places on paper

The Guardian has this list of books that transport you to places you've never been to before, except on paper. Ever had that feeling while reading a book? They've even got a name for the phenomenon: international books. Neat!

I have my own list, though:

Any biography of the Prophet /Companions to take you 1400 years back in time.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco for a virtual visit to the Holy Land.

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy for all things Kerala.

Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to transport you to a place where it's hot, mosquitoes abound and there's the smell of gun powder and bitter almonds, while parrots squawk outside on guava trees.

My son's father by Nadine Gordimer to apartheid South Africa.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell to south American cotton plantations.

Pride and Prejudice / Sherlock Holmes' adventures / PG Wodehouse to Victorian England.

The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck to China.

Enid Blyton books to a place called childhood.

btw, the ''learning stuff'' label reminds me..

look this up for really interesting tips on improving memory: MindTools

stories that linger a lifetime

The Times has been asking several 'well-known names' to recall the books that they enjoyed the most when they were young... to kick off a charitable programme called 'BookStart' that involves donating 3 packs of free books to every child under 3 in the Uk.

It makes me wish there was something like this in Muslim countries (God knows they have the resources to do this). Besides weaning children off tv, computer and gaming screens, a programme like this would develop their minds, language skills, world awareness and emotional intelligence...and most importantly give everyone something more substantial and interesting to talk about than sales!

Personally, I find reminiscing about books a great ice-breaker and in a funny way, one feels a strange sort of bonding with people who enjoy/have enjoyed the same books. I think I've bought nearly all the books I've enjoyed as a child for my own children, subconsciously recreating my own old library, and it still feels wonderful to be surrounded by all those stories and sharing them with all the Rs.

Like me, they enjoy stories from the seerah, all the Enid Blyton school series, Famous Five and Secret Seven, The Magic Faraway Tree and the Adventures of the Wishing Chair.I was a trifle surprised though when they weren't as enamoured by Nancy Drew as I used to be, perhaps because the newer books are quite insipid and not as enagaging/informative as the old ones.

Like me, they liked Oliver Twist, Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Jane Eyre, My family and other animals and (surprisingly) Pride & Prejudice, which was a book that always exasperated me.

However, they haven't yet laid their hands on the one book that defined growing up for me, and which I loved beyond anything else: Catcher in the Rye.

Z = zed or zee?

WordWise is carrying a list of words Britons and North Americans are divided over.

British — North American:
aerofoil — airfoil
aeroplane — airplane
agony aunt — advice columnist
anticlockwise — counter-clockwise
articulated lorry — tractor-trailer
asymmetric bars — uneven bars
aubergine — eggplant
blanket bath — sponge bath
bonnet (of car) — hood
boot (of a car) — trunk
bowls — lawn bowling
brawn (the food) — headcheese
breeze block — cinder block
brent goose — brant goose
bridging loan — bridge loan
bumbag — fanny pack
candy floss — cotton candy
car park — parking lot/garage
central reservation — median strip
chips — French fries
cling film — plastic wrap
common seal — harbor seal
consumer durables — durable goods
cornflour — cornstarch
cot — crib
cotton bud — cotton swab
cotton wool — absorbent cotton
courgette — zucchini
crash barrier — guardrail
crisps — chips or potato chips
cross-ply — bias-ply
current account — checking account
cut-throat razor — straight razor
dialling tone — dial tone
double cream — heavy cream
double-declutch — double-clutch
draughts — checkers
drawing pin — thumb tack
drink-driving — drunk driving
driving licence — driver’s license
dummy — pacifier
dustbin — trash/garbage can
eat in (of restaurant) — for here
engaged (of a telephone) — busy
estate car — station wagon
ex-directory — unlisted
eyebath — eyecup
financial year — fiscal year
fire brigade — fire department
firelighter — fire starter
fringe — bangs
full board — American plan
gear lever — gearshift
green fingers — green thumb
groundsman — groundskeeper
holidaymaker — vacationer
hundreds and thousands — sprinkles
indicator (on car) — turn signal
Joe Bloggs — Joe Blow
Joe Public — John Q. Public
jump lead — jumper cable
ladybird — ladybug
level crossing — grade crossing
lift (in building) — elevator
lolly (lollipop) — Popsicle (trademark)
loo — john
maize — corn
mangetout — snow peas
maths — math
monkey tricks — monkeyshines
motorway — expressway/freeway
mum — mom
nappy — diaper
noughts and crosses — tic-tac-toe
number plate — license plate
off-licence — liquor store
opencast — open-pit
paddling pool — wading pool
pay packet — pay envelop
pedestrian crossing — crosswalk
petrol — gasoline/gas
physiotherapy — physical therapy
plain chocolate — dark chocolate
plain flour — all-purpose flour
post code — zip code
postal vote — absentee ballot
poste restante — general delivery
press-up — pushup
punchbag — punching bag
pushchair — stroller
queue — line
razor shell — razor clam
real tennis — court tennis
recorded delivery — certified mail
reverse the charges — call collect
reversing light — backup light
room only — European plan
roundabout (in road) — traffic circle
rowing boat — rowboat
sailing boat — sailboat
self-raising flour — self-rising flour
shopping trolley — shopping cart
skirting board — baseboard
sleeping partner — silent partner
splashback — backsplash
storm in a teacup — tempest in a teapot
surtitle — supertitle
terraced house — row house
toffee apple — candy apple
trainers — sneakers
tram — streetcar or trolley car
transport café — truck stop
twelve-bore — twelve-gauge
vest — undershirt
waistcoat — vest
white spirit — mineral spirits
windscreen — windshield
worktop — countertop
zebra crossing — crosswalk
zed — zee
© Oxford University Press 2007
Extracted from the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus (ed Maurice Waite).

