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Just Arrived

Nabokov's Favourite Word Is Mauve

by Ben Blatt
$13.90
Nabokov's Favourite Word Is Mauve
Nabokov's Favourite Word Is Mauve

Playful literary sleuthing through data and style

If you love books and also love asking nosy questions about how writers really write, this is a delight. Ben Blatt turns literary habits into something surprisingly funny and revealing, using data to test all the advice readers and writers usually take on faith. It feels like the kind of book you keep bringing up in conversation because every chapter gives you a new, irresistible fact to share.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.
Just Arrived

Nabokov's Favourite Word Is Mauve

by Ben Blatt
$13.90
Condition guide

Book Condition Guide

Books in Like New Condition

This book may contain very minor cosmetic defects, but it is in pristine condition. There should be no yellowing, no foxing, no water damage, and no annotations of any kind on the cover and the pages. For paperbacks, there should not be any crease marks on the spine. This book is good as new — lucky you!

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Very Good Condition

This book has been used, but it is still in a clean condition. There should be no foxing or annotations of any kind on the inner pages, but a sparse amount may be present on the cover, title pages, or outside edges of the book. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be light crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Good Condition

We do our best to ensure the quality of our books, but there is no escaping the wear and tear that comes with time. Slight foxing and some annotations may be present on the pages and the cover. There should be no water damage of any kind. For paperbacks, there may be several crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

Books in Well Read Condition

This is a well-read book, which means that the previous owner probably really enjoyed it! The cover and pages may include moderate foxing and annotations, but the text is not obscured and still readable. Moderate cosmetic defects and minor water damage may be present on the edges of the book. For paperbacks, there may be multiple crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

 

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ISBN: 9781471152825
Authors: Ben Blatt
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date of Publication: 2017-01-01
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Science, Sociology
Related Topics: Mathematics
Goodreads rating: 3.84
(rated by 2064 readers)

Description

What are our favourite authors’ favourite words? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? How can we judge a book by its cover? Data meet literature in this playful and informative look at our favourite authors and their masterpieces. There’s a famous piece of writing advice—not to use -ly adverbs like “quickly” or “fitfully”—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between. It sounds solid, but can we actually test it? If we counted all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, would they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? What’s more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait? In Nabokov’s Favourite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the world’s greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favourite authors’ favourite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?
 

Playful literary sleuthing through data and style

If you love books and also love asking nosy questions about how writers really write, this is a delight. Ben Blatt turns literary habits into something surprisingly funny and revealing, using data to test all the advice readers and writers usually take on faith. It feels like the kind of book you keep bringing up in conversation because every chapter gives you a new, irresistible fact to share.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.