or great. This book is definitely something to have handy and place next to your thesaurus the next time you get stuck.

[K.M. Weiland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur Plotnik has long been one of my favorite wits in the writing world. His depth-plumbing columns and articles in The Writer magazine were always among those I clipped for rereading, and I was sorry to see him retire from the post a year or two ago. So, naturally, I was tap dancing with excitement when his latest book Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives was announced. The book offers 230 pages of alternate words, designed to replace the “thin” standards such as “great,” “fabulous,” and “excellent.”

This book easily provided the most fun I’ve ever had in a thesaurus. To make look-up easy and accessible, Plotnik divides the words into fifteen categories: Great, Sublime, Physically Affecting, Mentally or Emotionally Affecting, Beautiful, Joy-Giving, Large, Exceptional, Intense, Delicious, Trendy, Cool, Wicked Cool, Forceful, and Challenging Belief or Expression. He fronts each chapter with a fun intro that explains the chapter to follow and offers insight into his choices and how to utilize the book to full impact.

Admittedly, the book offers a limited scope of word alternatives. To begin with, the words are confined to the above categories of “positive superlatives.” And, within those categories, many of the suggestions would be appropriate only in moments of hyperbole or humor. But, even with its limitations, Better Than Great is a delightful book to put on a writer’s shelf. It’s fun to flip through, great for on-the-spot inspiration, and sure to encourage us to reach deeper into our word choices, even if all we do is glance at the spine on our bookshelf every now and then.

[Phair · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should inspire a great exercise for a writers group and I plan to recommend it to the group at my library. Essentially this is a thesaurus of less common superlatives arranged by meaning. The best part of the book was the introduction and the start of each section where the author explains ways to come up with new adjectives to punch up your writings or conversation. I liked how he refined some lists by intended audience- formal/serious, trendy, anything-goes. The appendices were especially good and included a chapter giving texting versions of superlatives and one on the basic rules for forming eponymous acclaim terms. I also liked the brief lists of "vintage terms" that were once popular but have fallen into disuse- everything old is new again.

The sometimes long and often repetitive lists of terms got to be tedious but aren't really meant to be read in full- just to be dipped into for inspiration. Occasionally within these lists there were quotes from current reviews or books showing some terms in use. I could have wished for more of those and less of the pure lists.

A fun book for writers of all stripes and for anyone who enjoys reading and language. Just don't try to get through this in one sitting. Your head will spin...

(if this one appeals also try I Love It When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime, and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech )

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reference book of sorts, but I'm enough of a word nerd that I read it cover to cover, highlighting various winners along the way, in the hopes I can someday insert them into prose or conversation. It's a fun tool for writers and marketers, but I was a little disappointed with the ratio of kinda-pushing-it combos ("concussively beautiful" "soul-jiggling" "jaw-breakingly amazing" etc.) vs. antiquated, obscure or otherwise underutilized words.

NERD.

[Bo Manson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thesaurus 6,000 superlatives. It’s not a regular thick thesaurus sold in bookstore or any kind you owned. This book has a gigabig collection of praise and acclaim. Wow, bravo fantastic, cool, great etc is nothing compared to this thesaurus’ masses of muchness. If you love words, then this book feels like your brain is having an orgy with superlatives. That’s all I feel when I read this book. Or, I can say this book is a bacchanalia of the brain. Each praises tickles and sometimes make me giggles because of its over expressive words. Reading this has caused me a pluviosity of pleasure, imagine that! Even my Microsoft Word can’t handle pluviosity. There are thousands others in 15 categories for you to explore. If you are in need for fresh your acclamatory lexicon, I recommend this book.

[Evanston Public Library]

I have a friend who is enthusiastic in expressing her likes and dislikes. She offers high praise as well as severe criticism to many things in this world, but in so many instances, she relies on just two words to get her point across: amazing and awesome. She is not alone. Arthur Plotkin has written a book to help her and the rest of us shake free from cliché, to rattle our descriptive powers a bit, to lend novelty and sparkle to our language whether it be a written piece or delivered verbally. This is not just a dry thesaurus, a mere collection of synonyms, but rather a helpful, organized set of lists of original superlatives and sample usages to help you spot the just-right word or phrase and maybe to stimulate your own creative constructions. Instead of awesome french fries, why not try I'm-not-sharing-these-with-anyone french fries? Face it, we humans do love our superlatives. Exaggeration is so commonly used that many superlatives have lost their punch; this welcome addition to language arts how-tos will help you become a wallopingly good wordsmith.

(Barbara L, Reader's Services)

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any words I might use to describe just how brilliantly adroit this book is will pale in comparison to the sheer amount of options this book has made available to me. The book is arranged into several different categories for easy use and gives histories on some of the most popular superlatives. I think I would have to study Better Than Great for a few weeks before I can truly use all these words in place of my too overused go-to's like amazing and excellent. A definite must have for anyone in any kind of literary field or anyone who loves words of all kinds.

I received this book as part of the GoodReads Giveaway.

[Bonnie Grove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive and advanced copy of the book. Like all of Plotnik's books, it's thoughtful, ingenious, and useful to the point of necessary. I've used it a number of times as a quick-I-need-a-great-word help, and I've enjoyed reading Plotnik's spunky thoughts introducing each section. I've been a fan of Plotnik's since I picked up his Spunk & Bite (I highly recommend this one, too). He has a love of language that is contagious and empowering.
Full disclosure: I'm quoted in BETTER THAN GREAT (pg. 47-48). I didn't know he was quoting me, and I'm honored.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this book so often I doubt I can give it a review without sounding somewhat bias. I run out of superlatives. As a blogger and a person trying to express myself, I need this book to expand my vocabulary and help me to use words outside of the box. It is a book awash in greatness, beyond equilibrium. It is crazy crafty in its lists of beyond belief superlatives. If you often search for the word in describing good, and want to use something better than "awesome" and "great" then get this book.

[Atlantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really nothing more than a categorized, glorified, and giganticly annotated list of words but it has its charms. I was enlivened by the premise in that we "overuse" certain words and it would be nice to expand and explore the myriad of word choices we possess to expressivly describe and discuss in our everyday and hopefully scintillating conversations and writings.

[Lizzytish · Rating 4 out of 5]

An "ermine among mouse fur" reference book. When you need that "emerald among M&M's" word this is the book. Gone are the words, awesome, cool, great. This will make your heart warble! It's finger-licking fabulous!

[Lori]

Yup, Plotnik could certainly carry water in a sieve. Prepare yourself for some eats-great-for-breakfast adjectives as soon as I finish his book of drive-by genius.

---

Will probably start this again at some point. But it can't compete with my novels (and some amazing non-fiction).

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I really should have been less surprised that this was more or less a dictionary. Several lists of words, or phrases, few of which I will want to work into daily conversation.

[David Skies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, ain't this just the gnu's shoes.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, but not as funny as I hoped it would be.

[Nohreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book especially for word lovers out there. I, too have exhaustively used the word "great" way too much.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a celestial tantara to my ears.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still use this book! There are so many ways to say GREAT, his phrasing oozes of color, tone and takes a sentence from humdrum to sparkle.