Making the Alphabet Dance: Recreational Wordplay

Amazon.com
This is the most mesmerizing book on wordplay to come along in years. Ross Eckler examines such eternal logological favorites as anagrams, palindromes, and word squares, as well as words that play in other ways. Here are words with all letters in alphabetical order, novels written without the letter "e," and dozens of ways to transform one word into another. Take "heathery," for example. How many times can you delete one letter and have a new word remaining? Or consider "add." What happens when you shift each letter one place down the alphabet? How about eight places? If you love words, this masterpiece is irresistible.

From Library Journal
Eckler, a Ph.D. in mathematics, who with his wife, Faith, edits Word Ways magazine, has written a marvelous book for anyone who loves words and word play. Eckler includes explanations of acrostics, palindromes, anagrams, word squares, and word worms. There are pages of examples of each type of word play. A sample from the section on transforming one word into another through a word ladder changes less into more in five moves: less-loss-lose-love-move-more. The field of recreational linguistics has made great use of computer technology in the last few years, leading to more and more complicated word relationships, and the author expects great things to come in the future. Anyone who writes, does crossword puzzles, or plays Scrabble will find this book a gem. Recommended for public libraries.?Lisa J. Cihlar, Winfield P.L., Ill.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Letterplays, or "words-as-letters, in distinction to words-as-phonemes or words-as-carriers-of-meaning," are the focus of this collection of recreational linguistics. Eckler showcases letterplays gathered from Word Ways, the quarterly journal that he has edited and published since 1970. Sections are arranged so that specific types of logological endeavors, such as anagrams, word ladders, lipograms, palindromes, and shiftgrams, are introduced, defined, and displayed via lists, tables, and examples. Lists include "Q-Not-Followed-by-U Words" and chain link sentences, in which the last two letters of one word make up the first two letters of the next (as in "Martha has aspirin in industrial allotments" ). At the heart of this book is how letters can be manipulated to form words and relationships rather than relate meaning. Word lovers, Scrabble players, and crossword fans will find this intriguing. Jennifer Henderson


Buy from Amazon     Compare Prices

Eckler, a Ph.D. in mathematics, who with his wife, Faith, edits Word Ways magazine, has written a marvelous book for anyone who loves words and word play. Eckler includes explanations of acrostics, palindromes, anagrams, word squares, and word worms. There are pages of examples of each type of word play. A sample from the section on transforming one word into another through a word ladder changes less into more in five moves: less-loss-lose-love-move-more. The field of recreational linguistics has made great use of computer technology in the last few years, leading to more and more complicated word relationships, and the author expects great things to come in the future. Anyone who writes, does crossword puzzles, or plays Scrabble will find this book a gem. Recommended for public libraries.-Lisa J. Cihlar, Winfield P.L., Ill.


Buy from Barnes & Noble     Compare Prices