Also, for the orthographically challenged/curious: a list of 100 Commonly Misspelled Words (each with its own mnemonic so that one won't make the same mistake twice) + 150 bonus words and a list of 100 Commonly Mispronounced Words (includes some LoL inducing phrases).

Look them up!

make your home reading central

our home is reading central alright (alhamdulillaah), albeit of a slightly different kind (inside j/k).

Here's a really cool "inside look at a home rich in words and language — a home that inspires both kids and adults to read. It's full of ideas that you can quickly and easily replicate in your own home."

Students sans Spellcheck: where the "son" never sets :P

UK Students shamed for poor spelling
source: Agence France Presse

A British university lecturer is to publicly shame his students' lack of orthographical ability after becoming increasingly unimpressed at their poor spelling.

Bernard Lamb, a reader in genetics at Imperial College, London, hopes that by publishing the errors he has noted during years of marking papers, it will put pressure on education ministers into raising teaching standards.

"Errors in the English of highly selected undergraduates" to appear in the next issue of the Queen's English Society's journal 'Quest' will outline howlers such as [...] "rouge genetic elements","plants sewn together" and the frequent misuse of "compliment" for "complement", "effect" instead of "affect" and "sun" for "son".

did you know?

The word "banana" comes from the Arabic word "banaan" meaning "finger" (b/z of it's shape).

for eg. the Qur'aan says:
أَيَحْسَبُ الْإِنسَانُ أَلَّن نَجْمَعَ عِظَامَهُ
Does man think that We cannot assemble his bones?

بَلَى قَادِرِينَ عَلَى أَن نُّسَوِّيَ بَنَانَهُ
Rather, We are able to put together in perfect order the very tips of his fingers

[Soorah Al-Qiyaamah]

The scientific name of the banana fruit: Musa paradisica (fruit of paradise) also comes from the Arabic موزة

subhaanallaah!

can't fool all the people, all the time

Given that the overwhelming majority of self-described "Potter-maniacs" believe it's only uber-religious nuts who find fault with Harry Potter books and the premise they are based on, I found this book review refreshing... alhamdulillaah for the occasional triumph of common sense in popular media.

Harry Potter's big con is the prose

"It is time to make a stand against Harry Potter. A futile stand, no death or glory involved: just popping my head over the trenches so it can be mowed off by the vast, unstoppable juggernaut of popular acclaim before I have begun to open my mouth.
[...]

