Shady Characters – The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks

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Not only was the writing engaging, but it did a wonderful job integrating the story of these various symbols into the context of the wider world of human affairs. When she reaches the garage a few seconds later, she find the door of the Century open, a shadowy figure running off into the night, and Henry unconscious on the ground. This is considered a “cozy” mystery, but considering there is murder and even attempted murder, there can be darker moments.

I loved seeing quotation marks from different countries, as well as the different drafts of the Interrobang and the various attempts at creating an irony mark. Things are always in flux, and with the advent of cheap and widespread computing power there is no reason to think we aren't on the verge of a symbol revolution.It is also nice to see the usage of a pilcrow, asterisk or dagger in practice within the book, especially the pilcrow used in few paragraphs (p.

Houston has a nice way with words and seems to know his material; in that old phrase, he does wear his learning lightly, and goes from ancient greece to digitized manuscripts held by the british Library.

But at the same time the widespread popularity of novels and their writing style necessitated some mark that would denote a character speaking, giving rise to the popularity of the quotation marks; technology and social trends giveth and taketh from our language.

I note that each of these transitions (and transitions from letter press to offset press printing) all were criticized for their initial lack of quality compared to the out-going technology. Change is afoot in Shady Hollow, with an unusually tense election shaping up between long-serving Chief of Police Theodore Meade and Vera’s beau, Deputy Orville Braun. I note that I supervised a book-oriented typesetting service in San Francisco (doing work for major publishers) during the transition from dedicated phototypesetting machines to "desk top publishing. A lovely book about a fascinating subject, spoiled slightly by too many digressions that work against understanding.The first delightful surprise I found inside is that, in a tribute to medieval manuscripts and early printed books, the book is rubricated—the drop caps, special characters, figure numbers, and dingbats are printed in red. I’m not overly familiar with cozy mysteries as a reader though I’ve read up on the genre, so I’m aware of its core or typical characteristics.