More Anguished English: An Exposé of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English

by Richard Lederer

This follow-up to Anguished English has 2,000 all-new flubs, fluffs, and accidental assaults on our language.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Language, Reference, Writing, Linguistics

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Richard Lederer is the author of more than 35 books about language, history, and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series and his current book, The Gift of Age. He has been profiled in magazines as diverse as The New Yorker, People, and the National Enquirer and frequently appears on radio as a commentator on language. He has been named International Punster of the Year and Toastmasters International's Golden Gavel winner.

He is the father of author and poet Katy Lederer and poker players Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Richard Lederer's More Anguished English: An Exposé of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English is once again and delightfully full full full of a plethora of often laugh out loud funny and diverting English language gaffes, it must also be pointed out that the massive litany of them does indeed tend to become a bit dragging and tedious as More Anguished English: An Exposé of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English proceeds and moves on (or at least this has certainly been the case with and for me).

And yes, this particular scenario is also precisely why I do not usually tend to read humorous books on language based mistakes straight through but rather in bits and pieces, in small and manageable chunks (which for me keeps the presented humour relatively fresh, relatively lively, and equally avoids monotony and one-sidedness).

Furthermore (most annoyingly) and just like with Richard Lederer's first book, just like with his Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults upon Our Language although I have of course and naturally in More Anguished English: An Exposé of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English once again very much enjoyed and laughed at the featured student bloopers, I really and truly do at the same time take a bit personal umbrage at the fact that ALL of Lederer's compiled educational setting language mistakes ONLY present student mistakes and NEVER feature mistakes made by teachers, professors, teaching assistants, laboratory technicians etc. For guess what, it is NOT only students who make language based gaffes, who massacrer the English language and really, if Richard Lederer were in fact and truly fair-minded, he would both acknowledge this fact of educational life and equally also feature both student and instructor bloopers and mistakes in his More Anguished English: An Exposé of Embarrassing Excruciating, and Egregious Errors in English.

[Jess Candela]

I loved this, but not nearly as much as the first one.

[Trudy Nye · Rating 2 out of 5]

More Anguished English is one of those sequels that inevitably follows a successful book. Because it became available at the library before Anguished English, I read it first, but I suspect the first book was better (I really hope so). This type of sequel usually comes about because readers of the first book deluge the author with similar content, and he (or she) edits and compiles it into a follow-on book. Parts of this book were literally laugh-out-loud funny, but other parts dragged...and some were probably cut from whole cloth. Wade through it for the gems, but don't expect brillance.

Fans of malapropisms, spoonerisms, puns, and Leno's "Headlines" will probably find much to appreciate in this book.

If half-stars were available, I'd throw on the extra half and give this two and a half stars, but I couldn't bring myself to give it three.

[Anu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just a collection of all kinds of misuse of the mongrel language - English. Nothing that you won't find in mindless email forwards that you read, smile and delete. Maybe worth a glance in 1993 when it was published, but, definitely not worth a read as a book today!

[J. Alfred · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest, I did laugh out loud during some parts of the book. On the whole, though, it was a big waste of time.

[Angie Lisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, but I enjoyed the first book, Anguished English, more!

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun walk through our language. Especially when it falls into the wrong hands and lands on Church signs, newspapers, and in court rooms. Absolute Brilliance in the ability to discover such "accidents" when out and about. Great fun indeed.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

What fun! I've seen a few of these floating around on the Internet for some time. I've even acquired a few of my own, like the lady in church who prayed for "...those who take refuse on our beaches...".

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anguished English redux. The same thing and more of it. Still funny.

[Cari · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of my favorite laughs. Yippee!

[Valerie Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Same as the first one and for the same reason; it makes me laugh out loud.

[David Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laugh out loud absurdities, typos and howlers. Bound to cheer you up.

[Krisa Stroot · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun.

[Brandon Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny like the first one. I'm so happy these books exist.

[Natty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, witty and highly amusing.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so much fun. If you love laughing at the stupid word mistakes of others then this book and the others he has written in the series are for you!

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's fine, but I think there's a reason this kind of thing is dosed out by late-night shows a few at a time. It becomes a slog very quickly.

[Jan Ackerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still another book full of bloopers...funny, funny, funny.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

More hilarity, sustained.

[Jean Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A paradoxical fact about English is that, while it has become the lingua franca of aviation, trade and commerce, and is studied as a second language more than any other, it is also one of the most difficult languages to learn as a second tongue, perhaps on the same level as Mandarin Chinese. This in spite of students not having to worry about nouns being masculine or feminine or having various cases and declensions, or any of the other characteristics of other languages which must be memorized, learned by rote or repetition or in a complete-immersion setting, or otherwise mastered, and which have driven students to despair since time immemorial, especially since much of what is encountered in such a course of study seems to make no sense at all.

Of course, the same could be said about much of English, and perhaps even more so! Why is “bow” (as in bending at the waist) pronounced the same as “bough” (of a tree)? Why is the “ugh” at the end necessary at all? Why is “cow” both a moo-cow and a verb meaning to intimidate? And why are they pronounced the same, since the meanings are different? Why do so many words carry different meanings depending on the context? Why does the low or high pitch in which a word is spoken have no effect on its meaning (a question many native speakers of Chinese have asked, and which to them makes perfect sense)?

Richard Lederer touches on these and many other questions in this hilarious sequel to his best-selling Anguished English; both books contain hundreds of double-entendres, misplaced modifiers, malapropisms, mis-definitions and other side-splitting examples of what the peculiarities of English make possible. Lederer has devoted much of his life to the study of the language (with an eye toward its humorous possibilities!) and has written many books and articles on the subject. His syndicated column on the subject appears every Saturday in papers nationwide. His books are not only educational, but also provide a welcome tonic of light-heartedness at a time when much of the news is negative or depressing. I would recommend reading them at the same time as The Story of English, the premier exposition of how the language originated and evolved. And if any readers are inspired to pursue careers as philologists or lexicographers, so much the better!
***** review by Chuck Graham ****

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

How dumb am I? A guy tells you with the title of his book that it is simply going to be more of what you have already read, and still I expect something fresh or new. I don't know if I needed this many illustrations to get the joke.

[Wilbur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Less fun.

[Juliana · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like grammar, humor, and the English language this book has plenty of examples of flubs, screw-ups, accidental puns others have made with the English language.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Apparently I just don’t share this author’s sense of humor. The work doesn’t stand the test of time—it reads like a chain letter email. If there’s an additional sequel, I will be skipping it.

[Ann Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love mangled language humor.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Humorous initially but tiresome in the whole.