An unexpected defense of texting from David Crystal, who has enjoyed with a long, fruitful and distinguished career in linguistics--his Shakespeare's Words (New York: Penguin, 2002) is a staple in my personal and classroom libraries . This is basically a scholarly paper arguing that texting is in fact a path toward greater literacy and not a collective slide into functional illiteracy. Mr. Crystal marshals impressive evidence to support his argument, and at least some of it struck me, as superfluous. My primary reservation about this book is the edition, which, at least in the trade paperback edition I have, is shoddily designed and reproduced.

I had a feeling that I would be a bit bored with this book as soon as I got a few chapters in. As it was published in 2009 it is surprising how much has changed when it comes to texting and phones themselves so points that were made then no longer have a purpose now. However, there was some lively conversation on how text speak has become a new popular way of communicating and a humorous outlook at the moral panics over texting and its 'disastrous' impact on education. I like the way that David writes but do think he could stop plugging his other books so much... ( )

I had a feeling that I would be a bit bored with this book as soon as I got a few chapters in. As it was published in 2009 it is surprising how much has changed when it comes to texting and phones themselves so points that were made then no longer have a purpose now. However, there was some lively conversation on how text speak has become a new popular way of communicating and a humorous outlook at the moral panics over texting and its 'disastrous' impact on education. I like the way that David writes but do think he could stop plugging his other books so much... ( )

The lists of texting abbreviations from numerous languages other than Engilsh is this book's greatest strength. Otherwise, Crystal simply points out the antecedents of text messaging. ( )

Crystal provides an informed, lucid overview to the what, who, how, and why of the global texting phenomenon. The focus is on language, but Crystal comments on social and cultural aspects of texting as well. It's an enjoyable, quick read and the appendices of texting abbreviations are bound to teach you something new - especially the one with abbreviations in eleven languages! ( )