Five Stars

Best for:
Those interested in Victorian architecture. Those who live in or want to learn more about Glasgow.

In a nutshell:
Author Menon explores the various 19th century architecture in Glasgow, splitting thorough text with gorgeous photos.

Worth quoting:
“… repurposing these historic buildings is an inherently sustainable option.”

Why I chose it:
We purchased moved to Glasgow last year and live in a tenement flat. I’ve become fascinated with the architecture in this city.

Review:
I love Victorian architecture. I love stone buildings that aren’t more than five or six stories tall at most, with detailed stonework and ironwork. I get that its often not possible to build in the same way now, especially if stone quarries or spent, but man, I love the way it looks. I find mid-20th-century and Brutalist architecture to both be deeply depressing to look at, so its fun to live in a city that has so much of the building style I like.

This book looks at a variety of types of building in Glasgow and divides it into industry, retail, office, finance, places of worship, parks and public, housing, civic building, education, cultural, social spaces, and transport. It starts with a discussion of architecture, materials, construction, and reuse, so there is a base set before Menon jumps into looking at the details and history of loads of individual locations. There are over 125 full color photos in the book, along with an index of addresses so one could go to the places to view them.

It was fun to look over as I recognized quite a few of the highlighted buildings, but others were ones I’d not seen before and will make an effort to go check out.

What’s next for this book:
Keep and flip through regularly.

Three Stars

Best for:
Your foul-mouthed friends.

In a nutshell:
This gift book looks at the usage and origination of common – and uncommon – swears.

Worth quoting:
“If you swear all the time it loses all impact and if you repeat the same curse ad nauseam swearing loses its joy.”

Why I chose it:
Our friends gave it to us as apart of a housewarming gift.

Review:
The idea of the book is pretty fun. It is broken into four chapters: classic profanity, contemporary swearing, crude swearing, and compulsive swearing. Within each chapter, Croft describes the definition(s) of the word, shares some examples and, in some cases, provides alternatives in other languages. That part is pretty fun.

For a novelty book it mostly gets the job done. My main issue is that it includes the r word and while it mentions that it is offensive, I think there’s a difference between profanity and slurs, and its weird to include a slur in this collection. There are a couple of other borderline swears that just seem out of place.

Also they say that ‘bloody’ is really offensive in the US. Is it? That’s not how I recall it…

What’s next for this book:
Probably can’t donate it, so might hang on to it.