I was disappointed in this book. Several times while reading it I was tempted to toss it aside and pick up something more worthwile, but I plodded through it to the end.The author, a linguist, has an admitted distaste for "traditional" rules of grammer. (Which explains why he butchers grammer throughout the book.) He decrys the degradation of literature (and music), but at the same time his own writing style is casually-styled (he even admits this at the end) and even vulgar throughout. On top of this, there are numerous places in which he misuses words (e.g., "anymore" instead of "any more" on p. 115).From another author on another topic, errors like that would be overlooked. But, for a LINGUIST writing a book lamenting over the degradation of language???In the end, I had to give him two stars, simply because I agree with the premise of his book. I just wish it had been better written. It's not one I can recommend to other readers.