I have come, with some regret, to this conclusion: their style is toxic. And this is Rowling's fault. I know that I am anticipating what the style of the latest book will be in advance of actually seeing it, but really, I don't think I'm going out on a limb here. Of course, if she has turned into a first-class writer with her forthcoming Potter book, I will happily, no, joyously, eat my words.

But until then, we have to swallow hers. And for all that she is gifted enough in devising popular scenarios, the words on the page are flat. I think it was Verlaine who said that he could never write a novel because he would have to write, at some point, something like "the count walked into the drawing-room" - not a scruple that can have bothered JK Rowling, who is happy enough writing the most pedestrian descriptive prose.
Here, from page 324 of The Order of the Phoenix, to give you a typical example, are six consecutive descriptions of the way people speak. "...said Snape maliciously," "... said Harry furiously", " ... he said glumly", "... said Hermione severely", "... said Ron indignantly", " ... said Hermione loftily". Do I need to explain why that is such second-rate writing?

If I do, then that means you're one of the many adults who don't have a problem with the retreat into infantilism that your willing immersion in the Potter books represents. It doesn't make you a bad or silly person. But if you have the patience to read it without noticing how plodding it is, then you are self-evidently someone on whom the possibilities of the English language are largely lost.

This is the kind of prose that reasonably intelligent nine-year-olds consider pretty hot stuff, if they're producing it themselves; for a highly-educated woman like Rowling to knock out the same kind of material is, shall we say, somewhat disappointing.

Children exposed to this kind of writing aren't learning anything new about words, or being stretched in any way; as Harold Bloom said, they're not going to be inspired to go off and read the Alice books, or any other enduring classic.

People go hoopla because they're delighted that Rowling has got children reading books - big, fat books without pictures at that. Can't argue with that: and maybe they will learn something about sheer reading stamina in the process. But it's all too easy.
The popular writer whose style is most similar is, it suddenly occurs to me, Jeffrey Archer (all those dead adverbs). All that paper, all those trees felled, all those words ... surely Rowling could have chosen some better ones, or put them together in a more exciting way?

the purpose of language: identification/classification, inclusion/exclusion

The 'papers I read are all awash with details of "the split", with the media digging into every detail with customary relish.

It seems all fingers are pointing to the fatal and irreparable 'middleclass-ness' of the bride-to-be's Mum, demonstrated by her incriminating use of "pleased to meet you"instead of "Hello Ma'am" when introduced to the Queen, followed by a question on the whereabouts of the "toilet" as opposed to the more genteel "lavatory".

I find it interesting (and intensely irritating) when people use language to classify/identify people and box them in convenient niches in their mind.

I've lost count of the number of times I've come across people who speak a particular dialect of a language, dissing others who speak the same language in a different dialect, for their pronunciation, syntax...their obvious "not-like-us-ness."

When I was growing up, learning/speaking one's native tongue in public was considered extremely declasse and people would openly sneer "verrrrrrrrrrrn" (short for vernacular) at those who didn't know better. Kids were fined (a trifle, Re. 1) for speaking native from the moment they got onto the school bus "for your own good", to encourage fluency and a posh pronunciation.

In a kind of inverse snobbery, when I went to college where most people came from a non-English speaking background, seniors would rag one mercilessly if they caught one speaking in English!

Looking back, I realise that each group was trying to make language a tool of forced homogeneity, of identity; of class; of inclusion and exclusion; an extension of their own limited comfort zone.

I'm still exposed to this mental sorting out process, I've been asked numerous times what my "first language" is...meaning did I always speak in English, in preference to my "native" tongue? People express a nasty kind of amazement when my children speak in English and Arabic ...I'm often told: "you've made strangers of your children"...never mind if these same people would willingly pay tutors to teach them the same languages!

Language is a tool of communication/connection...turning it into a tool of contention (my lingo can beat your lingo, my accent is better than your accent!) is abusing it...I often think of the infinite Mercy in the permissibility to recite the Qur'aan in seven ways (qira'at) and its revelation in seven modes (ahruf).

If differences of dialect are good enough for Allaah's Words, why aren't they good enough for the rest of us?