The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

I really appreciate that I started this book after taking Latin lessons, because now I understand what things like participles and prefixes and even first-person singular verbs are. I appreciate it even further after learning from Bryson that some of the most ridiculous grammar rules and spellings are based on Latin, despite having nothing to do with Latin in the first place.

It's not all about the Latin, though, I'm just focusing on it because I've been learning Latin grammar this past year. In fact, I found a book full of interesting trivia, like most of Bryson's books.

Although I read some reviews from Actual Linguists slamming this book, I find Bryson's style completely readable and enjoyable and I'm happy to go along with it, knowing that if I want to know more detailed information I'm going to have to go digging for it.