Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet from A to Z

There may be other books out there that do this job in more depth - certainly the lengthy bibliography makes it clear this is far from a revolutionary or isolated book in the field. But for an interested lay reader, I doubt that there are any that do the job better. David Sacks gets information across the way that perhaps one really good teacher in your education career did. If you were lucky. Engaging, broad-ranging, entertaining as much as informative, easy without ever being facile, this is just a great read. It starts with an outline of the earliest origins of the alphabet in a meeting of cultures and traditions in ancient Egypt and its subsequent spread across most of the world in different forms. The main part is divided letter by letter, describing the development of the letter in sound, typography, and symbolism (think brand x) from its earliest days to modern use in major European languages. As a side note, anyone who struggles with spelling ought to read this. Not because some of the history might help - it might, that's true - but because once you know that people have been trying to ditch the letter "c" since the middle ages as redundant, and other little nuggets in here, it's hard to feel alone.

Initially skeptical of the glowing praise and the price, I hesitated to purchase this book - but I am delighted that I did buy it. It is a book to dip into, informative and written in a clear, humorous style. There are the more academic sections if one wants to read in more detail; there is the lighthearted history of each letter's development for general information. A wonderful book and just what I was looking for..

A brilliant romp through the history and meaning of each letter of the alphabet and how they came into existence. Accessible, fun, fascinating.

A great addition to anyone's library of books about the (English) alphabet. Very readable, yet filled with valuable information.

Excellent!!!

For anyone fascinated or just interested as to how the English language was formed and derived through history then this is a work that needs to be read, studied and kept for reference for it misses practically nothing.Each letter is dealt with in a biographical fashion showing how it first began, takes us through its many changes in appearance along with its position in the various alphabets through which it has travelled and matured down to our own present day use.An absolute must for anyone interested in language from whatever point of view you come to the subject. I am a student of written language and a professional graphologist and, for me, this book has filled many a gap and answered as many questions.Thoroughly recommendedPeter West